The United States is known as the world’s largest democratic or full democracy country. From this introduction, the question may arise whether the United States considers it its ‘right’ to inform other countries of the world about disappearances, murders or human rights violations. However, according to various reports, the human rights situation in the United States is getting worse day by day. The incidence of gun violence, murder, police torture is increasing. The justice system is dying in the “vocal” country to protect global human rights, which is what the US citizens themselves are worried about.
In the middle of this year, the State Council Information Office of China published a report on the human rights situation of the United States in 2021. According to the report, the human rights situation in the United States has worsened compared to previous years. Millions of people have died in the country due to the government’s failure to control the corona epidemic due to political instability. At the same time, gun violence casualties have multiplied. “False democracy” tramples on the political rights of the American people, and aggressive behavior by law enforcement agencies makes life difficult for immigrants and refugees in the United States.
Also, of concern is the country’s growing discrimination against ethnic minority groups, particularly people of Asian descent. According to many analysts, the US administration’s unilateral actions have created new humanitarian crises around the world.
Statistics on gun violence deaths
According to recently released statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2020 saw the highest number of gun-related deaths in 2020 than any other year. This includes a record number of shooting deaths as well as gun suicides.
Analyzing data collected from various sources including CDC, FBI, US-based public opinion polling and research institute Pew Research Center says, in recent years, the complete data related to gun attacks in the United States is available in 2020. That year, 45 thousand 222 people lost their lives in such incidents in the country.
For years, there have been more gun suicides in the United States than gun deaths, the CDC says. In 2020, 54 percent of gun-related deaths in the country were suicides (24,292), while 43 percent were homicides (19,384). In addition, there were 535 “unintentional” gun deaths that year, 611 law enforcement-involved deaths, and more than 400 “unspecified circumstances” deaths.
A total of 45,222 people died in gun-related incidents in 2020, which is 14 percent more than the year before, 25 percent more than five years ago and 43 percent more than a decade ago.
In the United States, gun violence has taken a toll in recent years. It killed 19,384 people in 2020, which is the highest since 1968. That year, gun deaths were up 34 percent from 2019, 49 percent from five years ago, and 75 percent from 10 years ago.
Comparative Analysis of Gun Violence
The rate of gun violence in the United States is much higher than in other countries, especially developed countries. Although a 2018 study by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of 195 countries and territories says that the United States ranks above the United States in terms of such violence, several countries in Latin America.
The study cited 2016 as the most recent year for gun violence statistics. According to the research report, the death rate from gun violence was 10.6 percent per 100,000 people in the United States that year. Whereas in Canada this rate is 2.1 percent per 1 lakh, in Australia 1.0 percent, in France 2.7 percent, in Germany 0.9 percent and in Spain 0.6 percent.
But the rate of violence is higher than in the United States in countries such as El Salvador, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras. Overall, the United States ranked 20th in the world for gun violence deaths in 2016.
What is the annual death toll in mass shootings in the United States?
It is difficult to give a definite answer to this question. Because there is no single definition of ‘mass gun attack’ or ‘mass shooting’. Its definition can vary depending on various aspects, including the number of casualties and the circumstances of the attack.
According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, a mass shooting or mass shooting occurs when one or more individuals are actively involved in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. According to this definition, 38 people (excluding attackers) were killed in such incidents in 2020.
The US Gun Violence Archive (an online database of gun violence incidents) defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot, even if no one is killed (except the gunman). By this definition, 513 people were killed by gun violence in 2020. But however, defined, mass shootings in the United States kill more people each year than all gun violence combined nationwide.
Police ‘hiding’
According to various monitoring organizations, more than two hundred people died in the United States in the first five months of this year. As the general public panics over a spate of gun attacks, new questions have been raised about the role of the US police.
According to a report by the US media Washington Post, since 2015, an average of 1,000 people has been killed by police in the United States every year. Since 2015, The Washington Post has started collecting data on every shooting incident involving police officers on duty in the United States.
Earlier in 2014, after an unarmed black man named Michael Brown was killed by the police in Ferguson, USA, an investigation came out that half of the shootings or torture by the country’s police were not reported.
