Gun violence in America
America’s deadliest epidemic is the one we do nothing about
On October 1st, 2017, a man in Las Vegas shot and killed 59 men and women, and wounding more than 500 additional people at a country music festival. More than four weeks later, on the opposite side of the country, Massachusetts became the first state to ban bump stocks, the post-market modification that allowed the shooter to turn 12 of his 47 guns into fully automatic weapons. It is the only reaction, in any state, to the country’s deadliest mass shooting.
Three days later, a gunman killed 26 and wounded 20 more during Sunday church services in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
The period is indicative of how the United States handles firearms. There are now nearly as many guns in the country as people. As weapons proliferate, mass killings to continue to become more frequent and more deadly. And time after time, the primary response to the regular bloodshed is: nothing.
The United States needs to profoundly rethink its approach to firearms. We are in the midst of a lethal epidemic of our own making. As I’ve written before, we have allowed the conversation surrounding guns to focus on philosophies of freedom instead of focusing on the health issue they represent.
In the five years since the shootings at Sandy Hook, there have been an estimated 1,552 mass shootings. They’ve left 1,767 dead and over 6,000 people wounded. While these are dramatic examples that display the worst of America’s relationship with firearms, they only paint part of the picture.
Individual firearm-related deaths and injuries are still more common. There are more than 33,00 gun deaths in the U.S. each year, making gun deaths just as common as deaths from traffic accidents. Suicides, homicides and accidents continue to make up the majority of gun violence in the country. In 2014, there were more than 21,000 firearm suicides, making it the leading form of suicide.
Having a firearm in the house increases the risk of suicide. Many suicides occur with little planning in a moment of crisis, and using firearms makes any attempt more lethal.
The U.S. embrace of firearms has also extended into the criminal justice system. As police are armed with increasingly powerful weapons, encounters with police have become more lethal.
Simultaneously, non-lethal gunshot injuries are also increasing. The incidence of non-fatal shootings is 23.7 per 100,000. The annual cost of firearm injuries is staggering. Estimates range from $88–126 billion in medical spending each year.
The successes we’ve seen in combatting the opioids have come from treating the crisis as a question of public health, not of criminal law. The same is true in cigarette use and traffic accidents. This is the same change in framework we need for gun violence prevention.
As Americans are unwilling to part from their guns, a better approach focuses on harm reduction. The same principle is at the heart of needle exchanges: if we cannot change people’s habits, perhaps we can mitigate the risk to themselves and others. Instead of the one-time “ban all guns” approach conjured up by groups like the NRA, the more likely policy solutions is… lots of little things.
Here are just some of the smaller population health-based suggestions from David Hemenway:
- Close gun show loopholes and require all gun buyers to undergo a federal background check before purchasing a weapon from federally licensed dealers or private citizens
- Gun-violence restraining orders that allow family members to petition a court to remove a person’s access to firearms
- “one-gun-per-month laws,” that reduce the ease of trafficking guns across state lines
- Strengthened storage laws requiring owners to lock up their guns
- Incentivizing gun manufacturers to develop semi-automatics that won’t fire when the magazines are removed or pistols that won’t fire without the owner’s thumbprint
It should be added that contrary to political rhetoric, many of these proposals are supported by the majority of gun owners.
One of the biggest blocks to truly understanding the depth of the U.S. gun violence problem, and creating better responses to it, is the lack of research. Since 1996, the CDC has been banned from promoting firearms research. As a result, research across the country has been stunted. Reversing this rule is a first step in reducing the loss of life from gun violence. California serves as an example of the possibilities of research: around the same time as the CDC ban, the Wellness Foundation donated $100 million for firearms data collection and research. Twenty years later, firearms deaths in the state have dropped significantly and gun laws have improved.
Bringing the public health framework of prevention and risk reduction to gun violence is America’s best path forward. Yet this practice has been hamstrung by limited funding and research, which cannot surmount the challenge posed by an entrenched gun lobby.
