A Curious Love Affair: America and Guns

This isn’t about Parkland. Or Sandy Hook. Or Aztec. Or Columbine, or the 25 fatal school shootings since then. This is about the uniquely American relationship that the laws of this nation have with guns, or more specifically, the lack thereof.

In the United States, our relationship with guns has always had a divisive nature. Ever since the inception of the Bill of Rights, the right to bear arms has been an important talking point. But times change, and technology has advanced. Now, with the multitude of school shootings and the call by students across the country for stricter gun legislation, it is important to take a look at guns and the role they play in this country.

It is an indisputable fact that the United States is one of the most gun-violent nations on the planet. According to research by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United States has 42 percent of the world’s guns, but only 4.43 percent of the world’s population. This has led to the U.S. being an outlier among other developed nations with, according to the University of Sydney, 3.54 homicides by firearm per 100,000 people, the most in the developed world. By contrast, the next highest level of gun violence in the developed world is Israel at 1.04 per 100,000, or less than a third.

This puts the U.S. at similar gun-violence levels as those of developing countries, many of which are plagued by internal strife. In the U.S, however, this violence takes the form of everyday crimes and mass murders, not large-scale unrest or terrorism.

Because of our unique relationship with guns, and the large number of mass murders the nation has seen, it is hard not to see the pattern beginning to emerge in the recent school shootings. The shooting on Feb. 14 in Parkland, Fla., was carried out with an assault rifle, whose wielder purchased it at 18. Columbine was carried out by an 18- and a 17-year-old. Of the seven firearm attacks at school so far this year, four were carried out by people under 21 (the ages of the suspects for the other three are unknown). The point is, young people have access to guns, and that is having consequences.

However, despite the violence, change seems likely to be minimal, if at all. After every mass shooting in recent history, the outcry for change has resurfaced, but to no avail. This is largely due to the powerful influence of political funding. While some elected officials are making a shift, such as Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican, advocating for “common sense gun laws,” influential lobbyists oppose them. Because of this, the only actual national measure taken so far in reaction to the Florida shooting was when President Trump directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to ban or limit bump stocks sometime in the near future, saying, “I expect these regulations to be finalized, Jeff, very soon.”

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association, one of the most prominent lobbyist groups in the country, is staunchly against gun legislation, and it wields influence by donating to the candidates it endorses. This powerful group has been responsible for the flow of millions of critical dollars, such as the $366 million it raised in 2016 for political campaigns, leading to a “vote with your dollar” system wherein senators and congressmen have to side with the NRA or risk losing its financial support. Not only do they risk losing the money they need to run for office, but those funds can easily be turned around by the NRA to support a candidate’s opponents. This puts people seeking office in between a political rock and a hard place.

This was a topic discussed at a town hall event in Florida when Cameron Kasky, a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, said to Sen. Marco Rubio, (R-FL), a NRA-backed lawmaker, “Senator Rubio, can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?”

After Rubio reaffirmed his support of the Second Amendment, he replied, “There’s money on both sides of every issue in America. I will always accept the help of anyone who agrees with my agenda.”

In addition to supporting candidates financially, the NRA also comprises a powerful legal body. Immediately after Florida passed a law which would increase the the legal age to purchase guns to 21 from 18, as well as allow for the arming of teachers and the implementation of a three-day waiting period on gun sales, the NRA sued Florida, claiming that the age increase was an infringement on the Second Amendment.

Even information about gun violence is handled in a way as to prevent legislation. In the 1990s, researchers at the federally funded Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were studying gun violence as a threat to public health. But in 1996, Congress threatened to drastically reduce its funding if the agency did not stop researching firearm homicides. Consequently, the agency hasn’t conducted any research into gun violence for the past 22 years. As Jennifer Doleac, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia, pointed out, “If we get better data, we could get a lot of traction on this.”

This sequestering of gun information and lack of regulations, however, is actually opposed by most Americans. A 2017 Gallup poll showed that 96 percent of Americans supported background checks, 74 percent supported enacting a waiting period on gun sales, and 70 percent supported gun registration with the police.

But between the current regulations on information and the overwhelming financial opposition to gun regulation, despite the widespread support for gun legislation, little is being done to limit guns. Even the subject of gun legislation has become taboo among politicians.

In a country so proud of its freedoms, it seems that most basic, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, have fallen by the wayside as more and more people cling to the holster of an all-powerful Second Ammendment.