Partha Banerjee wrote: From: Partha Banerjee
Subject: From Partha: my new article on gun violence on U.S. campuses
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:43:15 -0500
.hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } Hi:
Below is my new article on gun violence on U.S. campuses. Given how practically no serious discussion is being held on CNN, NPR or NYTimes other than showing the "soft side" of the NIU killer, I hope my article offers a different perspective.
Hope you have time to read it and let me know about any publication possibilities. I wrote it mostly for an audience outside America, but I hope an edited version can be published in the U.S. media too. Please let me know your thoughts.
Thank you for your kind indulgence.
Partha
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America: A Free Market for Guns, Violence and Death
By: Partha Banerjee
Those who always think of America as a dreamland are perhaps now a little troubled by the gun violence and massacres in Northern Illinois University, Virginia Tech or Columbine High School. The fact is, this dreamland's free market, primitive laws and dark-age social customs are responsible for the never-ending campus tragedies. Nobody knows where Lord Yama will strike next.
Just a few days ago, a new campus tragedy in USA shook the conscience of the civilized world. A 27-year-old student Steven Kazmierczak entered one of the lecture halls at rural Northern Illinois University and randomly fired his shotgun to kill nearly a dozen students before killing himself. In April of 2006, a younger student named Cho Seung-Hui at another rural university Virginia Tech gunned down thirty-two people – mostly students – before turning the gun on him. In April of 1999, two teenage high school students at tiny Columbine, Colorado used their guns to mow down thirteen of their classmates and teachers. Similar grotesque incidents at various malls, health centers, post offices and other public places continue to happen in this so-called dreamland – innocent, young people are paying prices for this meaningless barbarism.
Many in India, Bangladesh and other countries busy modeling their societies after USA perhaps now wonder: what's the matter, what's going on in the "best country in the world?" Those who emulate USA and idolize each of its little or big details including its media, entertainment, fashion and lifestyles are perhaps now a little disturbed. Those who bring up their children the American way eventually to export them to various U.S. campuses or corporations are possibly a little hesitant now; some of them are perhaps having a second thought about sending their Western-modeled sons and daughters to American colleges – maybe, they'd now settle for some "less violent countries" such as England, France, Germany or Australia.
Then perhaps, there are many who still adamantly say, so what – can only a few incidents change the profile of a great nation such as USA? It's such a vast country and people from so many nationalities live here. Just because a handful of madmen commit heinous crimes – is that enough reason to abandon it, reject it? After all, they might think, a crazy Korean committed the Virginia Tech massacre -- who doesn't know that most violent crimes in America are committed by those God-forsaken "Blackies," yellow Chinese and Koreans, fanatic Muslims and illiterate, desperate Mexican immigrants (isn't that what the American TV shows us on a daily basis)? No, they'd say, these few, isolated incidents never reflect the wonderful system of this wonderful place on earth.
However, those like us who've been living in this country for a long time do not believe these incidents are isolated at all. We do not believe that either the African-American blacks or other people of color including the working-class immigrants are criminals, or in any way inferior to the whites that most outsiders equate with mainstream America. From our long experience and familiarity, we know that the U.S. establishment of which media and Hollywood are big parts has created these false perceptions about certain people and populations. The picture of America has been painted in a certain way so that outsiders couldn't understand the realities on the ground and analyze the reasons behind such mind-boggling maladies.
It's an undeniable fact that in any society in any country there would be some crazy depraved and perverts. That is reality – just the way a beautiful garden perhaps would have a few diseased and blotched plants. Upon investigation, one would often find DNA, genes, poverty and economic reasons, a child's developmental processes, sociopolitical environment, domestic violence, lack of education, police brutality, etc. to be the underlying attributes for such out-of-norm traits. In case of USA -- the so-called prosperous, civilized land -- the fraction of such a population could be just a little higher than average: psychological and sexual deviations, racism and supremacist doctrines, gender-based discrimination, outdated, superstitious mindsets and unscientific thoughts still pervade the country. I'm not exaggerating: the reader can verify it – especially, with the advent of the Internet, one can easily look up the facts and get to know the "unseen side of the moon."
Prof. Noam Chomsky just wrote me: "If you explore, you quickly reach a deep-seated paranoia that goes far back in American culture. A few years ago the State of Indiana had to replace all of its highway signs, because they were being pulled out and destroyed. The reason, it turned out, was that they have on them some kind of code for highway crews, and many people believed they were instructions for the UN forces who are preparing to invade the US to carry out genocide. Not a joke. There's a remarkable element of fear in the culture that goes back to colonial days."
Now the question is, just because someone carries some mental illness or crazy dogma – should he be able to create such havoc and kill people indiscriminately at a school campus or shopping mall? Here comes the critical difference between this so-called best country in the world and some "ordinary places" like France, Germany, Austria or Finland, or for that matter, China, Korea or Mexico. That critical difference is, nowhere else in the world – London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam or Tokyo – can an ordinary resident buy or use dangerous weapons out in the open. Nowhere else in the world would an average person be able to purchase arms and ammunitions, shotguns or automatic rifles at Wal-Mart-type supermarkets or the more than 80,000 licensed gun shops all across the country. As long as you're an American citizen or a valid resident, you can visit any place that carries such weaponry, show your driver's license or other identifications, instantly buy those guns, gadgets and
bullets, and drive away. In many of the fifty U.S. states, one doesn't even need a background check or minimum wait period. It's therefore often said that finding gun dealers in America is easier than finding a gas station.
