Along with the quick economic and technical development of the society, the global exchange of information, all kind of goods, culture, etc., not all individuals are ready to adapt to the new realities of life and they turn to be outsiders. The material aspect of our lives predominates over the intellectual one that leads to excessive bile and aggression. The mental health of a significant part of the society is not considered as satisfying. This is the basis of one of the major crime problems that the society confronts - the gun violence. The statistics says that every year about 30 000 crimes result from homicide or suicide committed by various kinds of weapons. We all remember the horror following the mass shootings in Newtown, Oak Creek, Aurora and Tucson. After the tragedy in Sandy Hook Elementary School President Obama proposed a plan with four steps for the protection of children and society from tragic mass shooting which included strong measures to keep guns out of dangerous hands; prohibiting military-style assault weapons and magazines with high capacity; to make schools safe places; good access to mental health services. We may support this plan as an ambitious common project to protect the society from gun violence threat. The plan includes application of the existing laws that regulate the ownership of weapons, gathering and sharing data about gun owners, new rules for certification of gun owners, etc. Special attention is devoted to the climate in the schools emphasizing the fact that the different schools need different programs depending on the peculiarity of the climate of a certain school. The President Obama insists that more money have to be allocated for health care so all the people in need to have free access to mental health services.
President Obama’s proposal met a lot of groundless criticism as on the part of common people as well on the part of various parties. He was accused of intention to violate the Second Amendment of the U. S. Constitution. We find it untenable as the strong measures accompanying the certification of gun owners does not mean violating their right to own a weapon but just they have to be in excellent mental health and not to be registered as criminals. The GOP (Republicans) accused him pushing doctors to inquire their patients of having weapons at home. We could not find such formulation in his proposal. It is written that doctors are not prohibited from asking questions about arms in the course of association with their patients as laws for alerting the law enforcement about criminal activities already exist. Another accusation is that with the requirement for registration of all transaction of weapons there is a possibility for a Daddy to go to prison for his gun which he presents to his sun as his first hunting rifle. This accusation is groundless since in the proposal the formulation is as follows:”common – sense exceptions for cases like certain transfers between family members”.
We do not consider that the President Obama’s proposal will discontinue the gun violence especially the mass shooting which takes many victims, but it a good step to prevent the children and the society from tragedies as those which already happened.
