Orlando: The result of pro-gun hysteria

The attack on the Orlando club, Pulse, on Saturday night was carried out — like so many mass shootings before it — with an assault rifle, of the “AR-15 type”. These weapons have the ability to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, spraying waves of hot lead and fire, giving the shooter the power to mete out death on an industrial scale.

America’s National Rifle Association (NRA) and its supporters have fanatically lobbied to keep these weapons cheap, legal and easy to obtain, in spite of the fact that there is no sporting use for them. You can’t hunt deer with an assault rifle. Animal targets would vaporise if struck by a single round.

Their utility in stopping a home invasion is questionable, but this is true of all guns. According to the FBI, for every case of “justifiable homicide” with a firearm in the United States — that’s to say, a self-defence shooting — there are 32 murders, suicides or accidental gun deaths. The overwhelming weight of evidence says that the high rate of gun ownership in America makes people less safe, not more.

In the south, pro-gun hysteria is the norm. Men and women who have never gone hunting for anything more challenging than bargains at the mall believe that they are not truly safe until they have amassed their own home arsenals. My home state, Georgia, passed legislation last year making guns legal everywhere, including churches and schools, under one of the most radical pro-gun laws in the US.

That doesn’t make me feel particularly safe, especially given the lengths to which Fox News and other right-wing media have gone in the last year to demonise LGBT (lesbian , gay, bisexual and transgender) people and convince the world that they are child molesters who are lurking in every Target store restroom. There are many people who insist they “need” a gun — particularly an assault weapon — to feel safe. But unless you are a marine in Fallujah or a Chicago Swat cop, you don’t “need” anything of the sort. You want it, and not in any kind of reasonable way. It’s either because you’re a sociopath or you’re unreasonably afraid. Neither one of those states is a valid place from which to make the decision.

Perhaps this moment will be a kind of tipping point where the US comes to its senses and starts placing some reasonable restrictions on the owning and trafficking of firearms. My hopes, however, are not high. After Sandy Hook — when America, as a nation, heaved a deep, sad sigh over the deaths of an entire schoolroom full of children, then looked away and did nothing — I’ve come to see my fellow Americans’ gun obsession as an unreasoning dependency, like an alcoholic steadily drinking himself or herself to death. I would like to believe that we’ll learn something from this, but in truth, the thing I think we’re mostly likely to learn is that when we’re in public — especially in previously safe spaces like bars and churches — we need to keep one eye constantly on the nearest exit and always be ready to run.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd

David Ferguson is an ex-public radio DJ, writer and musician based in Athens, Georgia.