Monday, 30th May, 2022

Page 2
The issue of controls on
gun ownership is being
debated in the United
States once again, after
a gunman opened fire
in a school in Uvalde, Texas, killing
19 children and two teachers.
US politicians, including
President Joe Biden, have been
making claims about gun rights.
Cruz: "It [restricting gun
rights] doesn't work, it's not
effective."
Following the shooting, Ted
Cruz, a Republican senator from
Texas who has opposed Democrat
gun control measures, made
this claim, without specifying
whether he was talking about
restricting rights in the US or in
other countries.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott,
who has also opposed gun control
measures, did specify, and pointed
to Chicago, Illinois.
Illinois has stricter gun laws
in 2004 and has declined since,
which analysts say is as a result
of better enforcement.
Switzerland and Finland have
some of the highest rates of gun
ownership in Europe, with strong
hunting cultures, but they both
have strict rules in place such
as gun registration. Both countries
have very few gun-related
homicides.
A look at 130 studies from over
10 countries found that restrictions
on guns tended to be followed
by a decline in gun deaths.
Biden: "The Second Amendment
isn't absolute. When it
was passed you couldn't own a
cannon."
President Biden made two
claims here about the Second
Amendment, which was passed
in 1791 to protect Americans'
right to bear arms and is often
cited by opponents of gun controls.
The amendment states: "A
well regulated militia, being
necessary to the security of a free
state, the right of the people to
keep and bear arms, shall not be
infringed."
President Biden's assertion
that the amendment is not "absolute"
is backed up by a ruling by
the US Supreme Court in 2008.
It stated: "It is not a right to
keep and carry any weapon whatthan
Texas but experiences a
higher rate of gun crime, especially
in the city of Chicago.
However, the majority of
guns recovered in Chicago come
from other states, often with
looser gun laws, such as neighbouring
Indiana and Mississippi.
A 2017 Chicago police department
report revealed that
almost 60% of the illegal guns
used in crimes in the city came
from outside the state.
Overall, states with stronger
gun laws have lower gun death
rates, according to research by
the Giffords Law Center, a gun
control advocacy group.
"State laws can be effective
but they are not completely -
each state can put restrictions in
place but it's very easy to drive
across state lines with illegal
products. You're not getting
checked at the border," says
David Pucino of Giffords.
DAILY ANALYST Monday, 30th May, 2022
In the US, each state can
make its own criminal laws. For
the same law to apply in every
state though, it has to be passed
at a federal level, and there has
been limited success passing gun
laws this way.
When it comes to international
comparisons, there are
several countries which have
experienced a reduction in gun
crime after nationwide restrictions
were introduced following
mass shootings.
In Australia following the
Port Arthur massacre in 1996,
significant gun controls were
introduced.
The National Firearms Agreement
prohibited almost all automatic
and semi-automatic rifles,
made gun registration compulsory,
and set up a gun "buyback
programme".
Following this, gun-related
death rates and gun-related mass
killings declined significantly.
In the UK, the list of banned
weapons was expanded following
the Hungerford mass shooting in
1987, and further gun restrictions
were introduced after the Dunblane
school shooting in 1996.
There has only been one
mass shooting in the UK following
Dunblane, and although
gun crime did rise in England
and Wales after 1996, it peaked
Global News
Texas shooting: US gun
control claims fact-checked
soever in any manner whatsoever
and for whatever purpose."
But he is wrong to say that
people were banned from owning
a cannon when the amendment
was passed.
"He's made this claim a number
of times and it's false, there
were no laws banning a cannon
when the Second Amendment
was ratified," says Josh Blackman,
a constitutional law expert
at the South Texas College of Law.
Abbott: "We as a state, we
as a society, need to do a better
job with mental health."
Greg Abbott, the Republican
Governor of Texas, said the
gunman who opened fire at the
school had "a mental health challenge"
and said the state needed
to do "better" on mental health.
But in April 2022, he diverted
more than $200m (£160m) of
funding away from the Health
and Human Services Commission,
which is in charge of the
state's mental health programmes.
The Texas Tribune reported
these funds went towards border
security efforts.
Texas ranks last among US
states for overall access to mental
health care, according to the 2022
State of Mental Health in America
report.
