Massacre in Las Vegas

ALONG with the benumbed Americans, the rest of the world received in shock and disbelief ghastly news of yet another mass shooting, this time in Las Vegas. A lone gunman — a 64-year-old white man — mowed down a mostly white crowd at a musical event in a recreational resort. The gunman, identified as Stephen Paddock, who killed himself rather than surrender to the police, was reported to have as many as 23 weapons in his possession in the hotel room, including rifles and pistols. Las Vegas is the poster town of American free spirit; it is located in Nevada which has one of the most lenient gun laws in America.    

The sheer brutality of shooting down of 59 people is overwhelming, even more galling is the utter helplessness of the dysfunctional American political system in doing something about the free availability of guns that makes it a child’s play for any deranged individual to kill fellow Americans. The outside world is unable to understand the American gun law laxity. The Second Amendment to the American Constitution confers on the citizens a right to bear arms and it has been one of the most fiercely divisive issues in American domestic politics in recent decades as violence, individual and collective, has overwhelmed institutions of social harmony and public trust. The National Rifle Association has emerged as the passionate defender of the Second Amendment; as many as 55 million Americans have firearms. 

 President Trump has been prompt to offer his condolences to the families of Las Vegas victims, without any hint of disapproval of the gun laws. That is no surprise; he received crucial support from the powerful gun lobby in his presidential bid. The figures are staggering: as many as 11,000 lives slain by guns in 2017 so far. A violent man is a challenge to guardians of law and order anywhere; but a mad man who can have very easy access to guns is a blot on any civilised society. That a sick mind in America can still have access to unlimited numbers of guns suggests a frightening breakdown in a social order.