An American Tragedy

President George Bush addressed the nation at Virginia Memorial, 17th April 2007, one day after the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech. In his 9 minute speech, he described the sorrow of the nation as a whole for the Virginia Tech shootings. He spoke of sources of strength the affected should draw on to live on and called for God to bless all those who suffer and grieve.
He did not speak of the possibility of the prevention of the tragedy.
The worst peacetime shooting in modern history serves as a painful reminder to a fundamental issue which has been a disturbance to American politics for the drafting of the second amendment into the Constitution. It reminds us painfully of the lack of gun control in the United States.
Gun control is and has always been a sensitive issue in American politics. In 1994, when then-president Bill Clinton passed a bill banning assault weapons, the Democrats lost the House of Representatives in 1994 and the White House in 2000. Many Democrats believe they lost the elections because of the bill.
Due to this, there is a general reluctance in Parliament to pass even some common sense gun regulations.
One very vocal crusader against gun control is the NRA, America’s leading gun association. It constantly lobbies using hard ball tactics whenever Parliament is holding a debate regarding a gun control issue, treats any step towards gun control as a step to total disarmament and subsequently tyranny and publishes books with highly exaggerated attempts of self defense with guns.
Its chairman is also notorious for his conspiracy theory that the UN is trying to disarm the American people.
They have also argued that guns can help in self-defense. If you have a gun, criminals wouldn’t dare to hit on you, they argue. But, a constantly raised and very valid issue is whether guns would encourage more people to wards violence, rather than dissuade them.
It is a worrying trend. Gun homicide and suicide has reached another peak, following its slight decrease in 2005.
Streets are unsafe again.
The Virginia Tech massacre is a painful reminder of the fact. The false security that the Americans lived under cannot be sustained, at least not with guns easily available to anyone. Who would guarantee you that you would not be shot without reason?
Indeed, to the victims at Virginia Tech, no one.
The slant taken by the administration against gun control is probably taken as a result of the majority of rural voters supporting guns, although most urban voters are against guns, accounting for the . The government find it necessary to pull rural votes by taking a pro-gun stand.
The death of many America’s at gunpoint was caused indirectly by the nation’s overly-liberal position towards guns, fuelled by the American government and many American people, in support of guns. The deadly concoction of politics, Constitution and reluctance forms a extremely bitter aftertaste in one’s mouth, it is truly an American tragedy.

OK, here's my third article for grading, please have a look.

I really hate the word limit, I had to cut it by so much.

The article is from the Economist.