UN urges US to introduce arms controls

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, of Jordan, addresses his statement during the opening of the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday. (AP)

GENEVA: The UN’s human rights chief on Tuesday called on the United States to bring in “robust gun regulation” in order to prevent the kind of mass killing seen in Orlando, Florida over the weekend.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein urged Washington to live up to its obligations to protect its citizens from the “horrifyingly commonplace but preventable violent attacks that are the direct result of insufficient gun control.”
Gunman Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded another 53 before he was killed when police stormed the Pulse, one of Orlando’s most prominent gay venues, early Sunday.
“It is hard to find a rational justification that explains the ease with which people can buy firearms, including assault rifles, in spite of prior criminal backgrounds, drug use, histories of domestic violence and mental illness, or direct contact with extremists, both domestic and foreign,” Zeid said in a statement.
“How many more mass killings of school-children, of co-workers, of African-American churchgoers... will it take before the United States adopts robust gun regulation?” he asked.
He refuted the kind of justification for easy access to arms propagated by the likes of the US National Rifle Association (NRA), whose members argue that the bad guys will always get hold of guns so the good guys should have them too.