Aug 5, 2019
What’s more extreme, America: Legislation, or 3,865* mass shootings since 2012?
*I wrote this in 2019, and have updated this number periodically, most recently after the school shooting in Uvalde, TX; data from Gun Violence Archive
In a perfect world, no American would need or want to own a firearm. But we don’t live in a perfect world.
I don’t identify with these feelings, but I understand the desire to own a gun for self-defense or for sport. I also understand the constitutional framer’s outlook on the need to make sure that average citizens are ready to defend themselves, not necessarily against each other, but against their own government were it to become tyrannical.
Given all that, I think it’s also worth considering that America’s constitutional framers couldn’t even begin to imagine the firepower that the U.S. armed forces currently employ. The U.S. spends more on defense and the armed forces than the next seven countries combined, but during the Constitutional Convention in 1787 — because they were so afraid of governmental overreach — outside of a Congressionally-approved act of war, the Continental Congress debated even allowing America to have a standing army. After his strategy in Europe helped win WWII and he became president, Eisenhower advocated for a reduction in the military by quite a large percentage, arguing that any dollar spent on weapons of war was a reduction in education, expansion in poverty, and an increase in spending that would otherwise lift Americans up domestically.
I bring all of this up because we have strayed so far from the framer’s understanding of this nation and what it would become that I don’t know how productive it is to argue about the original meaning of the Second Amendment or much of the Constitution (it does refer to black people as being worth three-fifths of what a white person is worth, so… it’s clearly not right about everything). If the framers couldn’t recognize the United States due to the size of its army and the indiscriminate killing of its citizens by fellow citizens with weapons that should be used only on a battlefield then maybe, just maybe, they wouldn’t recognize the choices we’d have to make to solve our current emergency either.
Beyond that, it’s pretty simple: people are dying.
After the Sandy Hook shooting on December 14, 2012, when twenty children and six adults were killed, we said “never again,” and yet there have been 3,865 mass shootings since then, including 281 in 2019 alone.
I understand the idea of honoring America’s founding principles because they are what has made America the most prosperous nation on earth. We should, whenever possible, seek to stay within the boundaries of the U.S. Constitution, and only amend it or experiment with legislation within its boundaries when it’s clear that changing times demand we do so. But what good is a nation that’s prospering if it’s citizens are afraid for their lives in shools, movie theaters, grocery stores, churches, shopping malls, festivals and so many other public spaces?
This is why we have a Constitutional amendment process (the right to bear arms being an amendment, itself). This is why we democratically elect representatives. This is why we have judicial courts.
There is little about America today that its founders would recognize, and it’s on us to solve the very real problems of gun violence in this country with whatever tools we have at our disposal.
I’ve spent too much time on the internet talking to people about guns. In fact, more than just about anything save religion, immigration or abortion, this topic always generates the most debate and vitriol in my comments. I’ve even had people contact my dad to ask him if he’s seen what I’m saying, which is nuts because I’m an adult (you can talk to me, folks, I can handle it).
Since 2012, I can anticipate all of the arguments (and the people who will make them), and I just want to let you know that I’ve heard them, debated them, thought about their validity and tried to understand the reasoning that I’m the extreme one.
Well, here’s where I’m at now, after almost a decade of hoping and praying that things would magically change on their own.
I know you think I’m extreme for wanting to institute strict, federal background checks. I don’t care: we’ve had 3,865 mass shootings since 2012.
I know you think I’m extreme for wanting to institute federal bans on weapons of war. I don’t care: we’ve had 3,865 mass shootings since 2012.
I know you think I’m extreme for wanting to make sure people with a record of domestic violence can’t buy firearms of any kind. I don’t care: we’ve had 3,865 mass shootings since 2012.
I know you think I’m extreme for wanting a federal buy-back program for automatic weapons. I don’t care: we’ve had 3,865 mass shootings since 2012.
I know you think I’m extreme for thinking it’s simply our culture’s mass access to firearms rather than, say, video games or lack of prayer in schools, that is the reason for this epidemic. I don’t care: we’ve had 3,865 mass shootings since 2012.
I know you think I’m extreme for wanting to cover more people with healthcare so they have universal access, not just in case they get shot, but for preventative mental health care as well. I don’t care: we’ve had 3,865 mass shootings since 2012.
I know you think I’m wrong to call out the white nationalist, racist, and fear-based rhetoric about immigrants and “liberals” and the “other” that our commander-in-chief and many conservative media outlets and elected officials are espousing. I don’t care: we’ve had 3,865 mass shootings since 2012.
I’ve read all of the conservative, constitutionally “originalist” arguments in favor of unfettered access to guns, and guess what? I don’t care: we’ve had 3,865 mass shootings since 2012.
I know you think I’m extreme, but maybe, just maybe, you’re the extreme one?
These policies have majority public approval in the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.8 to increase background checks earlier this year—the U.S. Senate is sitting on it. I’m not naïve, I don’t think any one or even all of these steps will rid the United States completely of homicides, suicides, or mass shootings. This isn’t a list of demands, it’s a call to action around some ideas that could make our country a lot safer and, yes, more free.
Slippery slopes have always been slippery—some are worth sliding down.
We’ve tried status quo at the federal level for a while now, and we’ve had 3,865 mass shootings since 2012.
Maybe it’s time to try something new.
