Guns are the leading cause of death among children in this nation. Not the pandemic. Not malnutrition. Not disease. — No wonder there are more guns than people in the United States –400 million guns versus 335 million people. No other country has even half as many guns per capita. There have been 377 school shootings since 1999. At least 199 children, educators, and other people have been killed, and an additional 424 have been injured while exposing more than 349,000 children to gun violence during school hours.
A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that many Americans had traumatic experiences related to guns. Specifically, 21% of respondents reported being threatened with a gun, 19% stated that a gun had killed a family member, and 17% claimed to have witnessed someone being shot before them. Over half of Americans, 54% of respondents or their family members, had experienced at least one of these traumas. Additionally, 84% of Americans reported that they consider how to stay safe from gun violence when going out in public!
How America became awash in guns, mass shootings, and child murders in our schools. Over the next few months, the entire book will be here; new chapters will be posted every Sunday for subscribers to read at no cost. If you want to get a physical book to mark up or share with others, just click on the picture above, visit your local bookstore, or check your favorite online seller.
Without America’s history of slavery and Native American genocide, today’s “American gun culture” wouldn’t exist. The fact that America is today soaked in gun-splattered blood should be no surprise; this nation’s story is one of the most genocidal in the modern history of the world.
In 1992, historian David Stannard set out to determine how many Native Americans were killed, both directly at the barrel of a gun and indirectly by disease and loss of land/food, by European invaders to the Americas. His best estimate puts Hitler to shame: white people killed more than 100 million Native Americans between 1492 and today . . . and the killing continues, in subtler ways than previous generations could have imagined.
The U.S. constitutes 5% of the world’s population and owns 25% of all guns on the globe. The Washington Post has reported that “1 in 3 Americans say they believe violence against the government can at times be justified.”
In 2018, the Small Arms Survey reported that Americans collectively own 393 million guns. That’s more guns than America has people. The population of the United States stood at 332 million in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Every day in America, an average of 321 people are shot, according to Brady United. Since 2020, mass shootings have been on the rise, with the Washington Post noting that there have been at least four mass shootings every week in 2022.
The number of Americans killed by guns annually (about 43,000) is on par with those who die from breast cancer (43,000) and pancreatic cancer (49,000), according to the American Cancer Society. These numbers are based on five-year death averages.
The first recognized mass shooting in America occurred in 1966, when a sniper at the University of Texas killed 17 people from his perch in a clock tower. Between then and 2020, 1,449 people have been murdered in mass shootings, and an additional 2,141 have been wounded. A mass shooting is defined as one in which four or more people are shot in a single event, not including the perpetrator.
Mass shootings are on the rise. In the 10 years from 1966 to 1975, there were 12 mass shootings; from 2011 to 2020, there were 160. About 30% of mass shootings happen in workplaces, and about 25% occur in schools. The U.S. has seen more than 600 mass shootings for three straight years.
According to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, there have been 609 incidents in 2022 in which four or more people, other than the attacker, were shot — putting the U.S. on pace to reach around 675 by the end of the year.
In 2020, 44% of Americans reported that they or someone in their household owned a gun, per an annual Gallup poll on guns in America. The typical American gun owner is White, male, between the ages of 30 and 64, has a household income of less than $100,000, lives in the suburbs or a rural area and is registered to vote as a Republican.
In 2021, 45,034 people died by gunfire, while 42,915 died in motor vehicle accidents. While these numbers may seem comparable, they’re more lopsided than you might realize, since car owners far outnumber gun owners: There are an estimated 234.9 million licensed drivers—and only 81.4 million gun owners.
Violence has become so widespread that it both neutralizes the public’s sense of moral outrage and shatters their bonds of solidarity. As society is increasingly militarized under neoliberalism, violence becomes the solution for everything. This is especially dangerous for those individuals who feel isolated and lonely in a society that atomizes everything. Some of these individuals turn to the internet and social media in search of community, often to be radicalized by White supremacist conspiracy theories, as was the case with the Buffalo shooter.
Faced with other problems, Americans act sensibly. Auto accidents used to be the leading cause of death among children for decades and to deal with this, all 50 states sensibly have child safety laws for children in automobiles. After the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Courthouse, the purchase of ammonium nitrate — a chemical commonly used in fertilizer and explosives – became regulated.
