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America: Is violence linked with recession?

Bhuwan Thapaliya - 5/3/2009

“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” In few countries does the old adage resonate more loudly than in the United States of America . America may be pulverizing the Taliban and al- Qaeda in the Pak- Afghan border and watching post-conflict transition in Nepal , especially the Maoists snail like lackluster transformation with caution after the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 21 November 2006, but back home, it is facing a much tougher enemy – Gun Violence.

Gun is maiming America as political inconsistency is hurting Nepal ’s peace, prosperity and democracy. According to the reports, in the United States around 35,000 people are killed as the result of gun violence every year, and approximately another 100,000 suffer gunshot injuries. These statistics reveals that America is not the safest place - something is not going the American way.

The danger to the United States of weak gun laws has been illustrated in recent weeks by a spate of domestic mass shootings. In the last month and a half, multiple shootings have claimed 50 Americans. These multiple shootings are yet another reminder of America ’s terrible gun problems and a summons to lawmakers to insist on common – sense gun laws. But the Congress is shrugging its shoulder off, and unfortunately that’s not the solution common Americans are seeking from these lawmakers.

Gun related violence is growing so much in America that they are asking questions such as, “Is violence linked with Recession.” Or is there a deeper cause?

Jack Levin, a criminology professor at Northeastern University in Boston , Massachusetts , stated to the AFP that there is a clear link between the economy and the violence. According to him as quoted by the AFP, “ In an economic downturn, the United States often sees "many more large-body-count murders -- on the job, in the family -- as many more Americans feel desperate in a situation they feel got completely out of control.”

Since the mid – 1990’s there has been a slight decline in the gun related violence but more recently it has inflated. Considering so, America must engage in a promising conversation about gun violence, and the congress should rise above the extremists at the National Rifle Association. Obama should place the immense persuasive powers of his office behind and push for sensible gun control. He must prepare the ground for the actions that will now be needed.

The world has changed a lot since the aftermath of 9/11 and now the real threats to America are from those Americans who have guns. If fighting the terrorism is defined as being only about fighting the terrorists abroad, American policy makers are probably wrong. Those who in their cold blood kill innocent fellow citizens are also terrorists. Let this be understood by the Obama administration. Today, American public are beginning to fear about their safety from their own clan. What a shame. This is not a good sign for the nation that is trying its best to regain its lost glory and slip itself off from the vice like grip of the recession.

What are we to make of these several cold blooded killings that stunned America during the last few months? The answer is simple: Its time to tame the gun. It’s not that America is not doing anything to tame it. Prospective firearm buyers have to pass through The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. “More than 100 million such checks have been made in the last decade, leading to more than 700,000 denials,” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

But yet guns are everywhere in America though the gun debates have been going on in America since times immemorial. The irony however is this: Gun advocate believe that gun laws are too strict; opponents believe that they are loose. Now a grave question arises, “How can American Public, the advocates of freedom and peace all over the world view the Gun so differently?”

It might be worthwhile to take a step back and contemplate over this fact: Around 250 million guns are in circulation in America , and with a thriving black market in guns, anyone can get hold of one in the United States . Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, authors of ground breaking book “Freakonomics,” stated that “There are enough guns in the United States that if you gave one to every adult, you would run out of adults before you ran out of guns. Nearly – two thirds of U.S homicides involve a gun, a far greater fraction that in other industrialized countries. “Guns are everywhere in America and in every other hand. America , in other words, is not reacting to guns by moving in the right direction - it is allowing the guns to blossom.

Meanwhile, if you think that high gun possession means more homicide and more violence then you may not be always right. On a per capita basis, Switzerland has more firearms than just about any other country, any yet it is the safest place in the world. In other words, guns necessarily don’t cause homicides. There are many people in America who are in favor of holding guns but in the hands of the right people. One such advocate is economist John R. Lott Jr, author of “More Guns, Less Crime.” In his book he has argued that violent crimes have decreased in areas where law- abiding citizens were allowed to carry concealed weapons.

But in the contrary, Gun related deaths are soaring in America and most alarmingly, America ’s feeble gun laws are having negative spill over effect in Mexico too. It has been reported that around 2000 weapons per day are flowing from the US to Mexico . The problem is dire, and to the delight of the anti – gun lobbyists, Mr. Obama accepted shared US responsibility for gun violence in Mexico , which has killed more than 6000 people over the last year while discussing the flow of US guns across its southern border with President Calderon of Mexico .

Let me add a little Nepal context here. Nepal is passing through a post conflict transition. Hence it is in a situation of transition from conflict to peace. But the transition is proving to be very difficult as the political parties have not proactively engaged enough to deal with the transition. Organized crimes like extortion, kidnappings, robbery, looting, narcotics smuggling etc are making the mockery of our transition. To be more specific, these criminals are armed with guns, smuggled from India and China which are easily available in the black markets. It’s time to curb the smuggling of these guns. At this point, let me ask one question. Do the Indian and the Chinese authorities have a moral fiber to share their responsibility for the gun related violence in Nepal ? Will they learn something from Obama?

Coming back to Obama, critics say his acceptance of the shared US responsibility for gun violence in Mexico signifies the Obama administrations certain unleash of new gun control policies. But it is yet to be seen whether he will push the Senate to ratify the Inter-American convention on small arms trafficking or not. Meanwhile, to many political observers, the president’s call for the ratification of small arms trafficking was a clever maneuver to establish his government’s credibility before the world to gain more ground as breaking new ground is hard enough task in itself.

To make the matter worse, countries in Central and Southern America top the league for gun homicides, with Colombia suffering from a mortality rate of 50 deaths for every 100,000 people, according to United Nations figures. The statistics for gun deaths in Honduras , El Salvador , Brazil , Venezuela , Guatemala , Jamaica and Ecuador are only marginally less. For many ordinary citizens of these nations, however, the quality of life is getting worse due to the constant fear of the firearms. In the increasingly desperate towns and villages, people are killing one another in record numbers and the social costs of gun violence are alarming.

For example, the social costs of gun violence in Chicago total about $2.5 billion each year, according to a report released by The University of Chicago Crime Lab. Expanding upon previous research that every crime-related gunshot wound causes around $1 million in social costs, the report's four authors calculated the annual cost of gun violence at $2.5 billion, or $2,500 per Chicago household., according to the report published by The Chicago Tribune (March 3, 2009).

Now the curiosity arises, if gun violence costs Chicago $ 2.5 billion a year then how much gun violence is costing the United States . 100 billion dollars. That is the annual cost of gun violence in America according to economists Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig, authors of the book,” Gun Violence: The Real Costs (Studies in Crime and Public Policy).” In this important new book Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig has quantified the social costs of gun violence.

With the cost of gun violence running in the billions and billions, America must come out with a best program to reduce gun violence. Sociologists say, in this soaring gun violence is to be found the root cause of the sickness of the modern American society. Is American society working less well than it used to? It is still one of the best societies in the word – with tolerance to each other but there are signs that it is falling apart.