On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot indiscriminately at Rob Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, USA, killing 19 children and 2 adults in the 21 people with 17 others seriously injured. The tragic and outrageous incident has once again sparked a heated debate over gun control across the United States.
On May 26, 2022, Attorney Vivien Wang attended the live talk show, the “Par of American-Chinese Lawyers”, providing her analysis of the hard question of gun control. As the only Chinese-American attorney in TN, Vivien well understands the significance of the gun right issue to the Chinese-American communities. In recent years, many Chinese-American businesses and families have been targeted and subject to gun violence – restaurants robbed, persons threatened and killed. On the other hand, there are also many Chinese-Americans advocating the Second Amendment Right as an inalienable constitutional right of U.S. citizens.
In this episode, Vivien explained the history of American gun culture that was originated in the early formation of the United States and analyzed the legal origins of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and also compared the different positions among the American people on gun control. After the lecture, many audience expressed their own views—some were very supportive but others were strongly averse to gun rights. Differing attitudes and emotions were both freely expressed on the live platform of the “Par of American-Chinese Lawyers”. Vivien Wang appreciated all the opinions generously shared by all.
In her concluding remarks, Vivien had a live communication with the audience, helping facilitate a further interlocution between people with different standpoints to explore some potential common ground on substantive social policies on gun control.