News Comment
On Monday 10th April, two people were killed in a shooting in a classroom of a primary school in San Bernardino, California.
The victims, a female teacher and the suspect, were both adults. Two students were also in a critical condition.
Police chief Jarrod Burguan described the incident as a suspected “murder-suicide” attempt.
These terrible acts of violence are not uncommon in America. The United States has a sordid love affair with guns, that has devastated it’s communities and thousands of lives.
The right to own guns is regarded sacred in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, and fiercely defended by lobby groups such as the National Rifle Association, which boasted that its membership surged to around five million in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting.
So far this year, according to the gun violence archive, there has been a total number of 16,114 incidents, from which;
- 4,050 were deaths
- 165 children aged between 0-11 were killed or injured
- 820 Teens were killed or injured
- 90 mass shootings
- 689 home invasions
In 2016, 15,078 died from Gun related incidents of which 385 were mass shootings. A mass shooting is defined as a single shooting incident which kills or injures four or more people, including the assailant.
The statistics of the gun culture in America is damning. So many people die annually from gunfire in the US that the death toll between 1968 and 2011 eclipses all wars ever fought by the country. According to research by Politifact, there were about 1.4 million firearm deaths in that period, compared with 1.2 million US deaths in every conflict from the War of Independence to Iraq.
No official figure exists but there are thought to be about 300 million guns in the US, held by about a third of the population. That is nearly enough guns for every man, woman and child in the country.
Gun violence and terrorism: The US spends more than a trillion dollars per year defending itself against terrorism, which kills a tiny fraction of the number of people killed by ordinary gun crime.
According to figures from the US Department of Justice and the Council on Foreign Affairs, 11,385 people died on average annually in firearm incidents in the US between 2001 and 2011.
In the same period, an average of 517 people were killed annually in terror-related incidents. Removing 2001, when 9/11 occurred, from the calculation produces an annual average of just 31.
The United States parades itself around the world as an advocate of human life and destroyer of ‘weapons of mass destruction” but it’s own homeland is a concrete jungle. It celebrates weapons and has enshrined it in it’s very constitution.
Indeed, America is in no position to advocate anything to any part of the world- especially when it comes to violence and human life. It is not even close in eradicating violence and protecting human life in it’s own country, nevermind the rest of the world.
إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَعِبْرَةً لِّأُولِي الْأَبْصَارِ
“Verily in that is a lesson for those who possess vision.” {An-Nur:44}
News Article: San Bernardino shooting: Two dead at California primary school
Two people have been killed in a shooting in a classroom of a primary school in San Bernardino, California, police have confirmed.
The victims, a female teacher and the suspect, were both adults, police Lt Mike Madden said. Two students were also in a critical condition, he added.
Police chief Jarrod Burguan described the incident as a suspected “murder-suicide” attempt.
The shooting happened at 10:30 local time (17:30 GMT).
Mr Burguan tweeted shortly after the incident that the suspect was “down” and there was “no further threat”. The school was immediately evacuated.
The shooting took place in a classroom of North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino county, 60 miles (96km) east of Los Angeles.
Police said they believe that the teacher was known to the gunman.
It is thought that the two injured children, who were airlifted to hospital, were not targeted by the killer.
The identities of those involved have not yet been released.
Up to 600 students were transferred by bus to nearby Cajon High School, where they were later met by their parents.
“Police operations are continuing to secure the area,” Mr Burguan said earlier on Twitter, adding: “However, we do believe the threat is down.”
