Guns, democracy and societal values

By KIM SEUNG-JUNG
The author is a professor of archaeology at the University of Toronto.

Not long ago, a shooting spree occurred in Kansas City. On the same day, another shooting occurred at a high school in Georgia. The two incidents led to yet further gun control controversy.

No other country in the world has the kind of civilian gun ownership seen in the U.S. There are more than 120 guns per 100 civilians, making it the only country to have more guns than people. In Canada, there are 35 guns per 100, and France, 20 per 100.

As a result, no other developed country is on par with U.S. when it comes to civilian firearm-related deaths. The rate is eight times that of Canada and 340 times that of the U.K. According to 2021 statistics, more people were killed by guns than traffic accidents in 35 states.

Despite increasing calls for tighter gun control, why is the U.S. unable to regulate firearms? It is well-known that the Republican Party supports gun ownership, and the politically influential National Rifle Association continues to lobby against gun control.

But a more fundamental reason can be found in the historic and philosophical background unique to the United States. The Second Amendment, ratified in 1791, states, “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.”

Of course, this is an offshoot of the “frontier mentality,” far from 21st-century America. Democracy in the country has grown from the individualism of self-preservation seen in Western films set in the frontier — in other words, from the environment where community morals were meaningless.

It is said that if firearm ownership is banned, only outlaws will own guns. Considering the irony, I realize how valuable Confucian-based ethics and order are in Korea.