A state-run Chinese news outlet recently expressed concern over the number of Americans who own firearms.
The Global Times, which according to Quartz is viewed widely as the “voice” of Beijing, slammed U.S. gun ownership in a scathing opinion piece published on Sunday.
According to the Global Times, “No official statistics are on record counting how many guns there are among the US people, but the number is generally estimated to be hundreds of millions.”
30 percent of Americans say they own firearms, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2017.
“Whether defined as a human rights issue or a public safety issue, mass shootings are shocking in a US allegedly governed by law,” the Global Times editorial team wrote.
The U.S. is beset with gun “crises,” and the “the spread of guns” in the country has enabled “crime to unleash greater killing energy,” the Global Times averred.
“American society has already seen serious problems caused by the private ownership of guns, but their massive number has contributed to an enormous inertia. Many interest groups have benefited from it and some ordinary people have truly gained a sense of safety. To change this habit which has lasted hundreds of years, tremendous political courage and a rearrangement of interests is required,” the Global Times editorial team wrote.
The Communist Party of China-sponsored tabloid painted the U.S. as a lawless society with no answers for citizens seeking redress from a gun violence epidemic.
“Everyone must accept the risk that a shooting may occur at any time anywhere,” the Global Times editorial team wrote.
The Global Times accused the U.S. of engendering an environment where “modern and barbarous” forces interweave in a “weird way.”
The communist news outlet’s attack on the Second Amendment came just one day after an armed parishioner stopped a potential mass shooting at a Texas church.
A live video caught the terrifying moment when the gunman stood next to the pews wearing a dark hood and started firing a long gun before members of the church’s volunteer security team shot him at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement.
Britt Farmer, the senior minister at West Freeway Church of Christ, on Sunday told reporters he was grateful “our government has allowed us the opportunity to protect ourselves.”
Meanwhile, Hong Kong residents protesting the Chinese government have expressed admiration for the U.S. Constitution, flying American flags and holding up signs that read, “We need the 2nd Amendment.”
*story by Pluralist