What sense does it make for 18-year-olds to be able to buy AR-15 assault weapons but not alcohol or cigarettes? What sense is there in states making it easier to get a gun than for women to get an abortion?
Death by gun is a massive public health emergency as deadly as the pandemic at its worst and striking those most innocent. Consider that in 2020, according to CDC mortality data, there were more than 19,000 gun homicides and 24,000 gun suicides, and more than 500 accidental gun deaths.
More guns, more deaths. Compare the states with the highest rates of gun ownership with the highest rates of gun deaths:
| 10 states with the highest rates of deaths per 100,000 residents by state:
|
10 states with the highest rates of gun ownership:
|
| Alaska (23 per 100,000 people)
|
Alaska (64.5%) |
| Alabama (21.4 per 100,000 people) | Wyoming (66.20%)
|
| Louisiana (21.2 per 100,000 people) | Montana (66.30%)
|
| Mississippi (19.8 per 100,000 people)
|
Idaho (60.10%)
|
| Oklahoma (19.6 per 100,000 people)
|
West Virginia (58.50%)
|
| Montana (19 per 100,000 people)
|
Arkansas (57.20%)
|
| Missouri (18.8 per 100,000 people)
|
Mississippi (55.80%)
|
| New Mexico (18.2 per 100,000 people) | Alabama (55.50%)
|
| Arkansas (17.7 per 100,000 people) | South Dakota (55.30%)
|
| South Carolina (17.7 per 100,000 people) | North Dakota (55.10%)
|
The solution to mass shootings like Uvalde hinges on a simple premise: fewer guns in fewer hands.
How can we accept 1.5 million of firearm deaths between 1968 and 2017? – this is more than the number of soldiers killed in every US conflict since the American War for Independence in 1775!
There have been 200 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year, which represents a doubling since 2018, followed by 119 in 2019; 114 in 2020; 249 in 2021.
In the 20-plus years since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, more than 300,000 children have been exposed to gunfire in a school setting, resulting in a generation of children who can’t assume going to school is safe. One-third of adults say they avoid certain places due to fears of gun violence. Of those, over half fear gun violence at public events, like concerts. By comparison, since 9/11, no one has perished at the hands of terrorists on a commercial airliner.
| Rather than uniting the country behind a shared vision for how to keep the public safe, the massacres, the right-wing backlash forced Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-NY) announced that he is suspending his campaign after endorsing a ban on assault weapons. |
During the first year of the pandemic, the number of Americans felled by gun violence reached a level not seen since 1994, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Increasingly, a majority of Americans view the Second Amendment as a malleable doctrine, subject to protecting people from mass shootings. 96% of Americans support universal background checks for gun purchases. 77% want families to be able to request a Red Flag intervention. 70% want police to be able to request a Red Flag intervention. 56% want gun laws strengthened. Each shooting increases those willing to curtail weaponizing America.
Dr. Mark Goulston wrote an article identifying the signs of a person to whom the Red Flag laws apply
What to LOOK for:
- loss of temper on a daily basis
- frequent physical fighting
- significant vandalism or property damage
- increase in use of drugs or alcohol
- increase in risk-taking behavior
- detailed plans to commit acts of violence
- enjoying hurting animals
- carrying a weapon
- agitated movement – difficulty keeping still
- easily irritated – you walk on “eggshells” around him
- very impatient when having to wait in lines or wait to speak
- shifty eye movements – tends to look evasively to left or right as if hiding something, if looks downward this may be a sign of submissiveness, but may then incense him later on
- change in usual routines in terms of hobbies or exercises, etc.
- stays to self or starts associating with “m! arginal” people
- drawn to violent movies, newspaper stories, internet sites, television and radio shows
- less attention to hygiene
- paradoxical calmness in someone who has been agitated (may signal that has come up with a violent solution to his problems)
What to LISTEN for:
- announcing threats or plans for hurting others
- argumentative
- becomes defensive easily
- takes things personally that are not meant that way
- negative comments about most things
- complaining done with underlying agitation
- blaming – most of what he talks about is blaming someone or something
- sullen more than sulking– he can be silent in an intense way that doesn’t feel quiet, sulking means he’s getting some frustrations out
And if you notice the following signs over a period of time, the potential for violence exists:
- a history of violent or aggressive behavior
- serious drug or alcohol use
- gang membership or a strong desire to be in a gang
- access to or fascination with weapons, especially guns
- threatening others regularly
- trouble controlling feelings like anger
- withdrawal from friends and usual activities
- feeling rejected or alone
- having been a victim of bullying
- poor school performance
- history of discipline problems or frequent run-ins with authority
- feeling constantly disrespected
- failing to acknowledge the feelings or rights of others
Who then owns firearms?
