Gun Use in the US: Civilians and the Police

Introduction

This week, our group (Wei Qi, Ming kiat Tay, Mel and myself) was assigned with the topic “Military”. We initially started thinking about the army and it sparked our curiosity in the issues of gun violence and gun control, especially in the US. We have a genuine interest in this topic, especially with the increase in the number of mass shootings in the past few years, and hence begun our journey of research and data finding.

Civilians: Gun Violence and Gun Ownership

Violence and gun ownership have been a highly contested issue in the US. In response to the 2018 Florida shooting, Americans set out on the biggest protest for gun control of the generation. The “March for our lives” movement called for a ban on assault rifles and more checks on gun purchases. The mobilisation of the population brought about more awareness of the issue. Our team wish to take a step back from the emotions and look into empirical statistics.

Civilian gun ownership in the US

The intuitive and logical reasoning for this trend would be the ability to do so. Unsurprisingly the US comes up at the top country when it comes to civilian gun ownership.

solution?

By banning civilian gun ownership, societal welfare will be improved. However, banning has not come into fruition. On an individual aggregate, advocates for gun ownership want to keep their guns as a form of self-defence. This is an example of how individual self-interest interferes with the state/country’s societal welfare.

Hence, another alternative would be to look into tightening laws. However, there remains a political divide in the stances between the Democrats and Republicans. Both parties believe that individuals who are possibly morally or mentally skewed should not be allowed to carry guns. However, in response to protection, a significantly larger proportion of Republicans believes that gun ownership as a form of self-protection should be allowed in more places. This divide in positions on gun ownership can be accounted for by the contrasting values of each party. Given the long history of gun ownership, it is natural for conservatives to advocate for more protection.

What about the Police?

Of course, not all deaths by firearms were caused by mass shootings. The US Police has to take some responsibility too. We came across a dataset on the number of monthly police fatal shootings in the past 4 years.

We plotted out the numbers by month, and it resulted in this super messy graph (above). We figured that people would not be able to appreciate the data this way and decided to simplify it. We added the numbers and did a cumulative graph instead (below).

While this second graph was much easier to digest, we wondered why the number of fatal shootings always hovered around the 900 mark. There seems to be no progress in reducing the number of shooting incidents. Instead, the numbers seem to be increasing year by year.

Conclusion

Be it civilians or the police, gun use regulation definitely has room for discussion and improvement. With better regulation and education about the benefits and risks of gun ownership, US citizens will be more responsible and work together to create a safer community for each other, and more lives can be spared.