Gun violence in America has surpassed all fathomable levels of severity. The situation is beyond unacceptable, and something needs to be done immediately. Children and teachers are being gunned down in their schools, shoppers are laid waste in supermarkets and minorities are brutalized and killed by police. Never in my wildest dreams would I have predicted such a dire state of affairs ten, five or even two years ago—yet here we are.
At this juncture, I would like the reader to note that this article is an op-ed and, as such, does not espouse any degree of journalistic neutrality. This is my opinion, and it is a rather aggressive one—appalling times merit alarming opinions. Should you disagree with my position, as is your prerogative, I would be delighted to publish your response in the Threefold, should you choose to write one.
As of Feb. 6, there have been 60 mass shootings in the United States in 2023 (mass shooting being defined as 4 or more shot or killed, not including shootouts in which there is an exchange of gunfire). That’s a rate of about two per day. Mass shootings make up for 79% of all gun-related homicides in the US. For context, the next highest developed country, Canada, has a rate of 37%, although even Canada’s 37% is significantly smaller than it may seem since its aggregate gun violence is far lower.
All told, the US has witnessed 4,269 gun-related deaths so far this year, including homicides, suicides, mass shootings, mass murders and police shootings. That’s approximately 4.12 gun deaths per 100k citizens. The United States gun-violence statistics are far closer to countries like Ecuador (5.5), South Africa (4.87) and Iraq (6.57) than comparable developed states like Spain (0.13), France (0.32), Germany (0.08) and the UK (0.04). I believe this is due in large part to Americans’ obsession with gun ownership. As of 2018, US citizens possessed 120.5 firearms per 100 citizens. The next highest country on the list was Yemen, at 52.8 firearms per 100 citizens.
As for the breakdown of these international statistics, there is one category of gun violence in which the United States truly stands alone: school shootings. Between 2009-2018, the US played host to 288 school shootings (that number has increased significantly since then). The next highest country within that range was Mexico, with a grand total of 8 school shootings. Mexico had less than one school shooting per year, while the United States had 32 per year (3 per month). I ask you, who in their right mind considers this an acceptable status quo? Why has nothing been done to address this issue?
I believe that the solution to this problem is very simple; one only needs to look at the gun laws in other developed nations. Canada has strict laws surrounding handgun ownership, with an effective ban on assault-style weapons. Germany has extremely strict licensing protocols, and assault-style “war weapons” are banned outright. France recently launched a campaign to collect unlicensed firearms across the country, on top of existing laws similar to those of Germany. And the UK has some of the strictest laws, many of which were enacted immediately following mass shootings in a successful effort to stave off future high-casualty incidents.
It is for these reasons that I believe a full ban on all firearms with strict licensing exceptions is the clear path forward. There is no excuse. Conservative pro-gun arguments are laughable. “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” This statement is false in virtually every context where it is applied, and those who appeal to the second amendment to defend gun ownership are ignorant and tone-deaf. Why don’t you send a copy of the constitution to the 39,009 children and teenagers who have been killed or wounded by gun violence in the United States since 2014? Why don’t you see what they think about your two-hundred-year-old piece of paper? Does that document really matter more than human lives?
Say what you will about the state of gun violence in America, but please never say, “it’s complicated,” or “there’s more nuance than that.” There’s not. Tens of thousands of people are needlessly dying and the solution has been tried and tested by every western nation in existence—ban firearms. As the last word, I would like to conclude with a quote by Margaret Huang, the executive director of Amnesty International USA: “The US government is prioritizing gun ownership over basic human rights. Despite the huge number of guns in circulation and the sheer number of people killed by guns each year, there is a shocking lack of federal regulations that could save thousands.” In light of Huang’s words, you have to ask yourself whether gun ownership outweighs life and security as a human right, or if guns should be considered a human right at all. Is all this really worth it?
Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash