Feature: Texans divide along political lines on gun control

Debates among Americans over gun control and solutions to curb gun-related violence have deepened further in the aftermath of recent shooting incidents in the U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana.

Those divisions, a reflection of the political fault line between conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats, are evident in Texas, home to a rising number of mass shooting incidents and where death by guns is almost a daily occurrence.

Texas conservative Republicans argue that aside from the right to bear arms guaranteed by U.S. law, guns help protect and safeguard families.

Robert Chase, a pipefitter supervisor in Cleveland, said that he believes gun ownership, even of military-style guns with multiple-round magazines, is necessary for the average citizens to combat a growing number of criminals and possible terrorists armed with assault weapons.

"If I only have a single-shot pistol and the bad guys have the assault rifles, I am leaving myself and my family in jeopardy," Chase, 58, told Xinhua.

"The answer is to enforce the laws, allow law-abiding citizens the right to rapid-fire guns for their safety, and deport the criminals, including any criminal caught with an illegal weapon."

Chase said that shootings would be reduced if the federal government allowed the enforcement of current laws instead of being afraid of a "politically incorrect" label through profiling likely gun-wielding criminals because they belonged to particular ethnic or religious groups.

Houston Police Sgt. J. Nessenthaler, a conservative in his 60s, told Xinhua that he agrees with left-of-center advocates for more extensive background checks.

Currently, he said, such checks don't flag people with psychological issues because American law does not require gun buyers to disclose their medical information.

"This, I believe, needs to be changed," Nessenthaler said.

Both the nightclub shooter in Orlando, Florida and the shooter in California were on the FBI watch list due to their radical Islamic beliefs, but they were still able to obtain weapons they used later in mass shootings.

"Any individual who has psychological problems, or belongs to radicalized organizations that state they want to do harm to the citizens of this country should be banned from purchasing a firearm and banned from this country," he said.

On the issue of restricting guns now legal for purchase, however, Nessenthaler reflects the conservative objection that such a ban would go against the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

"(President Barrack) Obama and his liberal cronies just want to step all over our Constitutional rights to bear arms," he said.

During Obama's two terms, there have been more mass shootings across the country than during the tenure of any other president.

After each incident, the issue of gun control has risen as an issue and, ironically, has driven record numbers of fearful Americans to gun stores to purchase weapons.

"In his eight years in office, Obama increased gun ownership in this country more than any other president before him," Nessenthaler said.

The United States currently has about 300 million firearms in circulation among a total population of 319 million.

Nessenthaler's recipe for gun safety includes adding all medical and arrest records, and all FBI information, to the databanks checked by gun sellers.

"Ban all foreigners who are not citizens of this country from gun ownership, especially radicalized individuals," he said. "Hold parents responsible for their kids' murderous acts. Especially if they buy them a firearm knowing that they are disturbed and are suffering from psychological problems."

A progressive Democrat, Susan Stiteler, a former Houston art teacher, told Xinhua of her outrage that the right-wing media and political focus of the Orlando shooting seemed to center around the American-born shooter's questionable religious zealotry rather than his access to a military-style weapon.

People who trade in terror are already in the United States, Stiteler said, and they are Americans.

"No civilian has a right to, or needs such firepower. Gun owners' Second Amendment rights end when the public safety is in complete jeopardy," Stiteler said.

She has no objection to legally purchasing a handgun for home safety or hunting rifle after requisite background checks show no record of assault or attempted crime with a deadly weapon.

Stiteler cited Australia's buy-back program, ban of assault rifles and tightening of gun regulations following a 1996 mass shooting, actions that led to a drop in gun-related deaths by 50 percent and a reduction of mass shootings to zero.

"Gun control works," she said. "Australia's citizens do not own weapons that can kill 50 people in a matter of minutes. But America's citizens do."

Stiteler blames efforts of the National Rifle Association (NRA) to lobby members of the U.S. Congress. She even posted on her Facebook page the names of the 40 senators who voted against gun-control legislation defeated in the week following the Orlando killings.

She also posted the amount the NRA lobby had contributed to each of those senators, amounts ranging from 2,500 to 7.74 million U.S. dollars.

Included were Texas's Senator and former U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz, with 75,450 U.S. dollars and Senator John Cornyn with 57,135 U.S. dollars in NRA contributions. Both voted against expansion of criminal background checks for people who wished to purchase a gun.

"Until we end the NRA's death-grip on our greedy Congress, nothing will happen, except 'thoughts and prayers' and a moment of silence on the Senate floor (after the latest victims are) mowed down," Stiteler said.

Kenda Daniel, a progressive Houston real estate broker in her late 20s or early 30s, said that there are several reasons for the uptick in mass shootings in the United States.

"I believe the evidence of recent mass shootings point to shooters suffering from some form of mental illness," Daniel told Xinhua.

"Additionally, there are no meaningful restrictions on the purchase of guns or ammunition that would prevent these individuals or those with a proclivity for violence, terrorism ties, or even previous criminals from acquiring such items."

Removing social stigmas associated with mental health and providing better treatment for the mentally unstable will help solve the problem, she said, but more near-term goals include enhanced and increased gun license restrictions, required background checks prior to purchase large quantities of ammunition and a ban on sales and manufacture of semi-automatic, automatic and large-magazine weapons.

"I even favor limits on the number of guns that an individual should be able to own," Daniel said. "We have a Second Amendment right to bear arms, (but) we have, as a society, abused that right, taken it to an extreme."

Daniel said that it is nonsense to claim a right to purchase types of weaponry used by the military, weapons that enable individuals to commit horrible acts of violence America has become accustomed to seeing on a regular basis.

"I think we are capable of correction and change," Daniel said. "It will take courage and sacrifice by our politicians. It will require standing up to the gun lobby and extremists. It will take time and patience. But, something has to break through of any correction or change is to ever occur."

A study published earlier this year by the National Center for Biotechnology Information showed an average of 90 people died daily through gun violence in the United States.

The study spanning 1966-2012 also found that the nation had more public mass shootings -- defined by four or more victims not including gang or family members -- than the rest of the world, which had a combined total of 292 such attacks during the period.

From 2011 to 2014, according to an analysis by the Harvard School of Public Health and Northeastern University, multiple shootings tripled, occurring every 64 days on average, an increase from 200 days on average during the previous quarter century in the United States.

Despite the debate and division on gun control and gun safety among the Americans, a new law came into effect on Monday in the Lone Star state that allows students to carry concealed guns on campuses.

Texas now becomes one of the eight U.S. states that allows students to carry guns into college buildings.

The law went into effect on the same day marking the 50th anniversary of the 1966 mass shooting when a sniper climbed to the observation deck of a 307-foot clock tower in the University of Texas at Austin and shot dead 16 people, wounding 31 others before being killed by police. Endit