President
Trump insists the executive order he put in place to ban Muslims from entering
the US is not aimed at religion or race, but at terrorism and the bid to reduce
it.
It seems strange a man who took away background
checks from people obtaining guns, wants to reduce the threat of terrorism by banning
a certain religion when according to a report by Snopes.com in 2016, more
Americans were killed by being shot by another American, including toddlers
than terrorists themselves.
So, is the ban actually making a difference in the
US, or is Trump just taking his presidency powers a little too far and not introducing
the necessary steps to make America safe?
In 2015, Trump said he wanted a "total and complete
shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” but the ban, which has now been
temporarily blocked by a US federal judge, targets Muslim majority countries.
These include: Iran, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Libya. But in an
interview with ABC News, Press Secretary Sean Spicer justified it as he listed
some attacks on American soil, yet none of the acts were committed by immigrants
from the countries listed.
One of the most recent attacks was the Orlando
Nightclub shooting. The gunman who pledged allegiance to so-called ISIS killed
50 people. Omar Mateen, 29, was a US citizen of Afghan heritage, not from any
of the countries listed. Why did the US House of Representatives feel the need
to ease background checks on those wanting to obtain guns, including those with
mental health issues? Mateen reportedly has mental health issues. He was
questioned by the FBI in 2013 and 2014 but was later found to be of no threat
to the public. Clearly, this was not the case.
In an interview with the BBC, former President Obama said one of his
biggest disappointments as President was not being able to do enough with gun
control and that it was “distressing” how little progress had been made,
despite many “repeated mass killings”.
Trump clearly has concerns with Muslims, and when six people were killed
when gunmen opened fire at a mosque in Quebec, the Canadian PM said it was a
“terrorist attack on Muslims”. Shockingly, President Trump didn’t mention a
word of it in a speech, nor on social media.
Just as terrorism and keeping out Muslims was a key
part of his campaign, so too was the wall. He insists Mexico will reimburse them,
yet Mexico refusing to is hardly surprising considering the total cost will reportedly
be around $20 billion. For that price, America could spend it on 1,500 schools,
send more than 300.000 veterans to college and essentially do more for
education. Their relationship with Mexico is already like stepping on
egg-shells now that he is president, to force them to pay for a wall would destroy
them. Experts even say America spends more than $6 billion on border control every
year and this doesn’t include the wall.
It seems that Trump and his team are more
interested in ideas for publicity rather than thinking logically what will
actually work. Over time, America will become less safe unless more is done
about gun control. Trump may be dealing with immigration but statistics show,
that’s not what he should be worried about.
This article is not set out to hurt anyone or any company. It is also not intended to be defamatory. All opinions expressed are my own where stated. Below are the sources I used in order to retrieve this information. Thank you.
Sources:
ABC News Interviews found on
YouTube
Snopes.com
– Report/statistics on gun control
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-33646704
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/quora/why-is-trumps-wall-idea-s_b_10714872.html
News
in general being covered in the newspapers, online and on TV