Former Justice John Paul Stephens said the amendment was adopted out of fear that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the states.
A literal reading of the Second Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” indicates Stephens was correct. President Biden stated “the Second Amendment is not absolute,” meaning it does not say anyone can carry a gun anywhere for any reason.
Who Knows People Who Have Been Shot
44% of US residents know someone who has been shot, and a higher proportion, 51% of US gun owners surveyed, know someone who was shot.
Is Gun Ownership a Right?
There is no such thing as an unconstrained right. Speech has limits. Libel is illegal. Slander is illegal. Inciting a mob to commit an assault or murder is a crime. Sedition is illegal. The government places limits where public safety is at stake. The Supreme Court ruled in a 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller recognized an individual’s right to keep a gun in the home, the ruling also stated that Second Amendment rights are “not unlimited.”
Ironically, the Supreme Court is expanding gun rights in its first major Second Amendment opinion in more than ten years. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the deciding opinion for the 6-to-3 majority, saying that the Second Amendment allows people to carry guns outside their home for self-defense and that they should not have to “demonstrate some special need” to the government to exercise that right.
As new generations acquire political power, will subject the Supreme Court to the will of the majority of Americans? The Court is putting its independence on the line.
Americans endure more mass shootings than all other developed countries combined. It’s not even close.
For the past 20 years or so, the gun industry has been aggressively marketing military-grade munitions to the American people — with ads using social media and video streaming s invoking race-based fear, twisted notions of masculinity, and distorted ideas about “patriotism.”
Gun manufacturers appropriate social media, YouTube servers, video streaming services, and the work of YouTube influencers to attract audiences to websites that sell firearms:
One out of seven Twitter posts, 54% of YouTube videos, and nine out of ten YouTube influencer videos link to websites that facilitate gun sales.
Top manufacturers of domestic firearms received 98 million channel views, compared with 6.1 billion channel views received by the remaining top 12 YouTube influencers.
Advertisements use women in efforts to market handguns and pistols for the purpose of protection. Videos with women 2.5 times more often than videos without women.
YouTube and Twitter subsidize gun advertising by offering server and streaming services at no cost to gun manufacturers, to the commercial benefit of Google and Twitter’s corporate ownership.
This has fed some deadly trends:
- The number of guns manufactured in America has nearly tripled over the past two decades, from 3.9 million in 2000 to 11.3 million in 2020.
- We endure more mass shootings than all other developed countries combined. It’s not even close.
- Guns unlike light bulbs, refrigerators, and cars don’t wear out. Every gun sold may be around for a century or more. The frequency — and body count — of mass shootings has increased as well.13 of the 20 deadliest mass shootings since 1982 happened in just the past decade.
2022 — 21 people killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
2022 — 10 people killed at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
2021 — 10 people killed at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.
2019 — 23 people killed at a big-box store in El Paso, Texas.
2019 — 12 people killed at a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
2018 — 12 people killed at a bar and grill in Thousand Oaks, California.
2018 — 11 people killed at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
2018 — 17 people killed at high school in Parkland, Florida.
2017 — 26 people killed at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
2017 — 60 people killed at a music festival in Paradise, Nevada.
2016 — 49 people killed at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
2015 — 14 people killed at a conference center in San Bernardino, California.
2012 — 27 people killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
2012 — 12 people killed at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.
