American exceptionalism – this term refers to all the ways in which the United States is a unique country in the world. Its history, freedom-loving culture and foreign policy leadership role. Another uniquely American phenomenon is regular mass shootings. The most bizarre thing is that this is a price the US accepts to pay for its also exceptional gun culture and legislation. Mass shootings have been part of my own political socialization in the United States. I was in high school in Kansas City in 1999 when the Columbine massacre in neighboring Colorado began the 25-year epidemic of mass shootings. Then we got Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Aurora, San Bernardino, Pulse, Las Vegas, Parkland High, El Paso, Buffalo, Uvalde and now Maine, to name a few of the most famous. Why does it happen and why does nothing happen to it? The reason is obviously partly cultural. The United States has a violent history and culture, and in many ways resembles an unstable Latin American country more than a consolidated Western democracy. The mass shootings now occur in all geographically and culturally distinct zones of the United States – in California, in the Southern States, in the Midwest, in Florida and New England. On an individual level, the mass shooter is established as a notorious figure in the American psyche and collective culture, and the social contagion effect from the shooting tragedies is obvious. A mass shooter must expect to be killed by the police at the scene, but for every socially frustrated man without prospects for a more meaningful life there is a last dark way out: you can become a martyr in your own life. The political debate after the mass shootings is like a record with notches in it. Each massacre triggers the same circular debate with the same arguments, followed by the same political paralysis of action. The most striking thing about this debate is the position of the right. As Max Boot in the Washington Post has pointed out: Republicans blame mental health, video games, absentee fathers and schools without armed guards—everything but the weapons used in these massacres. This argument simply does not take into account the moral horror of schoolchildren being shot to death and others with the same catastrophic misfortune. Perhaps no one can do anything about the cultural pathology – nature has to heal itself in one way or another. On a political level, the USA has both a political system and awkward leadership without the ability to tackle the problem. The United States was the first modern democracy and a model for the world at the end of the 18th century, but it is no longer purely constitutional. If the United States is to begin to overcome this acute problem, a comprehensive reform of the entire political system is needed. As of today, so-called counter-majoritarian institutions – veto points in the political system – mean that a conservative minority can block gun legislation that would succeed. The political polarization puts the system out of whack and leads to total paralysis of action. Stricter gun laws alone will not solve the problem, but it is a decisive factor we cannot ignore. It’s that simple and that hard.
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No other Western country would find itself in this frenzy – Statement
