On a record pace in 2023, mass shootings, involving at least four people, are occurring ever 6.53 days in the United States, looking to break the dismal record of 2009. In 2023, 88 people died in 17 mass killings over 111 days, on pace to break the U.S. record. Lawmakers can’t craft national legislation to make it more difficult for mentally unstable individuals to get their hands of on assault weapons and semiautomatic firearms, by far the leading cause of gun deaths in the U.S. Whether the deaths occurred in schools, nightclubs or any other venue, the violence involves assault rifles and handguns, on one type or another. “Nobody should be shocked,” said Fred Guttenberg, a gun-control activist whose daughter Jaime was killed Feb, 14, 2018 at the Parkland, Florida mass shooting. ”I visit my daughter in the cemetery. Outrage doesn’t begin to describe how I feel.”
When it comes to the 47,000 auto accident deaths a year, the same outrage, as Guttenberg calls it, doesn’t take place when 14.100 deaths occur from drunk driving or impairments on drugs. Gun violence infuriates citizens because it seems avoidable with some common sense approaches to gun safety, something tried June 22, 2022 when 80-year-old President Joe Biden signed bipartisan gun safety legislation into law. Bipartisan gun safety legislation was prompted by the May 24, 2022 mass shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas killing 19 children and two adults. Only 10 days before, a white supremacist killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. Congress came together voting 233-193 to pass so-called “red flag” laws allowing groups to petition courts to remove guns from people identified as a threat to society. Biden acknowledged the bill was only a start.
Instead of going all the way to ban teenagers from buying guns, the gun safety bill expanded background checks on ages 18-21, an age-group before neuroscientists say that brain development is complete. If car rental companies don’t rent to someone under 25-year-od-age, why would the nation’s gun laws allow gun purchase before that date? “While this bill doesn’t do everything I want, I does include actions I’ve long called for that are going to save lives,” Biden said, knowing that to pass the bill, it was watered down to the point of being almost useless. No teenager or young adult should be allowed by buy firearms, for no other reason that they’re not mature enough to stay in control of themselves. Signing token legislation won’t reduce the prodigious numbers of completely avoidable gun deaths. No young person, with our without mental problems, should purchase firearms.
When it comes to mass shootings, something seen in 2023 at a record pace, restricting access to firearms is the only way to make a dent in mass shootings. As long as there are more guns in circulation in the U.S. than 335 million citizens, it’s difficult to control access to guns, bought legally or not, to individuals with the kinds red flags needed to avoid violent episodes. “Today, we say more than enough. We say more than enough,” Biden said signing the gun safety bill. “At a time when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential,” knowing the bill did not go far enough to make a difference. No teenager or young adult, with enhanced background checks or not, should be allowed to buy guns legally in the United States. Mental health experts have a bad track record for predicting and controlling violent behavior.
When the Supreme Court ruled in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen June 23, 2022 that New York could not restrict gun owners from carrying concealed weapons in public, it’s no wonder gun violence is on the rise. New York Gov. Kathy Hoochul called the High Court’s ruling “reckless” and “reprehensible,” allowing New Yorkers to carry concealed weapons. “Our states and our governors have a moral responsibility to do what we can because of what’s going on. The insanity of the gun culture that has now possessed everyone all the way up to even the Supreme Court,” Hochul said after the ruling. Hochul thinks that ending the Second Amendment giving citizens the right to bear arms would help reduce the aggregate gun violence plaguing the country. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who led negotiations on the gun safety bill, said the legislation was a compromise.
Gun control activists like Guttenberg think the gun safety bill signed by Biden June 25, 2022 doesn’t come close to what needed to prevent another Parkland school massacre. Guttenberg’s daughter Jaime was one of the 17 children that died in 2018, a small fraction of the 2,842 mass killing victims since 2006. Associated Press data show that mass shootings occur once in 6.53 days in the U.S. at the current pace. Dealing with all the various motives for mass shootings doesn’t change the access and availability of lethal weapons. As long as there are estimated 335 million guns in circulation, mentally unstable or irresponsible people get their hands on lethal weapons to commit periodic mayhem. Unless there’s a change in the Supreme regarding the Second Amendment, the National Rifle Assn. assures that gun manufacturing-and-buying continues to supply the guns used by mass killers.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
