BBC Links Violence to American Culture

It didn’t take the BBC World, airing on PBS, long to find a way to criticize America and our constitution it the midst of our national tragedy. After an initial segment on the events at Virginia Tech, the BBC felt another story on Second Amendment rights were appropriate for a broadcast. The story by Gavin Hewitt led with the following, "Today’s images from Blacksburg are at once horrific but shockingly familiar. Shootings on campuses, in high schools, in shopping malls, have become part of the American landscape."

After continuing with a re-cap of past school shootings, his analysis of the ‘American landscape’ concluded with the following:

In the United states there are 200 million guns in private hands. Many Americans believe it is their right to keep and bear arms, as is their right by the constitution. Attempts to bring in tougher gun laws are often weakened by the powerful National Rifle Association. Even after today's horrific shootings, laws are unlikely to change.

However terrible the incidents, many Americans fear that restricting weapons will only lead guns in the hands of criminals, and many are passionate about that right. This was Charlton Heston, president of the National Rifle Association. This was his invitation to those wanting gun control, ‘You can take my gun from my cold dead hands’.

In the hours after today's shooting, a White House spokeswoman reminded Americans that the president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms. There is likely to be a new debate about guns, but the gun lobby remains one of the most power full in America.

The followup by anchor Katty Kay with Daniel Vice of the "Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence" was "The question all around the world, when an incident, a terrible incident like this happens is how many shootings does it take before America has a serious discussion about gun control?"