By Danford Mpumilwa
📧 mpumilwa@gmail.com
The year was 1981; the precise date being 3rd May, exactly 44 years ago. My friend Ruta and I were having our usual after-work drink at the then popular downtown joint in Dar es Salaam, the Bank Club, when his office messenger walked in.
He was from the Treasury, where Ruta also worked as a Senior Economist. He had a note for Ruta who, on reading it, lit up with delight.
The note was informing him that he had successfully secured a scholarship for a Master’s degree, and, if his scholarly success allowed, a PhD as well, at one of the universities in Atlanta, Georgia, in the US. He was to prepare to leave in two weeks’ time.
I knew Ruta well. He was one year ahead of me at the University of Dar es Salaam. A brilliant economist, he was easily recruited by the Treasury, while I was by then a scribe with the government-owned papers.
He was delighted that he would now realise his scholarly mission. I was also delighted for him—but also for myself. Because now I would easily and regularly get my ‘vidudus’, as we used to call those nice clothes from the US and Europe.
On the day of departure, Ruta even requested me to rush him to the airport on my dilapidated hire-purchase Yamaha Enduro 125cc bike—out of friendship.
But both our dreams would, six months later, evaporate into the air, after Ruta was one evening gunned down in downtown Atlanta.
And I remembered this vividly a few months later when a young man of 22 gunned down some people who were parading to celebrate American Independence Day on 4th July in Illinois.
Now, the Americans are deeply divided between those in favour of stricter gun laws and those who oppose gun control.
But, seriously looking at the problem, one realises that firearm deaths are a fixture in American life. Between 1968 and 2017, for example, millions of Americans died from gun violence. The figure is higher than the total number of soldiers killed in all the US conflicts since the American War of Independence in 1775.
In 2020 alone, more than 45,000 Americans died at the end of a barrel of a gun. It is serious. A Swiss arms survey firm estimated that there were 390 million privately held guns in circulation worldwide in 2018.
And the US was leading—with 120.5 guns per 100 residents—followed by Yemen (52.8), and Serbia and Montenegro (39.1 each per 100 people).
Also, between January 2019 and April 2021, a department of internal medicine reported that 7.5 million Americans became new gun owners.
When it comes to mass shootings, again the Americans take the lead. The FBI states that between 2000 and 2020 there were 345 active shooter incidents resulting in 1,024 deaths and 1,828 wounded. The deadliest being the Las Vegas shooting in 2017 where 50 people were killed and 500 wounded.
It also happens that the US has the highest firearm ownership rate and the highest firearm death rate among the 27 high-income countries. Its firearm homicide rate is nearly 25 times higher than that of other high-income nations. In 2022 alone, 48,204 people were killed by guns in the US.
That said, I have safely travelled to the US more than ten times over the last three decades or so. All I can say is: Americans are a great people living in a great land. So surely—and hopefully—one day they will be able to tackle this grave problem.