Below is a list of school shootings, not including nightclubs or businesses or anything else, just schools from 1998 to today:
Thurston High School
Columbine High School
Heritage High School
Deming Middle School
Fort Gibson Middle School
Buell Elementary School
Lake Worth Middle School
University of Arkansas
Junipero Serra High School
Santana High School
Bishop Neumann High School
Pacific Lutheran University
Granite Hills High School
Lew Wallace High School
Martin Luther King, Jr High School
Appalachian School of Law
Washington High School
Conception Abbey
Benjamin Tasker Middle School
University of Arizona
Lincoln High School
John McDonogh High School
Red Lion Area Junior High School
Case Western Reserve University
Rocori High School
Ballou High School
Randallstown High School
Bowen High School
Red Lake Senior High School
Harlan Community Academy High School
Campbell County High School
Milwee Middle School
Roseburg High School
Pine Middle School
Essex Elementary School
Duquesne University
Platte Canyon High School
Weston High School
West Nickel Mines School
Joplin Memorial Middle School
Henry Foss High School
Compton Centennial High School
Virginia Tech
Success Tech Academy
Miami Carol City Senior High School
Hamilton High School
Louisiana Technical College
Mitchell High School
EO Green Junior High School
Northern Illinois University
Lakota Middle School
Knoxville Central High School
Willoughby South High School
Henry Ford High School
University of Central Arkansas
Dillard High School
Dunbar High School
Hampton University
Harvard College
Larose-Cut Off Middle School
International Studies Academy
Skyline College
Discovery Middle School
University of Alabama
DeKalb School
Deer Creek Middle School
Ohio State University
Mumford High School
University of Texas
Kelly Elementary School
Marinette High School
Aurora Central High School
Millard South High School
Martinsville West Middle School
Worthing High School
Millard South High School
Highlands Intermediate School
Cape Fear High School
Chardon High School
Episcopal School of Jacksonville
Oikos University
Hamilton High School
Perry Hall School
Normal Community High School
University of South Alabama
Banner Academy South
University of Southern California
Sandy Hook Elementary School
Apostolic Revival Center Christian School
Taft Union High School
Osborn High School
Stevens Institute of Business and Arts
Hazard Community and Technical College
Chicago State University
Lone Star College-North
Cesar Chavez High School
Price Middle School
University of Central Florida
New River Community College
Grambling State University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School
Ronald E McNair Discovery Academy
North Panola High School
Carver High School
Agape Christian Academy
Sparks Middle School
North Carolina A&T State University
Stephenson High School
Brashear High School
West Orange High School
Arapahoe High School
Edison High School
Liberty Technology Magnet High School
Hillhouse High School
Berrendo Middle School
Purdue University
South Carolina State University
Los Angeles Valley College
Charles F Brush High School
University of Southern California
Georgia Regents University
Academy of Knowledge Preschool
Benjamin Banneker High School
D H Conley High School
East English Village Preparatory Academy
Paine College
Georgia Gwinnett College
John F Kennedy High School
Seattle Pacific University
Reynolds High School
Indiana State University
Albemarle High School
Fern Creek Traditional High School
Langston Hughes High School
Marysville Pilchuck High School
Florida State University
Miami Carol City High School
Rogers State University
Rosemary Anderson High School
Wisconsin Lutheran High School
Frederick High School
Tenaya Middle School
Bethune-Cookman University
Pershing Elementary School
Wayne Community College
JB Martin Middle School
Southwestern Classical Academy
Savannah State University
Harrisburg High School
Umpqua Community College
Northern Arizona University
Texas Southern University
Tennessee State University
Winston-Salem State University
Mojave High School
Lawrence Central High School
Franklin High School
Muskegon Heights High School
Independence High School
Madison High School
Antigo High School
University of California-Los Angeles
Jeremiah Burke High School
Alpine High School
Townville Elementary School
Vigor High School
Linden McKinley STEM Academy
June Jordan High School for Equity
Union Middle School
Mueller Park Junior High School
West Liberty-Salem High School
University of Washington
King City High School
North Park Elementary School
North Lake College
Freeman High School
Mattoon High School
Rancho Tehama Elementary School
Aztec High School
Wake Forest University
Italy High School
NET Charter High School
Marshall County High School
Sal Castro Middle School
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Great Mills High School
Central Michigan University
Huffman High School
Frederick Douglass High School
Forest High School
Highland High School
Dixon High School
Santa Fe High School
Noblesville West Middle School
University of North Carolina Charlotte
STEM School Highlands Ranch
Edgewood High School
Palm Beach Central High School
Providence Career & Technical Academy
Fairley High School (school bus)
Canyon Springs High School
Dennis Intermediate School
Florida International University
Central Elementary School
Cascade Middle School
Davidson High School
Prairie View A & M University
Altascocita High School
Central Academy of Excellence
Cleveland High School
Robert E Lee High School
Cheyenne South High School
Grambling State University
Blountsville Elementary School
Holmes County, Mississippi (school bus)
Prescott High School
College of the Mainland
Wynbrooke Elementary School
UNC Charlotte
Riverview Florida (school bus)
Second Chance High School
Carman-Ainsworth High School
Williwaw Elementary School
Monroe Clark Middle School
Central Catholic High School
Jeanette High School
Eastern Hills High School
DeAnza High School
Ridgway High School
Reginald F Lewis High School
Saugus High School
Pleasantville High School
Waukesha South High School
Oshkosh High School
Catholic Academy of New Haven
Bellaire High School
North Crowley High School
McAuliffe Elementary School
South Oak Cliff High School
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Sonora High School
Western Illinois University
Oxford High School
Robb Elementary School
And all the while, gun industry profits have exploded.
