Mass shootings and gun violence are an epidemic in the United States like nowhere else. Gun homicides claim an average of 13,000 lives each year, and that doesn’t even count accidents or suicide, which would raise the number to a horrific 33,000 gun deaths in America every year. The rate of gun violence in America far surpasses other developed countries. And mass shootings have made their home in America; enough massacres are occurring to have nearly one for every day of the year. As one of the most powerful countries in the world, the United States should be a leader in education, economics, and world relations--not mass shootings.
How the U.S. stacks up
While gun violence is an issue in other countries in the world as well as the United States, America still proves to be an anomaly among its developed and high-income country counterparts. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun homicide rate in America is 25 times the average of other high-income countries. So not only are Americans more likely to die from gun violence than similar high-income countries, but out of all the gun homicides in these similar countries, 82% of those killed by guns are Americans.
Not to mention, mass shootings are now a staple of American culture. This is where the United States is a true outlier among other countries. Because while El Salvador and Venezuela have higher rates of gun violence and gun homicides, the United States is far ahead of any other country, regardless of size or income, in the phenomenon of mass shootings.
According to CNN, “There are more public mass shootings in America than in any other country in the world.” That include the more than 1,600 mass shootings in this country since Sandy Hook just six years ago. A mass shooting is defined by the Congressional Research Service as a shooting in which a gunman: kills four or more people; selects victims randomly (ruling out gang killings or the killing of multiple family members); and attacks in a public place.
The sheer amount of civilian-owned guns that exist in the United States is astonishing. 42% of the civilian-owned guns on the planet are owned by less than 5% of the nation. With at least 270 million civilian-owned guns in America, that’s nearly one gun for every person. And some studies say it could be even more--more civilian-owned guns in America than there are civilians.
And this is not normal. When compared to the next highest civilian gun-owning country, India comes in at an estimated 46 million guns. India’s population is nearly four times that of the United States, yet the country has one-sixth as many guns in the hands of civilians.
Statistically, fewer guns correlate with fewer gun-related deaths. “Within the United States, a wide array of empirical evidence indicates that more guns in a community leads to more homicide,” David Hemenway, the Harvard Injury Control Research Center’s director says. According to Mother Jones, “People with access to more guns tend to kill more people—with guns.” As seen by the chart on the right, states with higher rates of gun ownership also have higher rates of murder. Similarly, states with more gun safety laws and regulation see fewer gun-related deaths.
High-gun states also pose a threat to law enforcement for the same reasons; states with higher rates of gun ownership also have more police officers being killed in the line of duty. According to Vox, “For US police officers, the higher rates of guns and gun violence — even against them — in America mean that they not only will encounter more guns and violence, but they can expect to encounter more guns and deadly violence, making them more likely to anticipate and perceive a threat and use deadly force as a result.”
It’s true that mass shootings occur in the U.S. at a disturbingly high rate for a country so developed and with such high income rates. However, mass shootings do account for a small portion of lives lost from gun violence. The majority of gun deaths are actually suicides--more than two-thirds. And 85% of those suicide victims are male. One-third of gun deaths are homicides, and more than 50% of these deaths are also young men.
While these lives are not discussed as much as mass shootings or police brutality, they account for the majority of gun deaths and gun violence in the United States. All of these tragedies have one thing in common: guns. And that factor needs to be considered in how we approach solving this problem.
How other countries compare
While each country is different and unique with its own distinctive culture, values, language, and government, the United States can still learn and take notes from other developed countries and how they implement gun laws and gun reform.
Australia experienced a spike in violence during the 1980s and 1990s, which reached a climax with its 1996 mass shooting that killed 35 people. Immediately, the prime minister jumped at the prospect of gun reform and control. The result was a multi-million dollar gun buyback program that purchased and destroyed more than 600,000 firearms including automatic and semiautomatic weapons as well as pump-action shotguns. The impact from this program was immediately apparent. Suicide and homicide rates in Australia plummeted. And there has not been a mass shooting in the country since.
With a population of 127 million people, Japan averages just 10 gun-related deaths each year. In order to obtain a firearm in Japan, applicants are put through several different tests. They must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, and then score at least 95% accuracy on a shooting range assessment. This process is then followed up by a mental health evaluation, and an extensive background check that involves interviewing friends and family members. And, even after all of this, citizens may only purchase shotguns and air rifles.
Similarly, countries like Norway have low rates of gun violence as well. According to The Independent, “...an analysis in 2015 found that the number of fatal shootings by police in Norway in the past nine years was less than the number of fatal shootings by US police officers in one day.”
The U.K. and Britain also took strides toward gun control after Australia's successful buyback program. Parliament made it illegal for private ownership of handguns in Britain and banned semi-automatic and pump-action firearms across the UK. The government also staged a buyback program. All in all, these regulations lowered annual gun-related homicides in England and Wales to just 50-60 deaths. Meanwhile, the United States suffers 260 times this many firearm murders every year.
“They’re going to take our guns!”
In the United States, gun-toting citizens tend to cling onto their second amendment rights with full force for fear of their right to bear arms to be stripped from them come the next election or mass shooting. And as gun violence and gun reform continues to permeate the lives of American people, it’s safe to wonder what this all means for the second amendment.
Ultimately, gun reform is not about eradicating guns or abolishing the second amendment. It’s about assessing the gun violence and mass shooting epidemic in America and coming to terms with the fact that guns are a consistent factor in firearm deaths, and lives can be saved by regulating said firearms.
Mass shootings and gun violence in the United States could be attributed to a variety of factors from America’s glorification of violence in media, to a lack of funding for healthcare including mental health services, or even the anger that grows in men who are conditioned by a society that does not value or allow them to express emotions in a healthy way.
When it comes to the mental health argument as gun violence prevention, it simply does not hold up. While mental health is an important topic to discuss, it only crops up after mass shootings as an effort to keep lawmakers and the general public from discussing the merits of the second amendment. According to an article from the New York Times:
“If mental health made the difference, then data would show that Americans have more mental health problems than do people in other countries with fewer mass shootings. But the mental health care spending rate in the United States, the number of mental health professionals per capita and the rate of severe mental disorders are all in line with those of other wealthy countries.”
Not only is this mental health argument inaccurate and diverts the conversation away from firearms, it also demonizes those that do have mental illnesses, and only makes it more difficult to talk about mental health in a stigma-free way.
While a fear of a gun-free America can lead people to ramp up on the mental health conversation, it’s important to also look at other conversations around guns and think about how civilians use guns in their own private lives. According to Pew Research Center, nearly half of gun owners said they had a firearm for protection. But, having a gun for protection may not be as effective as these gun owners believe it to be. An analysis from Harvard University found that people rarely use guns to defend themselves against a crime--only 0.9% of the time do civilians use guns for self defense.
The leader of research in this study, David Hemenway, argues that when it comes to owning a gun, the risks outweigh the benefits: “The average person...has basically no chance in their lifetime ever to use a gun in self-defense. But...every day, they have a chance to use the gun inappropriately. They have a chance, they get angry. They get scared.”
Moreover, studies show that just having access to a firearm in the home automatically increases the risk of death. A study from the American Journal of Epidemiology specifically stated, “Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home.”
Conclusion
The gun problem in our country is undeniable. Citizens are victims of mass shootings like in no other country, and American gun violence is rampant unlike our developed country counterparts. While the gun control conversation is far from over, it’s worth considering the second amendment and what it means to own a firearm: is a gun more important than someone’s life? Because, statistically, adding a gun to any situation will only increase the risk of someone being killed. There are several problems that factor into the overall gun epidemic, but there has always been one common denominator: guns.
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