In many states it is easier to own a gun than a dog. That is absurd
T he motives for mass murder vary. The teenager in Buffalo
who on May 14th shot and killed ten people, most of them black, was driven by racial paranoia. The 68yearold who killed The Economist believes it should be hard to own a gun. Farm ers need them for pest control; hunters and other hobbyists may use them for sport. But each gun should be licensed and regis one and injured five on May 16th in a Californian church hated tered. Each owner should have to pass stringent background Taiwanese people. What impelled Salvador Ramos to kill at least checks, and the process should be slow—no one should be able 21 on May 24th in and around a school in Texas may someday be to buy a gun while in a fit of rage. Also, there is no good reason to come apparent, though Mr Ramos is no longer alive to explain let civilians own guns that fire rapidly, or magazines that let himself (see United States section). them kill a room full of people before reloading. What these horrors have in common, though, is the murder In America such strict gun control is unthinkable. The Sec weapon. Guns are simple, reliable tools for killing. A man with a ond Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms, and the Na gun and plenty of ammunition can kill more people, more tional Rifle Association promotes a maximalist interpretation of quickly and with far less physical effort than he can with a knife, it. Politicians who hint that they might make it a little bit harder a blunt object or his bare hands. The weapon Mr Ramos used—a to obtain a firearm face a wellorganised bloc of singleissue vot militarystyle assault rifle with highcapacity ers. In Republican primaries, especially, few magazines—allowed him to keep shooting un dare offend the gun lobby. til someone shot him. That most of his victims Hence the steady loosening of rules in places were children makes the crime unusually hor like Texas, where 21yearolds can carry a hand rific. But it resembles countless other American gun in public without training or a permit (both tragedies in that the easy availability of guns of which are needed to cut hair); and where 18 made it deadlier than it might have been. yearolds can buy a handgun if they come from A robber who carries a gun is more likely to a violent home (to defend themselves against kill. Domestic quarrels are more likely to end in abusive relatives); and where almost any adult death if a firearm is handy. Suicide attempts with guns usually can buy a rifle with minimal hassle. Mr Ramos bought two as succeed. Police in England and Wales shot and killed only two sault rifles legally as soon as he turned 18, and shot his grand people in 2021; American cops killed 1,055. The main reason for mother before heading for the local elementary school. this vast disparity is not that English cops are gentler or less rac This is not what most Americans want. Hefty (but dwindling) ist. It is that American police face a heatpacking public. Most of majorities favour some commonsense curbs, such as denying those they kill are armed; many of the rest are mistakenly be weapons to the mentally ill, creating a database to track all gun lieved to be so. The abundance of guns is also the main reason sales, and banning both assaultstyle weapons and highcapa why the murder rate in America is four or five times higher than city magazines. Congress is unlikely to deliver such things, in a typical rich country. thanks to the Senate filibuster. So cities and states should step By one estimate, Americans own 400m guns. If they were in, though guns will always flow illicitly from lax jurisdictions evenly distributed, each family of five would have six. In 2020 to stringent ones. Voters should reward politicians who think a more than 45,000 people in America died from firearmrelated gun licence should be at least as hard to obtain as a driving li injuries. Guns now kill more young people than cars do. cence. Not all gun deaths are preventable, but many could be. n
Ukraine
Don’t stop now
Volodymyr Zelensky needs continued support, not timorous advice
M argaret thatcher supposedly admonished the elder
George Bush that this was “no time to go wobbly” as the two leaders pondered their response to Saddam Hussein’s inva ing failed to take the capital Kyiv, and from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, in the northeast. But it still holds on to substantial gains in the eastern Donbas region and in the south, where it has sion of Kuwait. Were she still alive, she might very well feel the seized a “land bridge” connecting the previously stolen Crimean need to repeat her warning today. peninsula with Russia itself. As the fightback continues, Ukrai The war in Ukraine has entered its fourth month, and Vladi nian morale is cautiously optimistic, the flow of weapons from mir Putin’s unprovoked aggression has met with a response that the West is increasing and America’s Congress has just autho few imagined possible, especially from brave Ukrainians but al rised a $40bn package of support. so from the Western countries that have given them political, However, there is a growing view among Europeans and economic and material support. Russia’s large but incompetent some Americans that it is time to explore a ceasefire and peace army has been driven back across the north of the country, hav talks (see Europe section). Some say the war would end sooner if