Here are the companies profiting:
Aero Precision LLC
Aero Precision, Aero Precision LLC
Anderson Manufacturing, WM C Anderson Inc
Armscor
ArmscorRIA,
Beretta USA Corp
Browning Arms Company
Colt Manufacturing Co
CZUSA, CZ
Diamondback Firearms, Diamondback Firearms LLC (owned by Taurus)
Fn America, LLC
Glock Inc
Henry Repeating Arms, Henry RAC Holding Corp
Heritage Manufacturing IncSturm, Ruger & Company
Hi-Point, Strassells Machine Inc (also known as Hi-Point Firearms)
Kel-Tec, Kel Tec CNC Industries Inc
Kimber Firearms, Kimber Mfg Inc
Maverick Arms, Inc (subsidiary of Mossberg & Sons)
MKE (also known as Zenith Firearms)
Mossberg, Maverick Arms, Inc (subsidiary of Mossberg & Sons)
Palmetto State Armory, Palmetto State Armory, LLC
Radical Firearms LLC
Remington Arms, Remington Arms Company LLC
SCCY Firearms, Sccy Industries LLC
Sig Sauer Inc
Smith & Wesson Corp
Springfield Armory, Springfield Inc
Strassells Machine Inc (also known as Hi-Point Firearms)
Sturm, Ruger and Co
Taurus International Manufacturing Inc
WM C Anderson Inc
Zenith Firearms, MKE (also known as Zenith Firearms)
What Can Be Done
Ban the sale of assault weapons. Both the Uvalde shooter and the accused Buffalo shooter were 18 when they bought assault weapons. The Highland Park shooter also used an assault weapon for the massacre in July, 2022.
Does banning assault weapons work? In the years after the assault weapons ban went into effect, the number of deaths from mass shootings fell, and the increase in the annual number of incidents slowed down. Even including 1999’s Columbine High School massacre – the deadliest mass shooting during the period of the ban – the 1994 to 2004 period saw lower average annual rates of both mass shootings and deaths resulting from such incidents than before the ban’s inception.
When the ban ended, there was an immediate and steep rise in mass shooting deaths. Calculations show the risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower during the period in which the assault weapons ban was active. The proportion of overall gun homicides resulting from mass shootings was also down, with nine fewer mass-shooting-related fatalities per 10,000 shooting deaths.
Expand background checks to include online sales and gun shows: The House has passed a universal background-check bill, but Senate Democrats know that Republicans will oppose anything that requires background checks for family members selling guns to one another.
Ban high-capacity magazines: The Washington Post Fact Checker’s Glenn Kessler has reported that this could make mass shootings when they do happen, less deadly.
Crackdown on ‘ghost guns’: These weapons are often sold in kits that the buyer puts together at home. They don’t have to have a serial number, and the buyer doesn’t have to pass a background check to buy one. In his only executive order on guns, President Biden made it easier for law enforcement to trace these guns. But Democrats in Congress want to turn this into law so the next president can’t overturn it.
Red-flag laws: These allow family members, community members or police to petition a judge to temporarily take away someone’s firearms if they appear to be a risk to themselves or others.