The free market works at its best in U.S. -- even for guns.
More than two decades ago, when I first came to this country as an international student, I'd be shocked to notice it. I'd often wonder: how come a modern nation like America has such easy access to weapons of mass destruction – don't they understand its grave consequences? Later, however, I'd learned that there was this precious little thing in the U.S. constitution called the Second Amendment. It says: "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." In other words, it is a sacred, fundamental right that can never be meddled with.
In reality, a lot of storm had once brewed over this issue. Forward-looking, modern and non-violent Americans wanted to say that the time when the Second Amendment was written was when the U.S. states had their own citizen-member militia; it was a time when the armed militia would often battle with each other. It was a time when the U.S. was a newly-formed nation that needed to protect its sovereignty. An armed militia would help the government to stem the uprisings and rebellions. But in this twenty-first century, it's quite a ludicrous concept.
Problem is, a vast number of Americans, especially the "traditional" ones would not even encourage a dialogue to challenge it; to them, there could be no arguments against it. Their status-quo dogma has found powerful allies in the wealthy and middle-class, mostly white-conservative organization named the National Rifles Association or NRA. The all-powerful group has practically bought off many Republicans and some Democrats by large-scale contributions to their election funds. The result of their relentless lobbying has been that in USA, one can't hear any discussions on a simple, easy-to-understand issue such as gun control. NRA and its sponsored politicians and friendly media have silenced the debate.
Obviously, Bush, Cheney and such big-name right-wing Republicans are the biggest endorsers of the gun lobby. The two chambers of U.S. Congress namely the House of Representatives and Senate are now flush with NRA-favored "leaders." The likely Republican presidential candidate John McCain or even the so-called liberal leaders such as Bill or Hillary Clinton – all of them being pro-war politicians – would not take a position against the gun lobby either. They know going against the powerful NRA could cost them their chances of being the next president. Barack Obama, the anti-war candidate who's now seriously challenging Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries did speak out strongly against the culture of gun violence in America just after the Northern Illinois University tragedies. He had to say something: after all, he is a senator from Illinois. Nobody however believes that only-rhetoric would bring about any changes to the pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment political status
quo. There was a lot of talk after the Virginia Tech massacre – nothing substantive had been done nationally to change laws ever since. Only some cosmetic changes were made by local politicians to quell the unrest by victim families.
The reality is, in this day and age, one can find shotguns, revolvers, rifles and other weapons in Americans' living-room cabinets and basement crawlspaces, and nobody considers it unusual or bizarre. Americans have been made to believe that easy access to weapons of mass destruction has nothing to do with mass destruction by weapons. They still believe that weapons are only kept at homes so that they can go out and hunt game animals during the hunting season. Without any knowledge or appreciation of the world outside, they're brainwashed to believe that guns don't kill; guns only protect the sacred American home.
The maniacs of Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University took advantage of such sky-high ignorance. They acquired their weapons legally and on those fateful mornings, used them on some innocent young men and women, just the way the two teenage maniacs did it at Columbine High School.
In all fairness, any society in any country would have a handful of depraved, twisted and perverts. We'd find them in Gurgaon or Noida, Mumbai or Kolkata, we see them in Beijing, Bucharest or Budapest, and we see them in Mali, Malagasy or Moscow. But only when the element of depravity or delusion is combined with guns or grenades we see such gruesome massacres. Imagine, had these mass killers carried hockey sticks, cricket or baseball bats instead of semi-automatic weapons – could they have killed so many? Would they be "high" enough to go for such rampages? Most of these killers – Kazmierczak or Cho Seung-Hui included – have a mental profile of a delusionary loner: for reasons that one must look into, they often consider themselves victims of social alienation and apathy. Some of them have serious medical conditions, are put on and off anti-depressants, which makes them even more erratic in their behaviors. They look for revenge – often against fantasized injustice. Then
in a country like the U.S. -- a free-market for guns -- they get easy access to those weapons, and choose an ominous day to turn their lifelong frustration and anger against the luckless victims.
There was a time when under the leadership of Jim Brady and his wife Sarah, their organization Handgun Control pioneered a movement to get America rid of such a social menace. Jim Brady was a close ally of conservative, pro-gun president Ronald Reagan; he was paralyzed by gunshot wounds inflicted by bullets aimed for Reagan. The Brady couple's tireless fight was able to push for some major anti-gun laws in the '90s. Handgun Control, however, has now lost the power it once had, and with the rise of war-mongering Bush Republicans and neo-liberal Clinton Democrats, talks of gun control have now become a matter of the past. In this year's election campaign, there would sure be some superficial discussions about it, but based on what I've seen so far, I wouldn't raise my hopes.
Contrary to what most people believe, America is a country still very much under the clutches of conservative social dogmas, prejudices and ignorance; the constitutional right to bear arms is no exception to that mindset. Mass media especially TV and Hollywood movie industry keep glorifying war, violence and killings, and reap profit from it. Video games and other so-called entertainment industries thrive on selling violence. All of the above are now idolized and copied in other countries such as India, Bangladesh, South Korea or China. The young minds are rapidly falling for it: the recent school shootings in India are grave reminders.
America and American people actually have a lot more to offer to the world: millions of people in this country are fighting tirelessly for peace, knowledge, prosperity, rights and justice for all. These Americans reject the culture of guns and violence, and teach the values of non-violence to their children. Can we idolize and emulate them?
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Dr. Partha Banerjee is a New York City-based human rights and peace activist. Email: banerjee2000@hotmail.com .
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