The world wonders why America, alone among the so-called advanced nations, tolerates repeated gun massacres. Today’s killing-field was a rail yard in San Jose, CA. A disgruntled employee killed eight. And nothing will come of it.
To deflect an anticipated call for something to be done, gun apologists quickly pointed out that California has some of the strongest gun laws in the US — so even tougher gun laws would do nothing to help. Are they right?
American gun laws vary by state, from the relatively restrictive in places like New York to the most permissive in states such as Texas — where the Governor just signed a bill that permits the unlicensed carrying of guns. So we can see if there is at least a correlation between regulation and gun violence.
It is hardly surprising, but in states with slack gun laws — particularly across the South — the gun death rate is higher. But there are exceptions. Vermont and New Hampshire, along with the Mountain and Northern Plains states have high gun-ownership rates, but not exceptionally high homicide rates. Whereas Illinois, which has relatively tough gun laws, has a higher than average homicide rate.
What we really need to understand is what role gun regulation plays in a specific jurisdiction. The South is not New England. What would happen to gun violence in Massachusetts if guns were more readily available? And what would happen in Louisiana if the gun laws were strengthened?
It is hard to say. However, we do know what happens when entire countries tackle gun massacres with confiscatory gun laws.
Both the United Kingdom and Australia reacted to two 1996 massacres — one in Dunblane, Scotland (18 dead) and one in Port Arthur, Tasmania (35 dead) — by essentially banning most guns. In the ensuing 25 years, neither has had another mass killing. In April 2019, a gunman killed 51 in Christchurch New Zealand. Within a month the country had banned semi-automatic weapons. It’s a reasonable bet that the likelihood of another massacre went way down.
But that kind of sensible and significant change won’t happen in America.
It’s not that gun regulation is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court did decide in Heller vs. DC that individuals had the right to own guns. But the majority opinion (authored by Antonin Scalia) acknowledged the second amendment does permit gun regulation. It allowed that laws limiting the types of weapons, magazines, and ammunition people could own were constitutional. And states were entitled to make ‘sensitive’ areas — say churches, schools, public and government buildings — gun-free zones.
So why don’t concerned legislators pass laws that would ban semi-automatic weapons and put large areas off-limits for guns? Why, on the contrary, have so many state governments worked hard to discard gun laws, even though — and this is important — the majority of Americans, including the majority of gun owners, are for sensible regulation? Regulation such as universal background checks and restrictions on the types of guns, ammunition, magazines people can buy. Why?
It’s that politicians live in fear of the gun lobby and the power of ‘single issue’ voters. As with abortion, the opinion of the majority doesn't matter. Politicians pay more attention to a motivated and vocal minority. Additionally, a lot of politicians are just morons — who entertain a fantasy that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”.
Less noticed, but perhaps more problematic, is that America has a culture of death. Lost in the debate over gun regulation is the fact that the NON-GUN homicide rate is higher in the US than in the UK. Even with no guns, more Americans would be murdered than Brits. Why? The British are violent — let the long history of British soccer hooligans attest to that. So what’s the difference between the two countries?
Simply put, respect for life. Many Americans claim to be pro-life and Christian. But where’s the evidence? After all, murder rates are highest in the Bible Belt.
In the UK, dispute resolution ends up in emergency rooms. In the US, it ends up in the morgue. Americans have been murdered for walking on someone's lawn, over a parking space, going to buy snacks, for playing their music too loud, over farting, for being an atheist, over Cheetos, for texting, for unfriending someone on Facebook, and even over toilet paper.
And given a population that has accepted death as part of life, it is unsurprising that political talk reverentially ennobling self-defense, ‘stand your ground’, ‘castle doctrine’, and taking the law into your own hands, has led to a shoot first, don’t ask any questions philosophy. And a Black man is killed while jogging, a gay guy is killed for his sexuality, and a wife dies for burning dinner.
And a disgruntled employee kills eight of his co-workers. While the right-wing political class offers “thoughts and prayers” while throwing their hands up in the air and asking — “what are you going to do?”