40 minutes. Within 40 minutes, 21 lives were lost to the shooting. No older than 11, 19 of them were young children with aspirations and dreams of their own. 2 were educators and honored veterans, who had dedicated their life to educating the youth.
On 24th May, 2022, Salvador Ramos of 18 years, claimed these lives with an AR-15 style rifle at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde,Texas.
The shooting was the third-deadliest school shooting in the United States, after the Virginia Tech shooting, 2007 and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, 2012.
Once again, the US is witnessing gun violence, raising domestic and international scrutiny of its comparatively loose gun laws. To put it in context In 2021, guns killed more than forty-five thousand Americans, the highest toll in decades.
In today’s time gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in the US. History keeps repeating itself, yet there has been limited action and Congress has repeatedly been unable to pass meaningful legislation that restricts the acquiring and use of guns.
The attack was believed to have been racially motivated given that most of the victims in the Uvalde shooting were Latinos. This is not surprising or a new development. Gun violence has been known to disproportionately impact Black and Brown Americans. This is also why attitudes about gun violence and laws differ widely by race and ethnicity.
Existing laws
The Second amendment of the Constitution Regards the Gun ownership laws as it states that “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.”
However, the right to bear arms is not unlimited. The Supreme Court has upheld a ban on concealed weapons and on possession of certain types of weapons such as semi automatic rifles that can accept a detachable magazine and have one of the military features. The Gun Control Act of 1968 has also put prohibitions on individuals under 18 years, convicted criminals, the mentally disabled, and the dishonorably discharged military personnel from obtaining firearms.
Additionally, The Congress and the state legislatures have the authority to enact controlling legislation.
However, these legislations have come up short in preventing the shootings and gun violence has been everlasting (since 1968).
Then what action has been taken and how has the Congress responded?
The prospects for reform of the nation’s gun regulations have always been dim. The recent attempts over the years to expand background checks and enact other curbs, as even proposed by Biden himself have run into Republican opposition in Congress.
Gun violence has always been at an all time high in the US, then what action has each of the regime taken and how?
Obama Administration
“ We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of [such] violence in future.”
These were the words Obama said, succeeding the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. Following this heinous and shocking act of violence that claimed the lives of mere 6 and 7 year olds, President Obama announced that V.P Biden would lead an effort to work on a set of concrete policy proposals to reduce gun violence.
However actions and legislations were and have been defeated by a filibustering Senate minority. Therefore Obama decided to take up executive action that does not require congressional approval.
Following the bold actions, Biden prepared recommendations for executive actions, seeking input from citizens, firms and organizations (including victims, advocates, educators, elected leaders, wildlife conservationists) with an eclectic range of concerns, perspectives and beliefs about curbing gun violence in the US.
There were also people from around the country who showed their support for preventing gun violence by signing We the People petitions. The President also made it clear that his efforts would only be successful with the continued help of Americans who stand up and speak out.
Throughout his term, Obama and other allies made continuous efforts to carry out action against gun violence. However, gun violence still prevailed.
Trump Administration
When Trump took over as president, more than 100,000 Americans were killed due to gun brutality and twice that many have been wounded during his term.
The first time he addressed the issue at a rally, he spoke about protecting the rights of gun owners and implied that Democrats were after these rights stating ,“ They are after your Second Amendment.”
After the El Paso (Texas) and Dayton (Ohio) shooting, the president stated he wanted tighter background checks on gun buyers. However these promises never materialized and as many suspect, the reason for so was to retain the support of the ultraconservatives to win elections.
Since the beginning, several senior Republicans have consistently pushed back against calls for tighter rules on gun ownership. They have shown strong opposition for tighter gun laws even in the Congress and have refused to cooperate on this.
After the current shooting, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has accused Democrats and the media of seeking to “politicize” the shooting in Uvalde to “restrict the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens.”
As even Trump addressed the issue he believed that societal ills like “broken families” and mental health issues were the primary problems facing Americans, completely disregarding the involvement of stricter gun laws and regulations. He also said at the National Rifle Association’s annual conference that decent Americans should be allowed firearms to defend themselves against “evil”.
Republicans have for the longest time strictly supported the Second Amendment and have completely removed guns and laws regarding them from the equation, blaming it all on evil that exists in the society.
Biden Administration
Since the beginning of 2022, the US has surpassed 200 mass shootings(A mass shooting is defined as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed).
