Editor's note: Wang Xinyan is an opinion editor with CGTN Digital. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

You never know what's going to happen the moment you leave the house, there's a chance you'll never come back. This lament comes not from a war-torn country, but from the world's No. 1 power, the United States. 

On Saturday, the China Society for Human Rights Studies published an article exposing the long-lasting problem of gun violence in the United States. According to the article, there were 57,103 gun related incidents in the United States in 2018, resulting in 14,717 deaths and 28,172 injuries, including 3,502 deaths and injuries of minors.

In recent years, in the face of the increasingly serious gun-related violence, the voice of gun control has grown louder. However, the issue of gun control in the United States is a difficult problem involving social, economic and political aspects. 

As a nation obsessed with individual freedoms, the gun culture in the United States is deeply rooted. As a basic right of citizens, gun ownership has been written into the constitution (Second Amendment) since the founding of the United States. To some extent, it met the actual needs of Americans at that time. It also has convinced Americans that the right to bear arms is a vital right and a totem used to maintain social order. 

But they ignore that the crime rate of social violence depends on many factors, such as politics, race, religion, economy and culture. In the complex reality that it is difficult to clearly identify the factors that undermine social security, the most lax gun control laws in the world have become a convenient tool and important culprit for American shooters to kill innocent people.

At the same time, gun production and sales in the United States have grown into a huge industry, with more than 100,000 officially registered gun outlets alone. According to the latest figures from IBIS World, a market-research firm, America's gun-makers make 13.5 billion U.S. dollars a year. And despite the frequency of shootings, gun sales are on the rise. The widespread circulation of firearms naturally benefited merchants. Also, according to IBIS World, gun and ammunition stores trade 3.1 billion U.S. dollars a year and make 478.4 million U.S. dollars in real profits.

Besides, political groups also take advantage of this, stubbornly resisting the government's measures on gun control, and even kidnapping and manipulating congress to make relevant legislation difficult to pass. In recent decades, the political polarization in the United States has been serious and the confrontation between the two parties has intensified. Core voter groups in both parties are sharply divided on the issue.

Those pros and cons on gun control have been arguing for many years, but they are still spinning in place. They are helpless in the complete eradication of gun violence, and people's hopes of banning guns have failed. Even former U.S. President Barack Obama, who vigorously promoted gun control during his two terms in office, said his biggest policy disappointment as president was not passing gun control laws, in a TV interview with CNN.

The issue of the violation of the right to life in the shooting is a microcosm of the human rights issue in the United States. Because of fundamental institutional reasons, the gun issue in the United States has no prospect of solution. America's dilemma over gun control reflects the plight of its supposedly liberal democracy.

The American political system cannot solve the contradiction between individual freedom and public security and maintain the balance between them. On that day, when the freedom of personal gun is excessively tilted, causing a large number of casualties and threatening public safety, the U.S. government was unable to correct the situation and allowed it to get worse.

Just as the article mentioned above said "American democracy" cannot find a solution to the gun problem, because democracy in America is based on elections, and elections are based on money. Gun interest groups use money donations to gain political influence and prevent the government from controlling guns. At the same time, candidates often pander to gun-rights voters to win their votes.

Without changing the constitution of the United States, without changing the system of universal private gun ownership, without balancing the interests of different interest groups, the problem of gun violence and shooting casualties in the United States will not be fundamentally solved.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)