As of this
writing, August 27 2015, there have been 248 mass shootings so far in 2015 in
the United States, according to the website Mass Shooting Tracker. This defines a mass shooting as a shooting
in which four or more people are shot, opposed to the FBI definition of a mass
shooting as the shooting death of four or more people. GunsAreCool, a subreddit page, started
and runs the website. So far this year
we have averaged more than one shooting a day, as pointed out in Christopher
Ingraham’s article, We’re now averaging more than one mass shooting per day
in 2015.
This is a clear problem. It’s not a phase, not an anomaly, but a
trend. In 2012, Adam Lanza killed 28
people, most of which were children at school.
James Holmes killed 12 people in a movie theater in 2012. 2014, Elliot Rodger murdered six people. Domestic terrorist and racist hate monger
Dylan Roof murdered nine innocent black people while they worshiped in their
church, Mother Emmanuel Church, a church with a rich history of the struggle
for black rights, this year. There are hundreds more that can be mentioned, each
as heart breaking, and unnecessary as the other. But yet, nothing happens. Special interest groups kill meaningful
legislation before it can prevent more tragedies.
Our American
society has become reactive instead of proactive. Instead of passing meaningful laws to stop
gun violence, as other sensible industrialized nations, we mourn and move
on. Those on the right tell us that the
Parker and Ward should have been armed, which is incredibly stupid, foolish and
undeserving of being called a solution.
The shooting would still have happened, as the shooter would still have
had snuck up on the unsuspecting victims.
As a society, we should strive to stop the shootings before they happen,
not prepare for them. These shootings
are a societal disease that we must cure at the source, not soothe at the
symptoms. The worst thing to do is
nothing, which is precisely the course many of us have been taking our nation.
The opponents of
meaningful legislation will jump on anything we try to do to stop the
shootings. They shout not to politicize
the killings, that doing so is somehow taking advantage of these killings. This is not politicizing events, but trying
to stop them. Interestingly, these are
the same people who when Kathryn Steinle was randomly murdered by an
undocumented immigrant make the entire event political. They threaten to defund sanctuary cities and
the more extreme ones call for the immediate deportation of every undocumented
immigrant. The nerve and lack of
introspection is astounding.
We must not allow
this to become the norm. Why we have
become cowards in the face of a clear threat to ourselves is saddening. Together, we must muster the courage to stand
up against special interests and their puppets who want to maintain a murderous
status quo. Increase background checks
for gun purchases. Crack down on gun
shows with their lax rules. Treat those
with mental illness in a meaningful way.
Would laws like those stop mass shootings? We owe it to the victims to try. If we do not, we only fail ourselves.
Special thanks to
the operators of Mass Shooting Tracker, you are doing every American an
invaluable service. The link to their
still counting list is here: http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2015
Update:
Between my writing
and posting, another seven mass shootings happened in only the course of six
days.
Bibliography
"Mass
Shooting Tracker." Mass Shootings in 2015 -. GunsAreCool, 26
Aug. 2015. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.
Ingraham,
Christopher. "We’re Now Averaging More than One Mass Shooting per Day in
2015." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2015.
Web. 26 Aug. 2015.
I am in complete agreement with your point of view on the topic. As I know I have said before but would like to post here, I believe we should look to Europe for yet another legislative model to follow. In particular Germany, which as of now has what many consider the strictest gun control policies in the world, was struggling with gun control issues not so long ago. Although not nearly as bad as us here in the states, Germany was having issues with mass shootings in schools. It was due to this that the German government sought out change. According to the Library of Congress's website loc.gov, our governments summary of German gun control law is that,
ReplyDelete"The German system of gun control is among the most stringent in Europe. It restricts the acquisition, possession, and carrying of firearms to those with a creditable need for a weapon. It bans fully automatic weapons and severely restricts the acquisition of other types of weapons. Compulsory liability insurance is required for anyone who is licensed to carry firearms.
In recent years, German gun-control law underwent several reforms that made it even more stringent. A new Weapons Act became effective in 2003 after a school shooting in the city of Erfurt in which a student killed sixteen persons. The new Act restricted the use of large caliber weapons by young people and strengthened requirements for the safe storage of firearms.
Another reform was enacted in 2009 in response to the massacre at Winnenden, in which an eighteen-year-old killed fifteen people in the course of a school shooting. This latest reform led to the creation of a federal gun register and to intense governmental monitoring of gun owners’ compliance with requirements for the safe storage of firearms. Pursuant to the reformed legislation, the authorities may at any time request access to the premises of any registered gun owner to monitor whether proper safe-storage procedures are being observed." http://www.loc.gov/law/help/firearms-control/germany.php
I highly encourage anybody who is interested to visit the website and view the rest of the regulations. There are a lot of checks that come into play when it comes to acquiring and maintaining firearms in Germany. Although it has not totally prevented mass shootings in the country altogether, they are far from 1+ mass shooting "A DAY" I believe they may be averaging that a year. Such in the one that happened earlier this year in which a man was shooting pedestrians from his car. This, the most recent shooting recorded in Germany, would not even be considered a mass shooting because only two people were shot according to Time Magazine. This although still tragic is a far better average for shootings than we have here in the States. if we were even to factor in the shootings that are not "Mass Shootings" the average jumps up drastically. According to Huffington Post there is on average 7 people shot EVERY HOUR in which 3 of these shootings are FATAL! 3 dead every hour due to gun violence in our country. I don't care about your asinine argument that "guns don't kill people, people kill people". The fact is that even if it is not the guns fault, if the weapon is not made readily available there would not be as many incidents. Take for example a far out comparison such as if baseball bats were to become illegal the sport would be dead. Sure someone may find a way to acquire a bad and hold a backyard game under the radar of the law but it would be just one game going on rarely, not a different game going on on every street corner.
The bottom line is that these statistics don't lie. We need to change and I think if we cannot think that we should use Germany's working policy as our template.