The debate is fierce after Kirk's death this week. About violence, crime, and what lies behind.
The word polarization no longer suffices to describe the debate climate in the USA today, says Erik Åsard, professor emeritus of North American studies at Uppsala University.
One has to talk about hyperpolarization.
The right blames the left, the left points to the right, and there is hardly any space left in between. For example, President Donald Trump directly after the murder in Utah on Wednesday – when there were still no tangible findings at all about who was behind it – pointed to "radical left-wing political violence".
Such a tragic event tends to further raise the tone and make the debate even more unforgiving, says Åsard to TT.
More guns than people
This trend is seen all over the world, also in Europe and Sweden. The difference in the USA is the access to, and the culture surrounding, guns. Åsard mentions that according to statistics, there are more firearms than people in the USA.
This makes it so easy to take to guns in disputes, at the slightest disagreement with someone you do not like. It becomes so easy that one takes to the worst.
But a cherished constitution, where the right to firearms is found in the second amendment from 1791, contributes to the fact that that side of the matter has almost become taboo.
Especially on the Republican side, it is almost forbidden to talk about the availability of guns, says Erik Åsard.
Instead, one blames each other.
"Shows how difficult it is"
The last major measures against firearms at the national level in the USA took place during Bill Clinton's presidency in the 1990s. Then, Congress agreed on a ban on certain extreme types of firearms, such as – in Erik Åsard's words – "those you actually use in war". But that law was limited to ten years.
And has not been renewed. Which shows how difficult it is.
Despite the fact that the restriction was very cautious by international standards, Erik Åsard sees small opportunities for such measures today.
It would require a completely new Congress where the members are then willing to implement it.
I do not see such a scenario now.
