When I was in college, we had an event at the end of every semester where the university would bring a junked car to campus and invite students to smash it with a sledgehammer. The idea was to raise awareness for mental health issues, and the stress of final exams in particular.
The last week, all I’ve wanted to do is smash a car. I want to smash a car because I’m full of grief. I want to smash a car because I’m exhausted. I want to smash a car because I am angry and frustrated, as most of you likely are, at the inaction on gun safety reform in Washington as children are being slaughtered senselessly in their schools.
Well, I don’t have a junk car to smash. And I doubt I could write anything that’s going to change anyone’s mind on gun control. (Plus, I am reasonably sure about 90% of this newsletter’s paying subscribers agree with my stance here.) For now, I’ve opted to collect some resources on shootings in America to prepare for a longer essay. Here are a few stats I think point us in the right direction:
Gun control works. “Evidence from 130 studies in 10 countries suggests that in certain nations the simultaneous implementation of laws targeting multiple firearms restrictions is associated with reductions in firearm deaths. Laws restricting the purchase of (e.g., background checks) and access to (e.g., safer storage) firearms are also associated with lower rates of intimate partner homicides and firearm unintentional deaths in children, respectively.”
Gun control works. “The gun death rates in CA, FL and TX were about the same in 2005. Since then, as CA repeatedly tightened its gun laws and FL & TX loosened theirs, CA’s gun death rate declined by 10%, while FL & TX increased 37% and 28% respectively.”
Gun control works. “In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed an assault-weapons ban, which banned the AR-15 and other similar semiautomatic rifles. After its ban, mass shootings were down in the decade that followed, in comparison to the decade before (1984-94) and the one after (2004-14), NPR reported in 2018.”
Gun control works. “RAND examined three categories of state gun laws—child access prevention laws, right-to-carry laws and stand-your-ground laws—and estimated their association with changes in state-level firearm deaths. We found that states that put the most restrictive combination of these three policies into effect could see a small but significant reduction of firearm deaths. The 18 states that currently have the least restrictive combination of these three policies could see the most significant reduction in firearm deaths—11 percent—after the effects have phased in, six or more years after putting the most restrictive combination of these laws into effect.”
Gun control works. “Assault rifles accounted for 430 or 85.8% of the total 501 mass-shooting fatalities reported (95% confidence interval, 82.8-88.9) in 44 mass-shooting incidents. Mass shootings in the United States accounted for an increasing proportion of all firearm-related homicides (coefficient for year, 0.7; p = 0.0003), with increment in year alone capturing over a third of the overall variance in the data (adjusted R = 0.3). In a linear regression model controlling for yearly trend, the federal ban period was associated with a statistically significant 9 fewer mass shooting related deaths per 10,000 firearm homicides (p = 0.03). Mass-shooting fatalities were 70% less likely to occur during the federal ban period (relative rate, 0.30; 95% confidence interval, 0.22-0.39).”
Pass Red Flag laws https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/10/05/red-flag-laws-are-saving-lives-they-could-save-more that allows people to petition civil courts to temporarily take away the firearms of a loved one in a mental health crisis who may harm themselves or others. 19 states and the District of Columbia have red flag laws now: Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois, Indiana, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and D.C.
It’s not enough to hold the obdurate Senators accountable. Accountability doesn’t change votes. It’s necessary to pressure these Senators’ other funders as well. If a corporation that is not involved in gun lobbying funds a Senator who is against guns safety, that corporation should be called to account and should lose money, both in shares and in consumer spending. For example, Senator Joe Manchin D-West Virginia’s Campaign Committee receives funding from oil and gas, energy, tobacco, savings and loans, defense aerospace, etc. https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/joe-manchin/industries?cid=N00032838&cycle=2022 . They may claim that as they are not taking positions on gun safety, this is not their problem. However, it is their problem. We are all in this together.
Data on mass shootings in the USA can be found here: https://www.gvpedia.org/mass-shootings/. For Senators blocking gun safety legislation, let’s look at data on mass shootings in Alabama, Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.gvpedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alabama-Mass-Shootings-State-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf. Tennessee, Senator Marsha Blackburn: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.gvpedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Tennessee-Mass-Shootings-State-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf. West Virginia, Senator Joe Manchin, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.gvpedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/West-Virginia-Mass-Shootings-State-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf.
My modest proposals: https://marthature.medium.com/mass-murder-usa-a-do-list-d2cb658646d2. Pressure the media including non-US media to pressure the bastards, asking that because they are on record as both against gun safety measures and as receiving funds from the NRA, gun makers, and gun lobbying groups, and because the public is overwhelmingly in favor of gun safety measures, are they going to vote to represent their funders or the public, who want safe schools? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/25/us/gun-control-republican-senators.html
Pass Red Flag laws https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/10/05/red-flag-laws-are-saving-lives-they-could-save-more that allows people to petition civil courts to temporarily take away the firearms of a loved one in a mental health crisis who may harm themselves or others. 19 states and the District of Columbia have red flag laws now: Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois, Indiana, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and D.C.
It’s not enough to hold the obdurate Senators accountable. Accountability doesn’t change votes. It’s necessary to pressure these Senators’ other funders as well. If a corporation that is not involved in gun lobbying funds a Senator who is against guns safety, that corporation should be called to account and should lose money, both in shares and in consumer spending. For example, Senator Joe Manchin D-West Virginia’s Campaign Committee receives funding from oil and gas, energy, tobacco, savings and loans, defense aerospace, etc. https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/joe-manchin/industries?cid=N00032838&cycle=2022 . They may claim that as they are not taking positions on gun safety, this is not their problem. However, it is their problem. We are all in this together.
Data on mass shootings in the USA can be found here: https://www.gvpedia.org/mass-shootings/. For Senators blocking gun safety legislation, let’s look at data on mass shootings in Alabama, Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.gvpedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alabama-Mass-Shootings-State-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf. Tennessee, Senator Marsha Blackburn: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.gvpedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Tennessee-Mass-Shootings-State-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf. West Virginia, Senator Joe Manchin, chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.gvpedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/West-Virginia-Mass-Shootings-State-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf.
And so on.