America still heeds the call of the wild

GUN control won’t become an issue in America despite 12 people — one a girl of six — being killed in the Batman cinema bloodbath. It’s too sensitive an issue in a presidential election year, we’re told. Neither President Obama nor his presumed rival, Republican Mitt Romney, dare tamper with the right to bear arms, defended by the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In any case, would gun control make a difference? Britain has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. We had to tighten them after the Hungerford and Dunblane massacres, but they still don’t stop gangsters — some mere teenagers — acquiring lethal machine-guns. In Norway, gun laws require owners to be sober and responsible adults. But Anders Behring Breivik persuaded officials that he was such an individual prior to murdering 69 young Labour supporters there a year ago. The FBI says that, in 2010, 12,996 murders were committed in the U.S. — 8,775 of them by firearms. California alone had 1,257 firearms murders. Considering the 270 million guns held by civilians — and the American penchant for shooting each other — is the murder figure excessive? People control is the real issue in the U.S.. More than any other civilised people, a small minority of Americans prefers to use firearms to commit crimes, resolve arguments, assuage hurt feelings or gain notoriety. Four of their presidents (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy) have been killed in office by being shot, and six others (Jackson, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Ford and Reagan) survived assassination attempts. Americans are proud of taming their frontier, but did the Wild West leave its lethal mark on them?

peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk