Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, depicted in a graphic for Press TV's United States Desk. Azikiwe is a frequent guest on international media outlets., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Fri Sep 20, 2013 9:33AM GMT
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To listen to this statement by Abayomi Azikiwe just click on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/20/324997/social-problems-in-us-fuel-violence/
Gun violence in the United States is being fueled by social problems like racial discrimination and high poverty, and taking guns away from people will not resolve the issue, says Abayomi Azikiwe, an editor at Pan-African News Wire.
A scientific study published by the American Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, has found that the rate of gun violence is positively correlated with gun ownership rates.
The findings of the study, which was published two days after a gunman killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard, are quite significant for officials in the US where, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 32 people are killed with guns on a given day and 140 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room.
However, Azikiwe says taking guns away from Americans is not the solution to gun violence in the US “because the police, the military, the entire state apparatus is armed heavily and for them to take guns away from the people will also be a violation of fundamental civil as well as human rights inside the United States.”
“People who advocate that everyone inside the United States should have guns fail to realize that the social conditions inside the United States are driving people further and further into desperation,” Azikiwe said in a phone interview with Press TV on Thursday.
“I don’t think it’s a question of guns. I think it’s a question of the mentality behind those who have the weapons. The United States has to
deal with its own social problems, high unemployment, high poverty, racial discrimination, the rising gap between the wealthy and those who don’t have as many resources. These are the underlying issues that have been fueling the violence inside the United States,” he added.
Less than a week after the deadly shooting in Washington, D.C., a mass shooting at a basketball court in a park in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood left at least 12 people, including a 3-year-old child, wounded on Thursday night.
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