Acharya Lokesh Muni meets Biden; addresses gun violence
JAIN leader Acharya Lokesh Muni has met US President Joe Biden and suggested introducing ‘peace education’ in American schools to tackle the rising incidents of gun violence in the country.
The Indian spiritual leader, who is currently on a month-long trip to the US, met President Biden in Los Angeles last week on the sidelines of a Democratic Party event.
‘The problem is not only guns, but the problem is with the mindset, the real solution is to train that mindset inside our brain,’ Muni told Biden during the meeting.
‘We need to introduce ‘Peace Education’ from the primary level itself, and if we are successful in doing this, then we will find a permanent solution,’ he asserted.
On May 24, a gunman stormed into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers, in the deadliest school shooting in the US in nearly a decade.
Since that massacre, several celebrities from different walks in life have appealed for ensuring ‘gun responsibility; in the US.
But Muni offered a different take on this complex, deep-rooted and multi-faceted issue.
‘Gun is only an instrument, it is a tool, the real problem is the human brain. I am not saying this only being an Indian monk or a Jain saint. It is a scientific truth, medical science also accepts that it if the student’s sympathetic nervous system is more active than either the parasympathetic nervous system, he or she will either go into an inferiority complex or become so aggressive as seen by students shooting several people in Texas and at the University of Virginia,’ he explained.
Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the US. Guns kill more than 38,000 people and cause nearly 85,000 injuries each year, according to the American Public Health Association.