In September 1998 I travelled to Jonesboro, a small town of 70,000 people in the American state of Arkansas. A few months earlier, two children aged 11 and 13 had killed four 12-year-old classmates and a teacher. It was the first time the perpetrators had been so young and the purpose of the trip was a documentary («Kids Who Kill») shown on Reporters Without Borders.
Jonesboro is a conservative town. In the city itself and the surrounding county, the sale and public consumption of alcohol is prohibited in the streets, restaurants and hotels. It is also a God-fearing city with dozens of churches. That didn't stop the two kids from playing hooky that day and setting up on a hilltop overlooking the school, armed with the shotguns they had taken from home.
Then the youngest went down to the school and activated the fire alarm. Following protocol, the students left the classrooms and went out into the yard with their teachers. This made them moving targets for the two little assassins.
As is the case with all such incidents, the incident caused a stir across America. In fact, then President Bill Clinton, who hails from Arkansas and had served as its governor, even took it personally. He promised that he would introduce restrictions on the ownership and use of guns, which could be bought at the local supermarket chain. The US has about 400 million guns and 330 million people.
The mothers of the murdered people, whom I spoke to at the time, were invited to the White House and were optimistic that there would be an end to the repeated massacres. The 13-year-old shooter had said he was upset because a girl had rejected him. It happens in the best countries, but there you can't get a gun and kill because of love frustration.
It has been 25 years and more massacres since then, Michael Moore presented a shocking documentary (Bowling for Columbine) but still no substantial measures have been taken to restrict the circulation and use of weapons. For the National Rifle Association (NRA) has plenty of money - and from its profits from gun sales - with which to finance the election campaigns of parties and candidates.
Indeed, its potential influence is growing rather than diminishing, as campaign spending has taken off. And in the US, whoever has more money generally wins.
The National Rifle Association also has great political influence through its millions of members who are a vote bank, especially for the Republican Party. There are more in the Democratic Party calling for action, but there is a lack of bipartisan consensus and political will to change the relevant article of the Constitution. As well as the boldness to take bold measures that would limit the problem but have a political cost.
When yesterday, after the latest mass murder, President Biden declared himself «discouraged and tired» and asked «when in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?’ he was just confessing that by its cowardice, the American political system is complicit in the serial crimes committed every now and then from churches to schools to universities.
Interestingly, the course of the two perpetrators in Jonesboro is also interesting. They were tried as teenagers and released from prison at the age of 21, the older in 2005 and the younger in 2007.
The latter changed his name and started a family, but died in a car accident in 2019, at the age of 33. He had previously applied for a gun permit, which was denied by the state of Arkansas.
Mitchell Johnson, the eldest, was arrested in 2008 and charged with charges that carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Because, while he was convicted on drug charges, he was in possession of a gun.
Stelios Kouloglou
