(ANTIMEDIA) As of late, there has been a number of violent attacks throughout Europe that have been largely ignored by the American media. For example, a deadly knife attack in Japan claimed the lives of 19 people and injured 26 others approximately a week ago, but the tragedy received little mainstream coverage. In mid-July, a teenage Afghan refugee armed with an ax and a knife attacked and injured four people on a train in South Germany.
At the time of this article’s publication, one woman has been killed and five other people injured in a knife attack Wednesday evening in Russell Square, London.
These stories tend to get some decent media coverage if the perpetrator can be identified as some sort of “terrorist,” like in the German attack. But note how Facebook and your other social media sites are not completely overrun by the Japanese and British stories. Note how there are no flag changes for your profile pictures for these atrocities, despite the fact that in the Japanese massacre, 19 disabled people were killed. This attack was dubbed the worst mass killing in Japan since World War II.
So, what is really the issue here?
The fact is that establishment media outlets are not going to talk about what is blatantly obvious to anyone who follows these stories: guns are not the only weapon that can be used to commit mass murders. Mass murders occur in countries that already have very strict gun regulations in place. It is true that you very rarely hear of a mass shooting in England, but the fact remains that England’s homicide rate and rate of violent crime is rising — in spite of its bans on guns
One problem with the gun control debate is that the man proposing gun control — President Obama — is the same man who has systematically armed violent jihadists in the Middle East for years, as well as continued an unspoken policy (courtesy of the Bush era) of arming Mexican drug lords with the intent of inciting them to eliminate rival drug gang members.
This is the same man who authorized an indefinite detention provision in the NDAA and has killed thousands of civilians with his drone strike program. This is the same man who has helped turn local police departments into quasi-military forces, buying up enough ammunition for a war in the Middle East.
Yes, he weeps when he talks about gun violence — but he also helps fuel gun violence around the world and at home, which makes his tears worth nothing more than an Oscar acceptance speech.
Does America have a problem with gun violence?
Most probably.
However, nobody is talking about the underlying issues — like isolation and impaired mental health — that drive members of society to commit such horrific acts; what we do know is that if they don’t have access to a gun, an ax or a knife will do the damage, instead. Violent crimes will happen, regardless, and that is what should be the focus of any media inquiry: how do we stop these attacks from happening altogether?
But if you trust a man who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars arming groups connected to al-Qaeda to handle the issue of gun control in the United States, then you probably deserve what may be coming.
This article (The Harsh Truth About the Gun Debate Politicians Refuse to Talk About) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Darius Shahtahmasebi and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. Image credit: Charles Knowles. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org.