Easy gun laws and radicalised citizens: Why it's a potent recipe for carnage in US

The San Bernardino massacre by Islamic terrorists introduces a new paradigm in US homeland terror. For the first time, American citizens, radicalised by overseas terrorist groups, possibly over the Internet, murdered people with arms and ammunition they bought legally off the shelf in American stores. Shortly after the London bombings, I remember a conversation I had with aviation security experts, one of them from the US, and the other from England. The American asked the latter, “What we can’t understand is that these lunatics are your own citizens, and yet they attack you?” Americans are now asking the same question of themselves. America has for some time dealt with right-wing White supremacists, who have, individually or sometimes in small groups, carried out dozens of bloody domestic attacks. But these attackers are not part of any formal groups, they are mostly mentally disturbed individuals who, thanks to country’s relaxed gun laws, easily acquire arms and use them to kill their fellow countrymen. [caption id=“attachment_2535140” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] In the San Bernardino attack, the question most being asked is, “Why would a woman with a six-month-old baby do something like this?" It’s not a question that really puzzles security experts. In the US itself, to quote a recent report by George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, of the 71 individuals arrested since March 2014 for alleged ties to IS, 10 were female. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, founder of the AHA Foundation that fights for women’s rights, told CNN that jihadist suicide bombers believe that good things happen to the families they leave behind. By this logic, Malik may have actually felt that she was helping her child attain a better life! But the really important question is: “When and where will the next attack take place?” Chances are that it will. The advantage that American home-grown terrorists have is that they can walk into any store and buy guns and ammunition to kill dozens of people, no questions asked. That cannot happen in Europe where, except for a few countries like Belgium, it is almost impossible to buy a gun off the shelf. Here’s a chilling statistic for you: According to a Washington Post article last month, between 2004 and 2014, suspected terrorists attempted to purchase guns from American dealers at least 2,233 times. And in 2,043 of those cases, or 91 percent of the time, they succeeded. If you think this is nuts, it gets worse: According to the US Government Accountability Office, “Membership in a terrorist organization does not prohibit a person from possessing firearms or explosives under current federal law…people on the FBI’s consolidated terrorist watch-list can freely purchase handguns or assault-style rifles.” In the San Bernardino killings, the perpetrator was Syed Rizwan Farook, a second-generation American with a good job (a salary of $60,000 a year) and a decent home in a middle-class neighbourhood. He met and married his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik about a year ago. Armed with assault rifles and handguns, they fired hundreds of rounds of ammunition during the carnage in San Bernardino and later in the gun battle with law enforcement authorities in which they were both killed. Police found thousands more rounds of ammunition at their Redlands home. The irony was that they were not on any watch-list. Why is it that their family did not notice that things were going wrong with this couple? Lawyers for the family have already got busy on TV, relaying the family’s sense of shame and horror, but firmly rejecting the notion that they knew that these apples were rotting inside. South Asians have very strong family ties, so it’s difficult to imagine that this family suspected nothing, given the massive arsenal of arms, ammunition, and bomb-making material that was found in their home. Ayaan Hirsi Ali expressed the skepticism that most people felt. “I don’t buy it,” she told CNN. The freedom to bear arms is guaranteed to Americans by the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which reads rather quaintly, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This was probably good for 1791, when brigands, pirates, and hostile Indians took potshots at hardworking Colonists. But in the 21st century? Americans, expressing their rights under the Second Amendment, have perpetrated 315 mass shootings since January 2015; a mind-boggling rate of almost one a day. On Thursday, hours after the shooting, the US senate defeated a proposed law that would prevent people on the terrorist watch-list from buying guns. Democrat senator Dianne Feinstein, who sponsored the law, was quoted on MSNBC, “If you need proof that Congress is a hostage to the gun lobby, look no further than today’s vote blocking a bill to prevent known or suspected terrorists from buying guns and explosives. Congress has been paralyzed by the gun lobby for years, while more and more Americans are killed in mass shootings. The carnage won’t stop until Congress finds the courage to stand up to the gun lobby and protect the nation.”