AMERICAS GUN CARNAGE
Updated: 23 hours ago
A UNIQUE AMERICAN PROBLEM
Gun death rates vary significantly across countries, with the United States having a much higher rate than other high-income nations, while some Latin American countries have even higher rates. For instance, the U.S. firearm homicide rate is many times greater than France's or Germany. Conversely, countries like Japan and South Korea have some of the lowest rates globally (1 ).
America has a history of political violence (2). PBS did a series on extremism in America highlighting the decades of far right violence ( 3,4,5,6,7). Violent crime in America overall is falling. Murders spiked in the last year of the first Trump Administration (in 2020) , but then plummeted, dropping 11.6% in 2023 and another 15.8% in 2024, the most significant back to back declines on record. Violent crime is at its lowest point in more than 50 years. But the mass shootings continue at an unprecedented rate (8,9).
DEADLY POLICIES
Gun violence is affected by govt policies. Its easy to see at the state level that gun death rates , both homicides and suicides , vary a lot by state (10). And on a national level both govt policy and court decisions also have an impact on gun death rates.
There has been a sharp rise in mass shootings after Congress allowed the federal assault weapons ban to elapse in 2004.
And in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision (11) in 2022, gun sales surged, while oversight weakened in most states.
Current Gun laws in America contribute to the gun carnage in America (12). The non political gun violence is much larger than the political violence. This largely occurs in high poverty areas. This is the reason that there are police departments everywhere. But this is not a valid excuse for facilitating the political gun violence. Most senior citizens in America can remember when there were no active shooter drills in schools. These senior citizens grew up in a in an environment where it was safe to go to churches and schools without worrying about mass shootings. There have been a number of suggestions to reduce the gun carnage ( 13,14,15) . One of the most incredible excuses for the lack of common sense gun laws is to say that criminals will get guns despite any laws. There is no other area of crime where laws are not passed because criminals might break the laws. Polling consistently shows that most Americans favor stricter gun laws (16). Almost 2/3 of Americans support banning large capacity magazines (16). In a survey by public health scholars, and legal academics, an assault weapons ban was ranked the single most effective measure among 20 policy options for reducing mass shootings (17). Why does America not have the common sense gun laws that most Americans favor ? Because Many members of congress have accepted millions of dollars in bribes from the National Rifle Association. The members of congress that have accepted the largest payments from the NRA are republicans (18).
LEADERSHIP FAILURES
Trump has a history of promoting violence in America. Years ago Trump suggested that the second amendment people could take care of Hillary if she was elected president ( 19 ) . Trump is the only president in American history that has his own history of suggesting violence against Americans (20,21,22).
Trump has a particularly bad history on guns (23,24). Trump gave a speech where he said “what are we going to do about the crossing the border ?” some one responded “shoot them “. Trump responded “ you can only get away with that in the panhandle”. (25 ). In support of Trump , one of the MAGA boys ,Patrick Crusius, drove down to El Paso Texas and shot up the Walmart (26,27). Forty four people were shot , aged 2 to 82 and 23 of them died. It was the largest mass shooting in 2019. There have been a number of other high profile mass shootings by MAGA boys. One of the most well known ones is Nick Cruz , the Parkland Florida mass shooter (28,29,30). No other politician has inspired so much violence and threats of violence as Trump. This previous report has not been updated in the last 5 years ( 31 ). I includes a few examples not inspired by Trump. But it does not include many mass shootings which are continuing ( 32,33 ).
THE CHARLIE KIRK ASSASINATION
Shooting people to death is unacceptable in a civilized society. And celebrating the shooting death of anyone is sick. However, Charlie Kirk was no hero. He promoted toxic and divisive political propaganda. He was an apologist for the gun violence in America. And he regularly promoted racism.
It is often said that Kirks quotes are taken out of context. A closer look at the context reveals more complicated excuses for anti- social behavior. Kirk once said that some gun deaths are an acceptable cost of the second amendment ( 34 ) But he never supported any of the strategies to reduce the number of gun deaths. He did occasionally make some statements that appeared to be rejecting racism. But he made a number of statements that made his racism clear (35}.
Kirk made attacks on Martin Luther King who advocated non-violence. (36, 37). He suggested that black pilots could not possibly be qualified even though they have to pass the same tests and qualifications as other pilots( 38 ). He claimed that 4 Black women stole they positions from white people. He is a community college dropout and the women that he was criticizing graduated from elite very competitive universities, graduated from law school and passed the Bar exam to be lawyers ( 39,40).
How you die does not redeem how you lived,” the Rev. Howard-John Wesley, of Alexandria, Virginia, said in a sermon in the aftermath of Kirk's killing that has amassed tens of thousands of views online ( 42 ) . “Charlie Kirk did not deserve to be assassinated,” agreed Wesley, pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church, in his online sermon. “But I am overwhelmed seeing the flags of the United States of America at half-staff, calling this nation to honor and venerate a man who was an unapologetic racist and spent all of his life sowing seeds of division and hate into this land.”
Part of the legacy of Charlie Kirk is that his supporters sent bomb threats to 6 historically black universities and death threats to many black people that had no connection to Kirks death (43).
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