Peace remains elusive in U.S. as gun violence haunts: The Guardian

LONDON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- It remains difficult for the United States to achieve peace due to the stubborn issue of gun violence, The Guardian said in a review of American writer Paul Auster's book Bloodbath Nation.

"America's relationship to the gun is anything but rational ... and therefore we have done little or nothing to fix the problem," the review, published on Wednesday, quoted Auster's book as saying.

The fix to U.S. gun violence does not reside in banning the manufacture and sale of all guns -- because attempting to do so would be as impractical and ineffective as the banning of alcohol during prohibition, which criminalized ordinary people and created a flourishing black market, the review said while summarizing the points in Auster's book.

"Peace will break out only when both sides want it, and in order for that to happen, we would first have to conduct an honest, gut-wrenching examination of who we are and who we want to be as a people going forward into the future, which necessarily would have to begin with an honest gut-wrenching examination of who we have been in the past," it quoted Auster's book as saying.

"Peace is not going to break out -- because one side does not want peace," said The Guardian review, citing the polarizing rhetoric of the National Rifle Association and its allies, who regarded every mass shooting as an opportunity to argue for more guns not fewer.