Why are there always shootings in the US?

The mass shooting in Las Vegas has prompted broad discussion, both in the United States and the rest of the world, on gun control. In the US the constitutional right to gun ownership has become the enabler of the indiscriminative killing of innocent people. Claims that "guns don't kill people, people do" only serve to draw attention to the fundamental issue, which is the deadly potentiality of people with guns.

Discussing the mass shootings in the US requires an understanding of several key factors. Behind the widespread gun ownership in the US is the Anglo-American militia tradition and an attachment to Lockean liberalism. Gun rights in the US are often justified as being a "defense against tyranny." According to this notion of the state of nature, freedom is thorough and comprehensive, but at the expense of order and security, which are compromised.

The disagreements over gun control and gun ownership, and whether the latter is a collective or individual right, indicate tremendous tensions between Lockean liberalism and Rousseauian republicanism.