EVEN the most fierce gun advocate could not now deny that the United States has an extremely difficult job of dealing with the issue of easy access to assault weapons.

The almost fanatical fervour with which they defend their right to bear arms appears to be having a catalytic effect on the minds of the people responsible for numerous mass shootings in America.

The website shootingtracker.com, which keeps a running tally of gun violence in the United States, has reported that so far this year more than 350 shootings have occurred in which four or more people were killed or wounded.

The latest carnage occurred on Wednesday when a man and woman, armed with assault-style rifles, decided to attack a holiday party of the man’s co-workers at the Inland Regional Center, which serves 30,000 clients with disabilities, in Southern California.

When the smoke cleared, 14 people lay dead and 17 others were wounded.

Hours later, the suspected killers — Mr Syed Rizwan Farook, and Ms Tashfeen Malik, who were said to be in a relationship — were shot dead in a shootout with police.

The attack, the San Bernardino Police have said, required some degree of planning, even as they were, up to early yesterday, still uncertain as to the motive.

American media are reporting that Wednesday’s massacre was the second mass shooting in a week, as last Friday three people, including a policeman, were shot dead by a gunman at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood facility in a siege that lasted for hours.

The California shootings were also said to be the deadliest US gun violence since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, in which 27 people, including the gunman, were killed.

We recall that in June this year, a 21-year-old man, Dylann Roof, obviously filled to overflowing with hate for blacks, walked into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, sat with worshippers for approximately an hour before opening fire, killing nine black people.

On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama was again at pains to point out the grave danger of easy access to assault weapons.

“There are some steps that we could take — not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings — but to improve the odds that they don’t happen as frequently,” Mr Obama said in an interview with CBS News.

“The one thing we do know,” he emphasised, “is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.”

President Obama is, of course, correct, and his push for stricter firearms laws is given more relevance by these atrocities being committed against the American people.

Since he has been in office, President Obama has taken at least 23 executive actions to limit public access to some firearms under certain conditions.

Unfortunately, all those actions have been defeated in the Republican-dominated Congress.

The American people, we believe, have a vested interest in supporting President Obama on this extremely important issue. They should not allow the cold-hearted minority in their country to continue having their way. Decent, law-abiding Americans, and visitors to that country, should not have to be looking over their shoulders whenever they go out. That’s no way to live.