In the United States, the safety of the general public and individuals is threatened by the huge number of privately owned firearms and widespread violent crime. According to the latest estimates by the US Department of Justice, Americans now own about 235 million guns, roughly one per person on average.

According to a Reuters report on April 22, 1999, the United States reported an average of 1 million gun-related murders annually. Since 1972, over 30,000 people have died in gun related homicides, accidents and suicides every year.

An AP report on April 16, 1998, citing a government study, showed that "the United States has by far the highest rate of gun deaths: murders, suicides, and accidents, among the world's 36 richest nations."

DPA, the German news agency, reported on May 10, 1999, that in 1995 there were 21,600 murders and accidental killings in2 the United States, including 15,551 shootings causing 35,673 deaths. Between 1985-95, the number of juvenile crimes tripled, while the number of gun-related murders by juveniles quadrupled. In 1997, there were 6,044 gun related murders involving young people between 15-24 years old.

Shooting rampages at high schools have frequently made headlines in the United States, with one out of every 10 schools witnessing at least one severe criminal incident every year. The number of cases of gun-related violence has been increasing. In 1997-98, 48 people were killed as a result of violence in schools. In April 1999, in the most notorious and tragic case in US history, two high school students with guns and home-made bombs slaughtered 13 teachers and students and injured another 25 at Columbine High School in Colorado.

According to official statistics, an average of 15 out of every 100,000 young Americans are shot dead annually. The accidental shooting death rate among American children under 15 years of age is 15 times higher than that of the total of the other 25 industrialized countries.

Police brutality is common in the United States and cases of judicial corruption are on the rise. According to a US newspaper, Workers World, on March 25, 1999, 65 incidents of police brutality were reported in Chicago between 1972-91, but none of the police officers involved were dealt with. In 1996, 3,000 people sued local police officers in this American city, but none of the accused were dismissed. In San Francisco, between 1990-95, 4.1 out of every 100 murders were caused by police shootings. And not a single police officer has been sued for shooting at random in the city, though there were 1,000-2,000 complaints against local police officers each year.

In the last five years, 756 former law enforcement officials have been convicted of corruption, brutal conduct and other crimes, setting a new record in this regard. By June 1999, there had been 655 inmates in federal prisons who were formerly law enforcement officials, compared with 107 inmates in 1994, an increase of five times, according to USA Today's report on July 29, 1999.

The United States, which calls itself the "land of the free," ranks first in the world in the proportion of prisoners among its population. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the US Department of Justice in 1999, the number of American adults in prison, on probation and on parole topped 5.92 million in 1998, accounting for 3 per cent of the total population. In all 1.82 million of them were incarcerated in state or federal prisons, more than double the figure of 744,000 reported at the end of 1985 and setting a new record.

Between 1985-98, the number of prisoners in the country increased by 7.3 per cent annually. Meanwhile, the imprisonment rate went up by more than 100 per cent as the number of prisoners out of every 100,000 Americans increased from 313 to 668.

This year, AFP reported on February 16 that by February 15 the number of American prisoners had topped 2 million, to account for one-fourth of the world's total, ranking the US first in the world.

In overcrowded American prisons, inmates are mistreated and violence is commonplace. Between 1990-97, the average jail term of American prisoners increased from 22 months to 27 months, while the rate of inmates to be released dropped to 31 per cent from 37 per cent every year; the number of paroled convicts sentenced again increased by 39 per cent; and the number of new inmates rose by 4 per cent, according to a report by Chicago Tribune on March 22, 1999. By December 31, 1998, state prisons reported they were housing 13-22 per cent more convicts than their facilities were designed to accommodate. That figure was 27 per cent in federal prisons and 100 per cent in 33 state prisons.

The New York Times reported in April of 1999, that in a prison in Nassau County in the state of New York, a shockingly large number of inmates had been brutally beaten and some died as a result of abuse. None of the prison guards involved were charged with criminal behaviour.

In 1999, there were over 36,000 elderly inmates, compared with around 9,500 in the early 1980s. Over 220,000 more inmates are expected to join the ranks of the aged within 10 years.

American prisons have used a large number of inmates as labourers to generate profits. These prisoner-workers are paid between US$0.23 and US$1.15 a day, though the minimum wage set by the US Government stands at US$5.15 per hour.

The Boston Globe reported on September 26, 1999, that prisoners in 94 federal prisons under the US Department of Justice were working for a company to manufacture electronic parts, furniture, clothing and other goods. In 1998, the company generated nearly US$540 million in sales.

Some American prisons have begun to charge prisoners for imprisonment. American companies that were looking for cheap labour abroad in the 1980s are now taking advantage of the 1.8 million prisoner-labourers at home. Two American firms have signed contracts with government departments on managing and charging nearly 100,000 inmates in over 100 jails. The two contractors would charge US$35 per prisoner per day for food and management and could earn US$12.78 million within the contract term, if the number of the prisoners would not decline, the US Insight Weekly reported in its May 4, 1999 edition.

The United States insists that there are no political prisoners in the country. But the April 29, 1999 issue of the US-based bi-monthly Workers' World reported that at least 150 political prisoners were jailed in the country. Many of them were incarcerated as a result of an FBI counter-intelligence operation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which targeted all those who took part in campaigns against oppression and Southeast Asian wars and supported the independence of Puerto Rico. Some 768 members of the Black Panther organization were arrested and jailed following the FBI operation.

The self-proclaimed freedom of the United States has always served the interests of a small number of wealthy people. In 1998, a book titled "The Buy of Congress: How Special Interests Have Stolen Your Right to Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness" was published in the United States, exposing how the US Congress has become a tool of special interest groups.

According to the book, between 1987-96, 500 large American companies donated at least US$182 million to congressmen and US$73 million to Democratic and Republican parties.

In the same period, "donations" from major US cigarette manufacturers to congressmen and the two parties exceeded US$30 million. Health and medical companies donated US$72 million to congressmen, while the US Congress helped large and medium-sized firms reduce the cost of medical insurance for their employees.

Although gun-related tragedies have become all too common in the United States, the National Rifle Association (NRA) spent US$1.5 million over a two-month period to lobby the congressmen who bowed to the NRA and vetoed a gun control bill which was strongly favored by the majority of the American people. The veto of the bill, coupled with other practices, has soured the American people on politics, and the voting rate for the 1998 mid-term election hit a record low of 36.1 per cent. Compared with 1994, voting rates in 36 states declined, with a 4.3 per cent drop for Republican voters and a 2.1 per cent fall for Democrats.

The United States claims that it has a free press. In fact, the American media has become a propaganda machine used by the authorities to manipulate public opinion.

According to a statistical and analytical study of CNN's reports on Kosovo, among all the CNN stories on the Kosovo crisis, 68.3 per cent were one-sided with the sources of information tightly in the hands of the US officials, while 50 per cent of the reports were based on sources from the US Government, 26.5 per cent from NATO and the Kosovo Liberation Army, and 14.7 per cent from Albanian refugees in Kosovo.

A recent nationwide survey in the United States indicated that only 2 per cent of Americans believe what journalists report, just 5 per cent trust the accuracy of local TV news programmes, and 1 per cent trust radio show hosts.