Second Opinion / OTHER MEDIA : LA OPINION : Turning Down the Level of Violence

According to a study by the Department of Justice, one of every eight students in the nation’s most dangerous urban areas comes to class every day with a pistol. The study also revealed that students have easy access to “firearms of good quality and easy use,” revolvers of high caliber and automatic and semiautomatic pistols.

They weren’t acquired, of course, in stores. They were bought in the street or stolen. There are also many arms in the hands of the public acquired legally.

There exists, then, a gun mentality. That is to say, a society in which violence is frequently used to resolve conflicts or express disagreement. Because of that, some experts ask that crime and violence be considered a public health problem.

Society has started to react against the gun culture. It will be a long process, but it’s heading in the right direction.

In addition to the laws restricting the sale of arms, we need a mechanism to deactivate the gun psychology in society and make unnecessary its use as a way to resolve individual and group conflict.