WE and the rest of the world are closely following reports on the recent mass killing in a Florida high school, where a deranged ex-student shot and killed 17 people. Students of schools around the country have rallied to demand stricter gun laws, but President Trump said problem is not guns; it is mental health.
The accessibility of guns in the US is unlike elsewhere else in the world, including our own country, the Philippines. Here guns are licensed by the Philippine National Police only after applicants pass stringent requirements, including psychological and drug tests. And only a handgun may be licensed – not a rifle, not a semi-automatic or automatic firearm that can spew out hundreds of bullets in seconds. And a license only entitles one to keep a gun in the house. He needs a permit to carry to be able to bring it outside.
Rules like this perhaps will not stop a mental case from firing into a crowd, but with only one gun, he can probably kill one or two before he is himself gunned down – unlike one carrying one or two automatic rifles.
The teen gunman in the Florida high school shooting last February 15 carried an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with multiple magazines. He started firing at students outside the school and continued firing inside, for more than an hour, killing 14 students and three teachers, before he stopped and tried to escape.
The Parkland shooting is only eighth on the list of mass schoolings in the US. The deadliest was in Las Vegas, Nevada, last October 1, 2017 – only four months ago – in which 58 attending an open-air concert were killed by a lone gunman shooting from a hotel window nearby. This is followed by 49 dead in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub in 2016; 32 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, in 2007; 26 at Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017; 26 at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012; 23 in Killeen, Texas, in 1991; and 21 in San Ysidro, California, in 1984.
President Trump met with the protesting students demanding laws to restrict the acquisition of high-powered arms by people like the Florida killer. But the president could only suggest a ban on “bump stocks” which can turn a semi-automatic into an automatic. He also suggested arming teachers.
We don’t expect that US Congress to amend the firearms law any time soon. But we can expect that in about another four months from now, we will have another mass shooting like his one.
