More than 400 people have been shot to death in the city of Philadelphia so far this year. At this rate, the city is likely to pass last year's record of some 500 gun deaths in Philadelphia.
Nationally, 20,000 Americans died of gun violence last year, according to statistics. Yet the National Rifle Association has not been mentioned in any of the news reports of the soaring death rate.
Why? The NRA supported the national gun control program when it was initiated in 1934, when the organization was sponsored by the U.S. military. But when that association was ended, the NRA became active in supporting gun ownership by the many, citing the Second Amendment to the Constitution and calling for near universal gun ownership by all Americans.
Coincidentally, the NRA became a not-so-secret arm of the gun industry, and its program ignored the first phrase of the Second Amendment, which specifies that "A well regulated militia" is essential "to the security of a free state," and therefore gun ownership must not be limited. But the rash of shootings in major American cities cannot be attributed to members of any organized militia, well regulated or otherwise.
Compare gun violence in America to other major nations such as Canada, Britain or France. So the question remains: Where is the NRA in all this?
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