A Washington Post analysis of more than five years of media coverage, social media posts and police reports found that the number and circumstances of fatal shootings and overall victimization rates remained relatively unchanged during that period. Last year i.e. in 2021 also 1 thousand 49 people were killed by police firing.
According to the Washington Post, an average of 1,000 people dies each year in gun attacks or similar incidents across the United States. The same number of people were killed in police firing. Although half of those killed in police shootings are white, blacks account for the majority of victims as a percentage of the population. About 13 percent of the total population of the United States is black. Also, more than 95 percent of those killed by the police are men, between the ages of 20 and 40.
Racism
It is 2:30 PM local time on May 14 of this year. A supermarket in Buffalo, the second largest and black-dominated city in New York, was suddenly shaken by the sound of gunfire. An 18-year-old started shooting indiscriminately with a semi-automatic assault rifle. The attack was carried out in military uniform with body armor. The youth was also using a camera to broadcast his bloody rampage live online. Describing the aftermath of the attack, a local police officer said that day that it was like walking through the set of a ‘horror movie’. But it was all real. It was a battlefield.
13 people were shot in that attack in Buffalo. 10 of them died. Police later said 11 of the 13 people shot were black. The FBI described the attack as an incident of “violent extremism”. Agent in charge of the FBI’s Buffalo office, Stephen Belangia, told the BBC it was being investigated as a ‘hate crime’ and racially motivated violent extremism.
Immediately after this attack, the local police arrested the suspected gunman named Peyton S. Gendron. He was charged with ‘first-degree’ murder. Then the investigation revealed more sensational information. It is learned that the young man had posted a 180-page ‘manifesto’ online in support of white-supremacist beliefs. He also described immigrants and black people as “substitutes” for white people in hateful writings. And through this, the issue of racism in the United States comes to a new discussion.
The idea that whites are being ‘replaced’ by blacks has recently moved from far-right political ideology in the US to mainstream Republican Party politics. And many US media personalities are helping to popularize this ideology, which is seamlessly being further influenced by the rhetoric of the Republican Party.
The young man who attacked Buffalo tried to justify his demonic attack by promoting the ideology that white people in the United States are being weakened by immigrants. And his manifesto was full of racist words about black Americans.
The Buffalo attacker claimed to be inspired by the killing of 51 worshipers by attacking two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019. His claim is similar to the incident. Christchurch attacker Brenton Tarrant was using the camera to broadcast the attack live online. He also published his own manifesto before the attack.
But the Buffalo attackers were more influenced by homegrown discontent than they were by the Christchurch massacre.
According to the U.S. Gun Violence Archive, there were nearly 200 shootings or gun attacks in the country from January to May. In addition, according to a recently published report, between 2019 and 2020, the death rate of gun attacks in the United States has increased by about 35 percent overall.
But the Buffalo massacre stands out not only because of the number of victims, but also because of the political nature of the attack. Analysts say the incident must be seen in the context of the growing normalization of racism and political violence in the United States.
According to information from US-based independent media outlet Education Week, 17 US states have recently signed laws banning or tightening ‘critical race theory’ or racism and sexuality education, and 12 more states are considering similar legislation. Apart from this, discussions are going on about removing some books that may spread racist attitudes.
But these collective efforts have also created a mockery of the history of American racism and xenophobia. Discussions of America’s racial history have turned the spotlight on the country’s existing poverty, unemployment, and social deprivation.
According to many social scientists, centuries of neglect, neglect, and lack of opportunity have driven a large portion of blacks in the United States to violence. As a result, many white people in the country feel unsafe. And hate is born from that insecurity.
Gun violence is on the rise in the United States. According to various local media, more than two hundred people have lost their lives in gun attacks in the country until May of this year. In this situation, lawmakers and experts demand reform of the private arms control law.
They say gun violence has emerged as a serious social problem in the United States that cannot be stopped. Strict legislation and enforcement are needed for this. Instead of giving advice or advice to others, the US administration should focus on resolving the crisis in its own country first.
