Interview: Gun violence in U.S. apparent outcome of social, psychological collapse, says expert

ISTANBUL, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Growing gun violence and personal armament in the United States is an apparent outcome of a "terrible social and psychological collapse," a prominent expert on security in Turkey has said.

America's liberal economy left citizens vulnerable to a series of soaring social problems, Ismail Hakki Pekin, a retired lieutenant general who also headed the Turkish General Staff's intelligence unit during a period of his career, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"It seems like there is a very bright life in the U.S. as there are some promises on that, such as providing excellent job opportunities for everyone," Pekin noted.

However, Pekin said that this American idealism is not as true as it has been told, and Americans from a very young age struggle against various problems, including growing racism.

"In other words, although the social conditions in the country look very good from the outside, there are a large number of homeless people, many do not have access to education, and approximately 10 million people are on the edge of starvation," he said.

In his view, many Americans, especially children are in "a terrible psychological state." He said that many children are filled with hatred and grow up with a desire for revenge.

"And a point of explosion arrives eventually, and these kinds of things (gun attacks) happen," he said.

Highlighting an urgent need for a reorganization of the social order and the liberal economy, Pekin pointed out that there is a huge requirement for people to be taken care of and protected by the state.

In Pekin's view, the recent Texas school mass shooting, which killed 19 children and two teachers, revealed that both the U.S. government and the U.S. two-party system have not been capable of preventing the growing number of armed attacks for the last two decades.

His view echoed an commentary published recently by U.S. news website The Intercept. The opinion piece revealed an American aberration that the country "passively tolerate high levels of violence while actively suppressing evidence of the slaughter." It noted the scale of American violence is awe-inspiring in all the wrong ways.

The expert believed that gun lobbies, including individual weapon companies and defense industry companies, are very active and strong in the U.S. electoral system, donating large amounts of money to the parties in their election campaigns.

For him, the pressure of the gun industry makes the personal armament issue unsolved.

He also said that gun ownership in the United States reached a level that has never been seen anywhere else and can ignite some more dramatic incidents in the future.