It's About The Guns
For all the focus on the motive in mass shootings the real reason so many Americans die from gun violence is the easy access that Americans have to deadly weapons.
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On Tuesday afternoon in Atlanta, a young man armed with a 9mm handgun murdered eight people in three different massage parlors. Six of the victims were Asian-American, and all but one was a woman.
The mass shooting, which comes on the heels of an uptick in hate crimes against the Asian-American community, led many to conclude that this shooting resulted from the hateful rhetoric spewed by President Trump and others blaming China the “China flu” for the coronavirus pandemic. But as is so often the case in mass shootings, it’s dangerous to jump to conclusions about motive before all the facts are in. Indeed, according to police officials in Georgia, the shooter told authorities that he had a “sexual addiction” and perpetrated the crime to eliminate his “temptation.” This doesn’t mean that racial animus didn’t play a role or that Trump’s anti-Asian rhetoric didn’t influence the shooter. We just don’t know.
But here’s what we do know and what we should be focused on - without easy access to guns, this mass shooting would likely not have occurred. According to NBC News reporting, the gunman purchased the weapon the day before the shootings - and did so legally. In Georgia, there is no 24-hour waiting period to buy a gun. In short, an angry young man, filled with rage and a desire to harm others, was able to purchase a high-powered firearm that resulted in the deaths of eight people. Stop me if you’ve heard this story before.
In every country in the world, there are angry young men, who are racist, misogynistic, and suffer from personality disorders. America, however, is the only country where we regularly have mass killings. Indeed, this is one of the first mass shootings in the US since the pandemic began last year - for obvious reasons. But that doesn't mean that America has become a less violent place. According to a recent survey of 34 American cities, homicide rates increased by 30 percent in 2020 versus 2019 - and aggravated assaults and gun assaults also rose. This increase can certainly be blamed, in part, on the impact of quarantine and the resulting stress, anxiety, and deterioration in mental health. But again, this rise in homicides would not have happened without easy access to guns. Indeed, no other country in the world saw a similar spike in homicides after coronavirus shutdowns that began in March 2020.
It’s not that Americans are more violent and more prone to homicide than those in other countries. It’s also not the case that Americans suffer from higher rates of mental illness than other countries. It’s that we allow our fellow citizens to have relatively unfettered access to lethal weaponry.
Just one week ago, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would have required federal background checks on all gun sales and transfers. The bill would close the so-called “Charleston loophole,” which allowed Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, to buy a handgun even though he should not have been allowed to do so. Making this legislation the law of the land would save lives. Indeed, background checks are generally considered one of the best tools for keeping guns out of the hands of potential killers (though they are more effective in states that have other gun control measures). Yet, there is no chance of the House bill getting passed in the Senate because of a certain Republican filibuster.
I can’t help but note the irony that the one senator most adamantly opposed to reforming the filibuster is Joe Manchin, who also happens to be the co-sponsor of Senate legislation mandating background checks. Fealty to antiquated Senate norms is going to end up costing many more American lives. And the regular stories on mass shootings - which we largely avoided for the past year - will almost certainly return.
Ultimately, the Atlanta shooting particulars are important because they speak to a disturbing rise in anti-Asian-American violence and the need to confront it head on (even if that wasn’t the motive). But we cannot legislate hate out of the hearts of man. We can, however, make it harder for them to kill people.
Women of all colors are the majority of victims of Domestic violence.