Bloodshed won’t tighten US gun laws: experts

The statistics are staggering, the stories heartbreaking, yet there is little chance that any amount of bloodshed will lead to stiffer gun controls in the United States in the foreseeable future. “It’s not something that any politician thinks is winnable,” said Kristin Goss, a politics professor at Duke University and author of “Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America.”

Five years after the worst school shooting in US history left 32 people dead at Virginia Tech, another high profile slaying has raised fears that new self-defence laws allow armed vigilantes to kill with impunity.

Florida authorities initially refused to charge a neighbourhood watch volunteer for killing a black teenager even though a 911 operator instructed George Zimmerman not to follow the boy and instead to wait for police, after he first called to report a guy “up to no good.”

That’s because Florida -- like 24 other US states -- has a “Stand Your Ground” law that grants immunity from prosecution if people use deadly force because they felt threatened.

Zimmerman said Trayvon Martin, 17, attacked him and under Florida law, he had no duty to attempt to safely retreat before firing his gun.

The US constitution guarantees the right to bear arms, and individual states can regulate the right.

AFP