The big takeaway for me from the Illinois experience, as is the case for so many of these mass shootings and quite frankly so many of the shootings and deaths that don’t capture national attention, is implementation,” Frattaroli said.
Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have red flag laws, including GOP-led states like Florida and Indiana. The new federal law includes $750 million to incentivize other states to pass them.
Yet even with a stronger national model and better implementation, Eugene Volokh, the University of California-Los Angeles’s expert in firearms regulation policy, argued that the black market for firearm purchases provides a loophole that is not easy to crack down on.
“People ask could this have been stopped with a red flag law? And the answer is nobody could be sure if it could be stopped. At most, what a red flag does it is causes the seizure of a weapon and prevents somebody from lawfully buying a weapon in the future,” he said, adding that someone could then just go buy a gun illegally.
Proponents of the red-flag laws argue that if properly implemented, they could have stopped Monday’s shooting in Highland Park.
“The fact is red flag laws do work, we have a mountain of evidence that shows that, but it’s an imperfect tool,” said Noah Lumbantobing, spokesperson for March for Our Lives. “You’ve got to train local officials on its use, you’ve got to make the public aware that it’s a tool available to them if they’re worried about the safety of a loved one.”
At the same time, many advocates say the best way to really reduce mass shootings would be for the government to reimpose an assault weapons ban or impose controls on large capacity magazines and ammunition.
“In our view, it’s clear a nationwide assault weapons ban would have prevented this,” Lumbantobing said.
Large capacity magazines can be put into handguns to allow the shooter to fire more rounds. The suspect on Monday allegedly fired more than 70 bullets from a roof of a local business through a fire escape ladder.
The big takeaway for me from the Illinois experience, as is the case for so many of these mass shootings and quite frankly so many of the shootings and deaths that don’t capture national attention, is implementation,” Frattaroli said.
Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have red flag laws, including GOP-led states like Florida and Indiana. The new federal law includes $750 million to incentivize other states to pass them.
Branas argued that national action towards red flag laws would be better than leaving them to the states. He also called for a similar model across the country.
Yet even with a stronger national model and better implementation, Eugene Volokh, the University of California-Los Angeles’s expert in firearms regulation policy, argued that the black market for firearm purchases provides a loophole that is not easy to crack down on.
“People ask could this have been stopped with a red flag law? And the answer is nobody could be sure if it could be stopped. At most, what a red flag does it is causes the seizure of a weapon and prevents somebody from lawfully buying a weapon in the future,” he said, adding that someone could then just go buy a gun illegally.
“You can’t really stop someone simply by this kind of proceeding,” he added.
Proponents of the red-flag laws argue that if properly implemented, they could have stopped Monday’s shooting in Highland Park.
“The fact is red flag laws do work, we have a mountain of evidence that shows that, but it’s an imperfect tool,” said Noah Lumbantobing, spokesperson for March for Our Lives. “You’ve got to train local officials on its use, you’ve got to make the public aware that it’s a tool available to them if they’re worried about the safety of a loved one.”
Red-flag laws can be critical tools in lowering the number of suicides, experts say.
At the same time, many advocates say the best way to really reduce mass shootings would be for the government to reimpose an assault weapons ban or impose controls on large-capacity magazines and ammunition.
The bottom line, say gun control groups, is that the nation’s laws are simply too weak to really stop gun violence, even with the new gun safety measure and more red-flag laws.
“I think what’s really important to remember is our federal gun laws are extremely weak. The bipartisan bill is absolutely a concrete important, critical step forward on that but there’s a lot of work to be done on that,” said Robin Lloyd, Giffords’ managing director.
“Our federal gun laws are riddled with loopholes,” she added. “It doesn’t have to be this way, but in order for this not to be this way, we have to do a lot.”
The bottom line, say gun control groups, is that the nation’s laws are too weak to stop gun violence, even with the new gun safety measure and more red-flag laws.
“I think what’s important to remember is our federal gun laws are extremely weak. The bipartisan bill is a concrete important, critical step forward on that, but there’s a lot of work to be done on that,” said Robin Lloyd, Giffords’ managing director.