As the issue has shook to the core, President Biden announced his Critical Incident Review that aims to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses on 24th May.
Ms Harris too addressed the issue with utmost solemnity stating that an assault weapon was designed for a specific purpose i.e to kill. She added that it’s a weapon of war with no place in a civil society.
Following this, Biden reiterated his call for Congress to pass laws to reduce gun brutality. He called for closing on the many loopholes that exist in the existing gun laws, including the ‘boyfriend’ and stalking loopholes. He also urged the congress to pass a national ‘red flag’ law while simultaneously incentivizing states to pass ‘red flag’ laws of their own which prevents individuals who show signs of being a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing any kind of firearm.
However, given the reluctance of Congress to act on gun violence as seen in the past, the Administration has decided not to wait for Congress to act to take its own steps and announced the initial actions they will be taking up:
It was stated that a proposed rule will be issued by the Justice department aiming to stop the proliferation of guns that cannot be traced by law enforcement due to the lack of serial number i.e ‘ghost guns’.
The Justice Department will also have to publish model “red flag” legislation for states, so as to make it easier for the states to adopt red flag laws in the future.
Other actions include investment in community violence interventions as a response to the steep increase in homicides. The American Job Plan proposes a 5 billion dollar investment over 8 years for the same.
Since a major part of community violence intervention strategies is to help connect individuals to job opportunities and vocational training, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is organizing a webinar and toolkit to educate states on how they can use Medicaid to reimburse Hospital-Based Violence Interventions.
Federal agencies are simultaneously making efforts to direct crucial support to community violence intervention programs. These changes act as a buffer while we wait on Congress to appropriate additional funds.
These actions are in motion, but it is to be seen how many of these prove effective over time.
Conclusion
While there is widespread action taken on the executive level, I believe there is a dire need for responsive Congressional action. While these steps taken by the Obama and Biden administration have contributed to resolving the issue to some level, the key resolution remains reviewing and accordingly amending the Second Amendment.
After the Capitol Storming, the First Amendment was taken under review, acknowledging that it was 200 years old and bound for change. Consequently, their work has been put in for defining Free speech and drawing the line between free speech and hate speech.
Countless mass shootings have taken place. How many more need to take place before the Congress opens its eye to the eminent? It is time the Congress keeps its personal views and biases aside, and the Second Amendment is taken under review. There is a big difference between restrict and infringe and that’s where the review will contribute; Restricting the Second Amendment.
Further, In a democracy like the US, it is important that the government take in note the wants and sentiments of the citizens. According to the Center’ April 2021 Survey, 53% of Americans (more than half) strongly favor stricter gun laws. It is vital that the congress acts upon this.
It is to be noted that the gun used by Salvador Ramos was legally obtained. While The aim of this is to stop guns at the source i.e before one obtains guns. While the executive actions aim to ensure that guns don’t end up in the wrong hands by increasing the efficiency of the federal background check system and improving the tracking of lost/stolen guns, the most effective way to tackle the problem is to cut it off at the source i.e making sure that guns are obtained by only those who use it lawfully.
In the end, it is important that we uphold the rights of the citizens and keep in mind that the constitution is a working document that is loopholed and not an ultimate that doesn’t require change.
Secondly, We need to take into account how mental health issues play a major role in gun brutality and have a direct relation with community violence. While we can’t use mental health struggles to justify not creating gun legislations ( as the republicans have for long), we do need to work at that front seeing how an 18 year old was able to carry out such heartless barbarity.
Community violence interventions should also work on mental health and education, re-engaging the disengaged youth meaningfully, providing mentorship, and wraparound services such as counseling and providing subsidies for the same.
Finally, it comes to the man force or police. We saw a massive delay in the response period and the situation escalated for a prolonged time before Ramos was taken down. I believe what stands to be more effective than increasing manforce, is training our manforce better i.e Spotlighting De-escalation mechanisms.
I believe that there is a need for national standards for training and de-escalation for police forces across the US. It shall be a rigorous training in de-escalating the situations of hostage-taking, storming, and of course the various simulations of gun violence incidents.
The United States has the highest homicide-by-firearm rate of the world’s most-developed nations. It is time we take concrete actions that will stick so as to make the world safer for the future generations. We have to stop turning a blind eye to gun violence and have to act, before more innocent lives are lost to gun brutality.
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