Gun culture continues to kill, but nobody cares

The shoot-out at a party in West Philadelphia on Sunday, in which three people were killed and six others injured, once again shows the danger from firearms in the United States.

Unlike random shootings, the shoot-out in West Philadelphia was triggered by an argument at the party, which then turned violent with people involved pulling out firearms.

The root problem, of course, is the failure of gun control in the US. Because of lax registration, the total number of guns in the US remains a mystery, but according to ammo.com, an online ammunition seller, which based its numbers on National Instant Criminal Background Check System data, there are 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the US, which is even higher than its population.

In such a society, it is all too easy for a dispute or quarrel to turn into a shoot-out. No one knows how many quarrels could end up in bloody shoot-outs with so many people in the country carrying firearms.

The number of people killed from gun violence in the US in 2024 so far, according to the Gun Violence Archive website, has reached 9,497, plus 18,233 injuries, as of Monday.

It is time to curb the rampant gun culture in the US, but who knows when those in the US Congress can arrive at such a consensus and take action.