TEHRAN- The latest mass shooting in the U.S. reflects the same culture of violence and terror Washington spreads around the world.

Ten people have been killed and at least 10 others injured in the attack which happened in the city of Monterey Park, California. Police entered a white van after hearing a gunshot and found a body inside, which officials later identified as the suspect.

This is by far the deadliest mass shooting in America since 19 young children and two teachers were murdered at a primary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year in May. However, it is nowhere near the only mass shooting the country has witnessed so early in 2023.

According to the Washington-based Gun Violence Archive, one of the most prominent monitoring groups for shooting incidents in the United States, the latest attack on American civilians is the 33rd mass shooting on U.S. soil already this year.

It adds to the record rising number of gun violence that have made the headlines over the past few years. Reports say a day in the United States where a mass shooting attack occurs is now more likely than a day without one.

The U.S. is the only country in the world where there are more firearms in the hands of the public than the number of citizens.

Over the years many of the mass shootings have occurred with the attackers using military style rifles.

This isn’t the sole reason for the rise in mass shootings incidents, but it does reflect the culture of U.S. military adventurism and violence abroad. The results of which are being closely viewed back home, with Hollywood playing a major role with its vast war movies, which include Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Advocates of tighter gun control regulations say this is having a destructive role on teenagers and younger adults. Perhaps not surprisingly, there has been a rise in shooting attacks among these younger age levels.

U.S. police say they believe the gunman in the latest mass shooting used a semi-automatic weapon to murder and maim, adding that the rifle was likely to have been obtained illegally.

The United States was built on a culture of violence, fear and terror that began from its founding until this day. These tragic features are found today both inside the country and within its militaristic foreign policy.

But there are other factors at play as well.

Powerful gun lobby groups are transferring a lot of money from their bank accounts to the pockets of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress.

These lobby groups overwhelmingly support laws that would keep weapons in the hands of the American public.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the most powerful lobby group in the divisive issue of U.S. gun control. It plays the biggest role in Congress and is preventing any real legislation from being passed in Congress that can control the deadly shooting epidemic.

Despite the record number of shootings, these lobby groups or politicians are not being held accountable for their role in the gun-related violence.

This is a clear indication of just how insecure U.S. citizens feel in their own country amid a police force that discriminates between black and white Americans.

The mass shooting has prompted another round of loud calls for tighter gun control laws, particularly over automatic and semi-automatic weapons, which are designed to kill, but these calls like the many before them, will fall on deaf ears.

The amount of weapons Washington sells internationally, under the pretext of bringing peace, has led to instability and chaos in different parts of the world. Add to that the many wars the U.S. has waged or instigated.

It is a matter of major debate that consecutive U.S. administrations have failed to protect or bring peace to their own citizens back home. 

Last year, gun violence surged in many communities across America, as overall death rates from firearms rose to their highest level not seen in almost three decades. The year 2022 saw a near-record number of mass casualty shooting incidents, including several that had been motivated by hate speech online and by politicians.

The U.S. experienced more than 600 mass shootings in 2022. That is nearly double the number recorded four years ago when there were 336, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Mass shootings are widely defined as an attack in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.

While mass shootings grab news headlines, they account for a small percentage of the more than 40,000 U.S. gun deaths recorded in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The changing legal landscape for firearms comes as gun ownership continues to expand in the United States.

In 2020, American gun makers produced more than 11 million firearms. That is nearly three times the number that was manufactured in 2000, according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

This is while a survey by the non-partisan Small Arms Survey estimated the U.S. had about 400 million firearms in 2018, which spelled the beginning of the grim statistic of more guns in America than the country’s population.

As the number of firearms grows, the U.S. remains paralyzed by the highest rate of gun deaths among all the advanced and industrialized nations.

More American children and teenagers have been killed or injured by gunfire in 2022 than in any year since records began

Guns are the number one cause of death for children in America, surpassing roadside vehicle deaths.

To be precise there were 641 mass shootings in 2022 with 1,637 children and teenagers shot dead in the same year.

Here are just three of the mass killings that made the international and mainstream U.S. media headlines last year.

A supermarket in Buffalo with a racist motive on 14 May killed ten people.

10 KILLED

A school in Uvalde on 24 May

21 KILLED, including 19 kids and 2 teachers.

A parade in Highland Park on 4 July

7 KILLED

Apart from these three horror and terrorist attacks, there were so many more that the public did not even hear about.

In just two weeks alone, an unprecedented number of over two thousand shootings took place across the country with 863 people killed and 1,736 others injured.

In essence, there are just a fraction of America's shootings that now make the headlines. The fact of the matter is that, such is the vast extent that gun violence is now flooding the country, many of the mass shootings do not receive the media attention anymore that they really deserve (with the possible exception of local media).

Shooting attacks is an American reality which now so often feels tragically normal for the U.S. establishment. 

The other reality is that these attacks are terrorist attacks, especially considering more mass shootings have a racist motive behind them and aim to terrorize an entire community.

Yet, U.S. authorities are not labelling them as such in an attempt to portray the country as a safe and secure place for people to live and invest. Experts say the opposite is the truth.