U.S. gun violence spills over: 2023 human rights report

(ECNS) -- The human rights situation in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2023. U.S. gun violence has spilled over, while the government's control policies are ineffective, according to the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2023 released by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China.

Gun violence in the U.S. takes a terrible toll on human lives, and vicious political party infighting leads to difficulties in achieving consensus on gun control, the report said.

The U.S. government has abused its power to monitor citizens' privacy, police violence has intensified, and the system of police accountability for law enforcement is in vain. Political polarization continues to intensify, election manipulation is rampant, and the credibility of the government continues to decline, it noted.

Data shows that all types of gun violence are on the rise in the U.S. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were at least 654 mass shootings in the country in 2023. Gun violence is responsible for nearly 43,000 deaths, an average of 117 per day.

The proliferation of guns in the U.S. has led to the intensification of gun smuggling in neighboring countries, which has brought great harm to the lives of local people and regional stability, the report stressed.

Mexican government figures show that more than half a million guns are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. each year. More than 70 percent of guns seized at violent crime scenes in Mexico between 2014 and 2018 came from the U.S.

According to a 2022 report by InSight Crime, the flow of illegal guns from the U.S. into the Caribbean has led to a rising murder rate in the region.

According to a survey report released on the website of the Pew Research Center on June 28, 2023, gun violence is widely recognized as a major and growing national problem, with 58 percent of respondents in favor of stricter gun control laws and more than 60 percent of American adults believing that gun violence is a major national problem in the U.S. today.

However, American politicians ignore the international community and the public call for gun control, only for money and political self-interest, so that the proliferation of guns in the country cannot be effectively controlled.