United States grapples with gun control amid rise of White Supremacist terror

By Edward Era Barbacena

Innocent people are paying the price for the mostly failed attempts to enforce gun control laws at the U.S. Congress. So much so that mass shootings have become almost commonplace in America. During the 4th of July celebration ceremony held in Highland Park in Illinois, 22-year-old Italian-born Robert Crimo shot and killed seven people, injuring dozens others.

Many previous attacks were carried out by white supremacists. Certain attacks, however, do not appear to be fueled by such an ideology, as seen in the Crimo example. Now Americans are debating the causes that produced these young killers. The most important factors are the withering away of the "American Dream," the stark inequality in the distribution of income and wealth, the ever-deepening political and cultural polarization, the social culture that celebrates guns, as well as the weakness of the political establishment in imposing restrictions on individual armament. The gun lobby in the U.S. spends a lot of money to elect pro-gun politicians. Americans need to seriously question this negative contribution to popular culture.

Racist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in Norway in 2011. Breivik became a "poster child" for many white supremacist terrorists, especially Brenton Tarrant, who carried out the mosque massacre in New Zealand. Of course, this type of terrorism was not born out of Norway. Its roots date back to the Ku Klux Klan, which is associated with the horrific killings of Black Americans. Today, White Supermcist terror feeds on social media networks. A careful observer can easily see that there is a grand plan, so to speak, behind the racist attacks.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, meanwhile, stated that the racist attackers were inspired by each other in his statements to reporters in London on Friday, together with Ken McCallum, Director of the British Home Security organization (MI5). Noting that technology blurs the line between external and internal threats, Wray said that no organizational connection can be found between racist attacks in the Western world. As is the case in the U.S., there is also an increase in hate crimes in the U.K. In this regard, both the U.S. and the U.K. are very similar to each other.

Addressing journalists with Wray, MI5 Director Ken McCallum pointed out that the number of investigations carried out against individuals motivated by racism, Neo-Nazism, or other hateful ideologies was increasing in the U.K. Noting that there is an obsessive interest in guns among young people who embrace racist rhetoric, McCallum said this development creates a very difficult cocktail of risks that must be managed with great care.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has previously said the U.S. caseload of domestic terrorism has "exploded" since spring 2020. In fact, Wray stated that the FBI considered the invasion of the U.S. Congress, which took place on January 6, 2021, as an act of domestic terrorism. American politicians, on the other hand, disagree on the issue of characterizing racist attacks as federal terrorist crimes. By the way, we should also recall here that the rising anti-immigrant racist rhetoric in both the U.S. and Europe plays the same transformative role for the mainstream parties.

Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray made statements accusing China of cyber espionage and technology theft, along with MI5 Director Ken McCallum during his visit to the U.K. Wray argued that China was the biggest long-term threat to U.S. economic and national security. Wray also claimed that China was attempting to interfere in the American elections. His British counterpart, McCallum, pointed out that his service has increased investigations into Chinese illegal activities in the U.K. in recent years.

It was the first time that the directors of the FBI and MI5, who put on a united front against China, addressed the press together. According to the statements from the Chinese Foreign Affairs, British intelligence was accused of exaggerating the "Chinese threat theory". Of course, Beijing accuses the U.S. and the U.K. of creating "imaginary boogeymen" and resurrecting the "Cold War mentality". As I mentioned before, the great power rivalry between Washington and Beijing has long provided fodder for simmering international tensions.