The deadliness and frequency of gun violence have given rise to an increasing number of partisans who think violence can be justified to achieve a political end. What happened on January 6 was a manifestation of this, as well as the young man carrying a Glock 17 pistol, burglary tools, and zip ties, telling an FBI agent what had inspired him to travel from California to assassinate the conservative Supreme Court Justice. Kavanaugh.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that the Kavanaugh incident galvanized Republicans to want to do something about gun violence, though they stopped short of allowing truly effective measures like eliminating assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.
The national season of violence deepened with another weekend of tragedy in Texas that hit two of the rawest political divides, guns, and immigration.on s Saturday afternoon, a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle sprayed shoppers with bullets, killing eight people. It was the latest in a string of mass shootings in Texas and across the country that have killed many innocent people.
Then, on Sunday, a driver slammed into a group of migrants waiting at a bus stop outside a shelter in the Texas border town of Brownsville. At least eight people were killed, and nearly a dozen were injured. It was not clear whether the incident was an accident or intentional. In either case, the tragedy focused fresh attention on the plight of migrants and the controversy over their future.
The tragedies were unrelated. But both moments of aching sorrow took place against a backdrop of two of the nation’s most divisive issues, especially acute in Texas and which fractured national politics has failed to fix – mass shootings and a border crisis.
Suspicion of government runs hot in the Lone Star State. But it’s also an epicenter of an emerging political struggle between deeply conservative Republican leaders drawing power from rural areas and more liberal cities. It often appears to exemplify the extremes of American life. It also had the misfortune of suffering a sequence of shootings, including in a school in Uvalde in 2022, a Walmart shopping center in El Paso in 2019, and a church in Sutherland Springs in 2017. Just last week, Texans were shocked by a mass shooting by a gunman who killed five people.
How many more deaths can this country endure? How many more innocent children will be killed before a mass movement arises that can bring this brutal social disease to an end?
The House on July 29 passed a bill to ban assault weapons, marking the first time lawmakers have approved a prohibition on the popular firearms in more than two decades. The legislation, titled the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022, cleared the chamber in a 217-213 vote. Let’s hope for success in the Senate! Showing how divisive this issue is, five Democrats voted against the ban alongside 208 Republicans were Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, and Kurt Schrader of Oregon.
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. vs. Bruen, the Supreme Court not only ruled that broad limits against people carrying firearms in states like New York and California were unconstitutional, but that other restrictions on firearms that aren’t deeply rooted in early American history — or at least analogous to some historical rule — would likewise violate the 2nd Amendment.
In less than a month, the Bruen decision has reinvigorated an already robust legal war on California’s gun laws and forced lower courts to begin reconsidering a whole host of legal challenges — with potentially massive stakes in a country devastated by gun violence on a daily basis.
The shifting legal landscape resulting from the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court’s expansion of the Second Amendment in its June ruling has led lower courts to block or strike down gun control measures at a dizzying pace.
To get around the filibuster rule in the Senate, 10 Republican senators would need to join Democrats. With shootings happening at any time and in any setting – shopping, banking, walking in a shopping mall – is it too much to ask if this is not an American problem – not one to be decided along party lines.
Striking numbers of people have begun mobilizing against gun violence and the climate crisis. At this moment, as well, we seem to be witnessing the rise of a new labor movement, with workers already organizing at Starbucks, Dollar General stores, and Walmart, among other places. The Christian nationalist movement relies on a divide-and-conquer strategy and single-issue organizing.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revoked gun store licenses at a higher rate in 2022 than in any year since 2006. This indicates that federal investigators have cracked down on lawbreaking gun dealers following guidance from the Biden administration ordering the agency to take a harsher tack during inspections.
The agency revoked 92 licenses in 2022 – roughly 1.3 percent of all the dealers inspected. The total more than triples the number of licenses revoked in 2021, when a similar number of dealers were inspected.
The ATF’s inspections division is tasked with ensuring gun dealers comply with federal firearms laws. When inspectors visit a store, they verify that proper records are retained, inventory is accurate, and that customers have undergone background checks. If they find evidence that a dealer has violated the law, they can recommend penalties ranging from verbal or written warnings to the revocation of a store owner’s license to sell firearms.
Here is something to keep in mind:
Not a single kid has died in a mass reading, yet they’re banning books instead of guns.