Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (Medicines and not guns are the need of today) that was published in Newsband

Medicines and not guns are the need of today

Adam Lanza walked into his old school in Newtown and killed 20 children and six adults — among them his mother. Lanza’s murderous spree, preceded by the slaughter at a gurdwara in Wisconsin on August 5, and the movie theatre massacre in Colorado on July 20, is part of a larger epidemic of gun violence in the United States. Lanza shot with the gun which he had obtained legally. How many more such mass murders should take place after which the US government will awake and do something drastic about the gun laws that exist in America?  

Firearms violence in parts of the U.S. is now more lethal. There is a link between firearms proliferation and homicide. It is found that not only in the U.S., but also in other industrialised countries, high gun-ownership levels are linked to high rates of homicide. It is common sense that violent individual with a gun will be more able to kill, and can kill more people, than a violent individual without a gun.

America should come up with tighter gun laws. Only this can save lives. Strict gun laws are bound to bring about a sharp decline in suicides too. Lanza’s madness should be attributed to the liberal gun-ownership regime.

America’s firearms addiction poses a risk to others too. Guns legally manufactured and sold in the U.S. — ranging from 9 mm handguns, available in India only to police, to .50-caliber sniper rifles designed to punch through armour — have flooded into other countries too. It is high time President Barack Obama took the initiative to end the madness. Why can’t the President of US impose gun controls?

Just recently a father in US shot dead his son when the boy (may be young adult) jumped towards him with a mask on his head and a shiny material in his hand. Only later father found that it was his son. If there were no guns, dad could have broken a leg; but wouldn't have lost his son.

The weapons industry is a curse to modern civilization. All the governments in the world should realize that that barbaric times are over and instead of indulging in weapon proliferation we should pursue saving and nourishing life with the plethora of medicines available to secure a comfortable life in the new century of global communications.