Farewell to arms no easy task

The United States has become a society addicted to gun culture. With around 270 million guns held by private citizens, it has the most armed civilian population in the world.

The gun culture is so deeply rooted that any major effort in gun control will be met with strong resistance from those defending the Second Amendment, which gives US citizens the right to bear arms.

In the name of defending the constitution, few have seriously considered whether such an outdated amendment is still fit for the 21st century.

Reports show that gun sales have increased in Connecticut since the Newtown shooting. The FBI has also reported more background checks for firearms purchases this year than ever before.

A Pew Center survey, which was conducted right after the Aurora theater shooting, found that 47 percent said it was more important to control gun ownership, while 46 percent said it was more important to protect the right of US citizens to own guns. The attitude was largely unchanged despite the shooting.

I am not trying to sound cynical, but Obama and Americans simply need to take drastic action to "unarm" US civilians before another mass shooting occurs.

People in the US marvel at the low gun-related homicide rate in Japan, less than 10 in 2008, but they do not realize that it is almost impossible for Japanese people to buy guns, let alone high-capacity magazines and semi-automatic rifles, which were used in all of the recent shooting rampages.

On the same day the Newtown tragedy took place, a crazy man in Central China's Henan province entered a rural primary school and injured 23 children. But if buying a gun in China was as easy as in the US, that tragedy could have been worse than Newtown.

The author, based in New York, is deputy editor of China Daily USA. E-mail: chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/21/2012 page8)