Obama takes bold step to control gun culture

Anil Narendra

US President Barack Obama must be congratulated for the unparalleled bold steps which he has taken just four days prior to his oath taking for his second tenure on Wednesday. No American President had ever taken such bold steps. And, these steps intend to put control over the spreading gun culture in America. Today, in America 89 out of 100 Americans have their private guns. It is well known that America is today, governed by multi-national companies. The gun industry worth billions of dollars is quite powerful. That is why no American President dared put control over it, but in view of the increasing number of killing in public places in America, the common American has started thinking about putting control over this gun culture. In fact, during recent years, incidents of firing in public places have increased. In the year 2012 itself, 64 persons were killed, while 71 others injured in more than seven such incidents of firing. Newtown in Connecticut State witnessed firing in Sandy Hook primary school on 14^th December 2012, where 26 persons including 20 innocent children were killed. After the Connecticut incident, President Obama wept during his address to the nation. He declared to take immediate steps to stop recurrence of such incidents. He has issued 23 orders after the Newtown incident. Now, it will be difficult to buy and keep weapons. These orders have been issued to control the sale of weapons. It is significant that it would neither be necessary to obtain clearance for these orders from the Congress (American Parliament) nor these could be challenged in the Congress. According to important orders: background of the customer will be completely be scrutinized while issuing new licenses, weapons will not be sold to persons with criminal background and to persons having record of domestic violence, schools will be provided with better security and people will be provided more opportunities to avail psychological services. The American gun lobby has started protesting vehemently against these steps taken by Obama. As I had said earlier, no American President has dared confront the very influential and powerful gun lobby. Obama has been getting huge public support for his efforts to control gun culture in the country. The American Sikh community has openly appreciated Obama’s efforts. Remembering the firing incident at Gurudwara at Wisconsin State in August last year, Rajwant Singh, Chairman, Sikh Community said that many innocent persons are being targeted in these senseless killings. He said that the Sikh community supports these steps taken by President Obama to stop the spread of lethal weapons in the American society.