Editorial: US needs stricter gun laws

The shooting at Umpqua Community College in the US is just another example of how gun laws in America are killing their own.

It is a sad reality that most of us are simply not surprised when we hear of yet another mass shooting at some school or college in the United States.

In the latest incident, 26-year-old Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer shot dead nine people at an Oregon community college and injured many others.

It certainly makes one glad that you live in New Zealand where strict gun controls mean that if someone merely lifts a rifle in an urban environment, the armed offenders' squad swarms all over them. Sometimes there are false alarms when motorists mistake a pedestrian's brolly for a gun or neighbours think toy guns are the real thing.

Rather that than what seems to be happening in the US with alarming regularity.

I suppose it is a cultural thing as well. Many Kiwis, especially in the provinces, love to go hunting and many have guns, but they don't see the need to have them with them all the time. Americans, especially conservative ones, believe it is their constitutional right to bear arms and woe betide anyone who tries to take that from them.

President Barack Obama has come under attack in the past couple of days after the latest shooting for lamenting that stricter gun controls was something he was unable to bring into law.

In turn, he has taken aim at the powerful gun lobby group, the National Rifle Association, which he says has enormous influence over both Republican and Democrat politicians in Congress.

It is clear to us watching from afar that tighter gun laws are the answer, but at some stage the American people need to wake up and realise that their obsession with guns is killing their own.