That's why there will never be stricter gun laws in the United States

Wolfgang Hansson 

Published: May 8  

Updated: Yesterday 19.18 

 

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.  

 

COLUMNISTs

 

A clear majority of Americans want stricter gun laws.  

 

After every mass shooting, President Joe Biden and others plead with Congress to toughen the laws. 

 

To a Swede it appears incomprehensible, but there are a number of reasons why it will not happen. No matter how many innocent children and adults are killed.  

 

This weekend marked the 199th mass shooting in the United States so far this year alone, an act in which at least four people are hit by bullets. It happened outside a shopping center in Allen,Texas where at least nine people were shot dead by a 33-year-old gunman. The police suspect that there was a white power motive behind the act.  

 

A week earlier, a man outside Houston shot dead five of his neighbors after a family with children asked him to stop firing his gun in the garden. It hasn't even been a year since 19 children were shot dead at a school in Uvalde, Texas. 

 

But it doesn't matter how many acts I or gun opponents in the US count. It doesn't matter how many school children are mowed down in cold blood in their desks. 

 

Restrictions on the right to own weapons that could put an end to the indiscriminate killing will never happen. At least not on a national level. 

 

Eight people died in the mass shooting in Allen, Texas, over the weekend. Photo: AP 

 

This despite the fact that almost all opinion polls in the area show that over half of the American people want to see stricter gun laws. Breaking it down by political affiliation, 91 percent of Democrats favor stricter gun laws, while only 24 percent of Republicans share that view. 

 

Politicians in Washington put an end to all tightening. Even when the Democrats have a majority in Congress, it is not possible to implement other than cosmetic changes.  

 

The reason is the Second Amendment of the US Constitution which speaks of the right of all Americans to bear arms. A holdover from the time when the state was considered a threat to citizens. 

 

Conservative majority  

 

In a Supreme Court ruling in 2008, a narrow majority, 5-4, ruled that the Constitution guarantees every person the right to bear arms, although certain restrictions can be made. 

 

Since then, HD has gained a very strong conservative majority thanks to the three appointments that Donald Trump was allowed to make during his time as president. Considering that the judges sit for life, it is highly unlikely that the country's highest legal body would change its attitude.  

 

Trump also systematically appointed hundreds of conservative judges to lower-level federal courts. 

 

Protesters in Washington demand stricter gun laws, March 24, 2023. Photo: Eric Kayne / AP  

 

To amend the constitution, a two-thirds majority is required in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. It is in today's situation and for the foreseeable future completely unlikely.  

 

Both Republican and Democratic politicians must win primaries to become their respective party's nominee for Congress.  

 

The Republican who would even breathe that he is prepared to restrict the right to bear arms can say goodbye to any chance of being nominated. The same applies to Democratic politicians in conservative states.  

 

After the school shooting in Uvalde last year, the then Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a ban on semi-automatic weapons. But in the Senate it stopped.  

 

It wasn't the first time.  

 

Increases sharply  

 

American politicians refuse to see the simple and fairly obvious connection between the ease of buying a gun and the fact that no other country in the world has as many mass shootings as the United States.  

 

Gun sales have risen sharply in the US in recent years. Today, there are 120 firearms for every hundred Americans.

 

Police on scene in Allen after the mass shooting. Photo: LM Otero / AP 

 

One of the strongest forces against stricter gun laws is the National Rifle Association, NRA. An interest and lobbying organization that loudly cracks down on any attempt to restrict the right to arms. Their attitude is that the more Americans who carry guns, the safer society will be.  

 

The NRA rates politicians who stand in various elections. A low rating from the NRA means in many conservative states that the candidate has no chance.  

 

At state level, many democratically governed states have introduced certain restrictions. 

 

In conservative states it is the opposite. There, the gun laws only become more and more liberal. In April, Florida became the 26th state to allow residents to carry a concealed handgun without a license.  

 

 

US President Joe Biden. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP 

 

I clearly remember the massacre at the elementary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, about ten years ago. A 20-year-old shooter opened fire and killed 26 people, 20 of whom were children between six and seven years old.  

America was in shock. Desperate Americans cried out for change.  

I then thought that if there is ever a time when the gun laws can be reduced, it is now.  

But it turned out as usual. No stricter laws were adopted nationally. 

Unfortunately, that is how it will remain.  

I clearly remember the massacre at the elementary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, about ten years ago. A 20 year old