America's Disease of Gun Violence

Disease - a particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people.

It happened again last Friday - a full blown infection of the disease of gun violence at yet another American High School: this time in Sante Fe, Texas, where a student, armed with guns and alleged pipe and pressure-cooker bombs, attacked and killed nine classmates and a teacher and wounded another 10 people. 

This recent bout of gun violence in the United States (US), clearly underscores a seemingly perpetual threat faced by American youths of dying before graduation from high school. And for the sake and safety of the Republic, the infection has to end. 

But apparently, this society-consuming illness will not end until common sense gun control laws are enacted to restrict the ease of access to firearms in the country. And this task is one easier said than accomplished given the strong gun lobby and its resistance to efforts to ensuring the safety of America's youth.

However, lawmakers must be compelled to act to end this disease of gun violence especially now amid a report by Newsweek Magazine, which found that more US children have been killed by gunfire since the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Connecticut, than the total number of US soldiers killed in overseas combat since September 11, 2001.

Since that gun massacre in 2012 that killed 20-first-graders and six-adults, Newsweek has counted 7,000 children deaths compared to 6,929 soldiers killed in five military operations since the war on terror began in 2001. Stark and staggering numbers of children killed.

Therefore, toward ending the disease of gun violence in the US, voters this fall, in the mid-term elections for the US Congress, could begin the nation-healing by electing legislators willing to confront present gun laws.