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A few years ago, my estranged grandmother — a mentally unstable Florida resident who believed in the right to own weapons religiously — threatened my aunt, her own daughter, with a pistol.
This weapon was confiscated by the authorities from my grandmother’s property and was later returned-this is life in a country that suffers from mental illness for whatever intent and purpose.
As the Washington Post reported in 2018, the United States has “more guns than people,” not even guns belonging to law enforcement agencies or the military that are willing to trigger.
According to a study by the Geneva Small Arms Survey, the post concluded that Americans accounted for 4% of the world’s population in 2017, but “owned approximately 46% of the world’s civilian gun inventory”. This means that in the United States, civilians have enough guns “for every man, woman, and child to have one, but there are still 67 million guns left.”
In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a US government agency, reported that about 109 people die from gun-related injuries every day. Six out of ten deaths are suicides.
Now, with the coronavirus pandemic and other phenomena prompting Americans to arm themselves more frantically, my grandmother seems to be ahead of the trend.
The Guardian recently published an article on the current shortage of ammunition in the United States-because manufacturers cannot meet the apparently unsatisfied demand for ammunition-quoting Joe O’Healy, manager of Good Guys Guns & Ammo in Nanuet, New York: “Let’s see It’s something we’ve never seen before, like a single mom with a stroller and a grandma with a shotgun.”
According to O’Healy’s calculations, the sales of ammunition in the store have soared by 10 times, and overall it is “very suitable for business”-it seems that some people suspect that one of the main points of capitalism is killing people and shutting down, well, killing.
Although there has been a surge in gun purchases in the United States in 2020-millions of new gun owners have joined the ranks of self-militarization and triggered a nationwide ammunition famine-a new peak is expected in 2021.
The New York Post observed that ammunition “is being taken off shelves nationwide because anxious Americans – who bought a record number of guns during the pandemic – locked and loaded in response to the increase in social unrest and violence. “. As far as Fox Business is concerned, it laments that the shortage of ammunition constitutes a “plague” of the “industry”-which is somewhat more worrying than the current literal plague, or that it is not normal for individuals to hoard military attacks. The rifle is to deal with the virus.
The largest newspaper in Montana, the Billings Bulletin, chose the headline “Shell Shock: Ammunition shortage bites the industry, shooter”, followed by the opening statement: “Although the toilet paper panic during the pandemic last year was disturbing, at least short-lived of.”
What’s more disturbing is that this article mentioned that the Internet is “smoldering” and rumors say that certain people in the United States are “arming up for the possibility of civil war.”
As for the alleged ongoing industrial “bite”, it goes without saying that many people in the industry are actually making billions of dollars from the entire arrangement-including due to shortages.
Of course, in a brutal neoliberal country based on domestic and foreign violence and insecurity, the crazy weapon rush is not surprising—a place where corporate tyranny is promoted as freedom, and citizens are indoctrinated as lethal weapons to provide More personal security than to say, free medical care or housing.
In addition to pandemic scares, social unrest, rising crime rates, and preparations for the upcoming civil war, other common reasons Americans hoard weapons and ammunition include “fear of the unknown” (South Dakota’s Capital Daily) and “Meat shortage”. “(CNBC) changed to “People have more time to hunt” (The Guardian).
The hoarding industry also has a misleading view that the newly appointed Biden administration will soon crack down on guns—as if the U.S. Democrats at the end of the day showed any less of the morbidity of the bipartisan militarized society that is unique to the United States. enthusiasm.
At the same time, “Forbes” magazine published an article in July about how Vista Outdoor, the top US ammunition manufacturer, “launched ammunition subscriptions” to cope with the scarcity of bullets (all because of “quarterly sales and profits” being pushed to “new “High”) reports attributed the unprecedented sales in part to “protests” about police brutality against black Americans.”
Speaking of police brutality, the Associated Press pointed out that the shortage of ammunition also affects US law enforcement agencies-although it is not the US military, unfortunately, the US military manufactures its own ammunition.
To quote Jason Wuestenberg, executive director of the National Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor Association, “We have already had some firearms instructors cancelled their registration for our courses because their institutions lacked ammunition or could not find ammunition to purchase”.
In any case, the small reduction in ammunition will probably not free American law enforcement officials from the tendency to shoot at black Americans-although the lack of preparation that the police believes will undoubtedly further encourage the excessive purchase of weapons by white supremacists.
The Associated Press continued to point out that despite the shortage of ammunition, some American-made ammunition still managed to be shipped out of the country, choosing destinations such as Israel—another place where the proliferation of lucrative insecurity took place under the guise of security.
At the White House press conference on May 24, an inquiring reporter reminded White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki of the fact that “a dozen mass shootings occurred last weekend” in the United States, and another 4,000 people were Compared with one year, he was shot in 2020″.
Psaki responded by saying “Of course there is a gun problem, this is what the president would say”.
However, no matter what the president said, the “problem” shows no sign of real end-especially when American ammunition manufacturers have a backlog of billions of dollars in orders, it is estimated that it will take at least a few years to complete.
As the United States continues to serve as a laboratory for deadly dystopian fantasy, I think my aunt is very lucky.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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