Captagon: Jordan's undeclared war
against Syria drug traffickers
A
man in his 20s with
cropped hair agitatedly
paces the corridor
of the drug rehabilitation
unit as he
grapples with the agonies of early
withdrawal.
In the TV room, a fashionably
dressed young woman in a later
stage of recovery wearily draws
on a cigarette then rests her head
in her hands.
Fighting from the decade-long
war in Syria may have
died down, but the country's
transformation into a narco-state
is sowing new seeds of misery
across this region.
The rooms at Al-Rashid Hospital
in Jordan's capital, Amman,
look like hotel accommodation,
but checking in here is an act of
desperation.
"It's a long process. The
patients stay for a minimum of
one month, sometimes three
months," says nurse Hadeel Bitar
as she shows me around.
They come from Jordan and
Gulf Arab states, where in recent
years the amphetamine Captagon
- cheaply manufactured in Syria
and Lebanon and also known as
"the poor man's cocaine" - has
become the drug of choice.
"The consequences of taking
it are very serious. They can
include violence and psychosis,"
says Dr Ali al-Qam, a consultant
psychiatrist and clinical director.
"It's very addictive as well.
People start with one tablet and
then increase by two or three,
then shift into a more serious
drug like crystal meth."
Huge industry
At the height of the conflict
in Syria, smugglers and militant
groups took advantage to supply
Captagon - which is often laced
with caffeine - to fighters, to
boost their courage and help
them stay alert on the frontlines.
With few legitimate work opportunities
and growing poverty,
many ordinary Syrians became
involved in the drugs trade.
Now, with the Syrian economy
shattered by a decade of war
and still stifled by international
sanctions, it has turned into a
multi-billion-dollar industry,
worth far more than any legal
exports.
Although there have been
public denials from Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad's
government, reports have linked
powerful figures in business and
the military to the manufacturing
and distribution of Captagon.
"The areas in which Captagon
production is most pronounced
are those controlled
by the Assad regime and close
familial relations of the regime,"
says Ian Larson, a Syria analyst
for the Center for Operational
Analysis and Research (COAR), a
Cyprus-based consultancy.
"Now, that remains a circumstantial
linkage, but it is an
indicative one."
A 2021 report, which
he authored, suggested a
"mind-numbing" scale of Captagon
production, with a market
value estimated at about $3.5bn
(£2.7bn; €3.2bn) for the previous
year, based on quantities that
were intercepted.
The pills regularly show up
in ports, airports and at crossing
points - often expertly hidden.
They have been found inside containers
of machinery and fruits
- even fake ones. The Jordanian
authorities have released footage
of them being removed from
animal carcasses.
Shoot-to-kill
Once it was wave upon wave
of Syrian refugees that spilt
across the border into Jordan.
Now, it is drugs.
Skirmishes between the Jordanian
military and drug traffickers
are becoming more frequent,
with larger hauls being made.
Since the start of 2022, the
army has intercepted more than
17,000 packets of hashish and 17
million pills of Captagon. Only
15.5 million Captagon pills were
picked up in all of 2021, while 1.4
million were seized in 2020.
Jordan is largely a transit
route to the drug's biggest market:
the Gulf states, particularly
Saudi Arabia.
"The most dangerous thing
we've noticed recently is the
presence of armed groups alongside
the smugglers," says Colonel
Zaid al-Dabbas of the Jordanian
army, who has taken me on a
tour
Ḣe estimates there are about
160 groups operating in southern
Syria. They have "new tactics, like
those of organised crime" and use
drones and expensive, customised
vehicles, he says.
The increase in illegal activity,
along with the killing of a
Jordanian soldier, has prompted
a change in the army's rules of
engagement: it now has a shootto-kill
policy.
On 27 January, the military
says, 27 traffickers were killed
when it foiled a co-ordinated
effort to cross into Jordan at
several points along the border.
Four others have been killed in
separate operations.
The army would like more
support for what another officer
describes as "an undeclared war"
on Jordan's borders.
"We're fighting on behalf of
other countries in the region and
the world at large," says Colonel
Mustafa al-Hiyari. "Drugs are
destroying our families, morals
and values."
The Jordanian army is facing an increasingly deadly