Op-Ed: Another mass killing of innocents in US | Editorial – The Manila Bulletin

It was only a little over a month ago, on October 1, that a lone gunman rained bullets on a crowd attending a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, killing 58 people and wounding over 515. It was the deadliest shooting attack in the US ever.

Last November 5, another gunman opened fire at the congregation in a Baptist church in the small town of Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 and wounding 20. It was the fifth deadliest mass shooting incident in modern US history.

To this day, it is not known why the killers in these two incidents did what they did. Both were white men but this does not seem to have anything to do with why they chose to kill so many people they had never met before and knew nothing about.

In recent shooting attacks in Europe, the gunmen were mostly members of the jihadist Islamic State (IS) inspired by extremist Islamic ideology. Our own Marawi rebellion was led by IS fighters who wanted to establish a regional center of an international Islamic State caliphate.

New United States President Donald Trump had this jihadist threat in mind when he sought to ban immigrants and visitors from five mostly Muslim countries in the Middle East. But the two latest mass killings in Nevada and Texas do not support his fears. The killers were not Islamist jihadists. The Las Vegas gunman was a wealthy golf-playing casino gambler; the Texas gunman was a US Air Force veteran discharged by the military in 2014 for allegedly assaulting his wife and child. Neither were connected to any organized terrorist group.

The Texas mass killing, like that in Nevada a month earlier, like the many other similar incidents in the US for several years now, raised calls from many quarters for stricter US gun laws. But gun ownership is a revered tradition in American history, a great part of the lore of the American West, and protected by the American Constitution no less.

After the Texas shooting, voices are bound to be raised anew for some restrictions, such as banning individuals with known histories like the discharged Air Force veteran. All other countries, including the Philippines, have strict gun laws.

But, considering the long-standing tradition and a powerful gun lobby, the US is not likely to make any change in the present situation. The public outrage has not reached sufficient strength for the US Congress to act. The US may have to expect more such attacks in the coming months and years.

Courtesy : The Manila Bulletin | Published 

ASEAN NEWSPAPER OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS

7.1. Beating a dead horse– The Daily Tribune

7.2. Another mass killing of innocents in US – The Manila Bulletin

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7.3.  Heaven help us  – The Manila Standard

7.4. GRAFT AND USURPATION CHARGES – The Manila Times

7.5. Killer police back on duty– The Philippine Daily Inquirer.

7.6.Third worst in Asia – The Philippine Star

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