Bang…
Originally published on November 7, 2017.
By Peter Wedlake
DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF TODAY’S CURRENT OR ITS STAFF.
302. Alone it’s just a collection of pixels presented on a screen which we assign an arbitrary value to. Without context it’s nothing.
302 mass shootings have happened in the United States since the beginning of 2017. That’s about 1 mass shooting a day. 401 people killed.
Within the last two years the headline: “America’s deadliest mass shooting” screamed across our screens twice. What happens in response? Sympathy, thoughts, and prayers — so nothing.
Since the turn of the millennium, mass shootings have been happening more often so it’s not surprising that Americans have begun to become numb to these senseless acts of terror.
The desensitization to these events fit right into the GOP’s policy handbook. Speak too soon about possible legislative measures to prevent these tragedies, and one is deemed to be exploiting the tragedy for political and personal gain. Speak too late, and the topic is no longer relevant (until the next one).
If now is not the time to talk politics, when is?
In recent polls, Americans are in favor of some form of stricter gun control. This typically entails stricter universal background checks, and the banning of “bumper stocks” like those used in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, etc. Yet, nothing gets done. This is in part due to the influence that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has on conservative congress members. NRA members have an easy job compared to other special interest groups; all their members have to do is advocate against any form of gun legislation; common sense or not. The NRA does not have a plan in regards to guns, they’re single issue minded with a one-word vocabulary; “no.”. The single issue mindset and limited political vocabulary allows for the easy mobilization of NRA cardholders to swarm state legislative buildings across the country.
Additionally, the NRA is a donating machine. In 2014 alone the NRA donated $24 million to congressional election campaigns, mostly benefiting conservative, GOP lawmakers. Not surprisingly, these lawmakers are known for opposing any gun control measure that hit the floor of the House or Senate.
Solutions that seem logical include some form of stricter gun control in order to keep guns out of the hands of people that will use them for harm. Obviously, this is controversial because Americans are borderline obsessed with guns. With this notion, it would make sense to at least study gun violence and any policy effects. Unfortunately, the NRA influenced Congress in 1996 to ban the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from studying any gun violence related topics and while the ban was lifted after the Sandy Hook massacre. The CDC still has yet to study gun violence; due in part to a real fear of funding cuts and other political moves that are holding the American people hostage from even knowing if stricter gun control would even work in the United States like it has in other countries (Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, etc.).
A classic argument against any form of gun control, especially bills deriving from mass shootings, is that violent crime and specifically homicides have fallen and continue to plummet since the 1990’s (a fact these gun control critics tend to forget when President Trump speaks on the issue). Ignoring the hypocrisy, these critics are absolutely correct about the decrease in violent crime; if that’s the case, why push for gun control?
Push for gun control because two-thirds of gun deaths in the United States are suicides, with 85% of these deaths being men. A Harvard study has also found that there is, in fact, a relationship between gun ownership rates and suicide rates.
Luckily there is a solution to the gun-suicide problem; limit guns. There is evidence that reducing the access to guns also reduces the number suicides and suicide attempts. Some people believe that if someone wants to end their life, they’ll find a way — this belief makes the assumption that the urge to end one’s life isn’t an impulse, which for most people attempting suicide, it is. For sake of argument, even someone used another method to attempt suicide, the mortality rates are much lower for other methods. The percent gap in mortality rates of drowning — the second most fatal method — and firearm-related suicides is 16.6%.
The United States has faced these issues for the better part of three decades. The American people have sat and continue to sit idly by as lawmakers make little effort to create a solution, and when they have, it was drowned by Representatives and Senators on NRA “payroll” through huge campaign donations.
The solution is not difficult calculus, it has been sitting in front the country this whole time; it’s been successfully implemented in ally countries, yet America refuses to curb these senseless deaths. The refusal to right the continuing wrong is not the America many people believe in. It is time for the American people to stand up and speak out, overpowering the single-issue, cowardly NRA.
