Still Sick of Prayers

I was seven when the Virginia Tech shooting happened.

Credit: Pitt Magazine 2019

I was twelve when 20 children and 6 teachers were killed at Sandy Hook.

I was twelve when 13 movie-goers died in Aurora. 

Sixteen when 49 people were murdered at the Pulse Nightclub. 

Seventeen when 60 were gunned down in Las Vegas while attending a festival. 

Seventeen, weeks away from eighteen, when 14 teenagers and 3 staff were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, on Valentines Day.

I was eighteen, and less than two months into college at the University of Pittsburgh, when 11 people were shot and killed while praying at the Tree of Life Synagogue. 

Background

Growing up in the United States of America, my life has been shaped by mass shootings and the ever-looming threat of gun violence. I recall, mere days after the Tree of Life shooting, sitting in a circle with my fellow Intro to Theatre classmates. Our teacher asked us to go around and share our thoughts. It started with silence, and only opened after the first brave classmate shared their feelings as a Jewish American attending university in Pittsburgh. I waited for awhile, keeping the floor open to those who have more direct experiences, before sharing my thoughts. I recounted how nervous I was, to have my mother working as an elementary school principal. With every school shooting that happened throughout my childhood, the fear seemed to go from "if a school shooting were to happen at my mother's school" to "when a school shooting will happen at my mother's school." After all, one of the first victims in the Sandy Hook shooting was the principal. It was the first time I cried in a college course. 

In the years since, the pain of gun violence has gone from crushing to absolutely unbearable. With every matter-of-fact headline I read recounting the latest tragedy, I go from angry, to livid, to seething, to empty. There's a famous tweet, posted in 2015 by Dan Hodges, that states "In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over." I desperately implore you review why change has been stagnant, and open your minds to reform. 

I am no stranger to guns and firearm culture, growing up in the more rural suburb of a Pennsylvanian city. My friend's family's had guns. My uncle has guns. My brother got a bb gun when he was less than 10 years old. My cousins had air-soft guns that looked almost identical to the real deal. My mother received her father's old guns after her brother passed. My very own family owns more than one gun. I myself have considered getting a gun license. 

And trust me, I know that in towns like Harborcreek and Hazel Hurst, Pennsylvania there is a real use to having a gun accessible for your family. There is a real need to keep deer population down and families really do store venison for sustenance. I understand wanting a guarantee that if something goes wrong in the night, you can protect your own family without having to wait sometimes too-long for local law enforcement to make their way to your house. 

What I don't understand, is the incessant urge to value easily-accessible firearms over human life. 

I want to dig into a few arguments and try to dissect them. 

"Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

I don't fully disagree. After all, I have never seen a gun stand up and start shooting on its own. There is, in 100% of cases, a human behind the trigger. Generally speaking, after each mass shooting, I tell myself the shooter must have been severely mentally ill, be it something in the DSM-5 or the type of mental illness that causes you to be murderously fearful and hateful towards entire groups of people. America absolutely does have a mental health problem, and that issue absolutely needs to be addressed. Urgently. 

The issue here is that the mental health problem is being actively diminished and pushed under the rug. Just this year, this administration cut over $11,000,000,000 in funding for COVID-era grants studying mental health and addiction.  Additionally, the DOJ cut over $168,000,000 in funding for violence prevention and $88,000,000 for mental health and substance abuse programs, under the guise of these programs being DEI. I want to note, that of these programs, 60% didn't include any language that reference diversity, equity, or anything related. 

If mental health is the driving factor behind gun violence, and the key to solving the epidemic, why are we actively slashing funding for grants and programs looking to mitigate harm? Further, Australia is one of the most mentally-ill countries, when measuring for DALY —disability adjusted life year — aka, how many years does mental illness take off a person's lifespan? They rank similarly to the United States of America in DALY scores. That said, the US firearm homicide rate is over 4x that of Australia, according to a study by the United Nations. This is due in part to Australia's tough gun laws, which requires a nationwide registration database, the requirement to demonstrate a reasonable need for a firearm, and uniformed standards on storage. And we know, from the recent tragic shooting at Bondi Beach, that they are now considering stricter laws. From this, we can deduce that stricter gun laws, while not fail-safe, DO work when put in relation against mental health. There is reasonable evidence that even with a population struggling with mental illness, countries can be safe from excess gun violence. 

"People will find a way to get guns anyways."

Human nature is constantly wanting what we cannot have. Sure, people smuggle, borrow, and steal guns. It is virtually impossible to maintain a country with zero firearms, nor is that the desire of most advocating for stricter laws. Like stated earlier, I myself understand the occasional necessity around owning firearms. 

In the last 30 years, background checks have blocked over 3.5 million individuals from obtaining a gun. That is 3.5 million people that legally could not own a gun, and went to purchase one only to be blocked by existing laws. Three and a half million. This number includes those convicted for domestic abuse, felonies, and mental health adjudications. 

Further, this argument leads you down the path of anarchy. What if I told you "oh well people still murder despite it being illegal, so we may as well make murder legal now" or "people still find a way to get heroin, so we may as well make it legal and easily accessible." Just because there are flaws within the system doesn't mean that system couldn't eventually work better with reform. There are tons of easily accessible loopholes within the firearm sales industry (i.e. firearm shows) that allow people to bypass background checks and age restrictions. Working to close those gaps would help to limit access for bad guys who want guns, while ensuring law abiding citizens still have access.

Similarly, I do find it funny that this argument is never brought up in debates circulating the complete and total banning of abortion. Feels like another logical gap, but this isn't about that, and that is another story that I can write another time. 

"Chicago"

We've all heard it. If Chicago and/or Illinois has the strictest laws in the country, their rate of gun violence surely proves that laws don't work. 

Except that they do. 

Illinois requires a permit to purchase both handguns and shotguns/rifles. They also require the firearm owner to carry a license and for handguns, they must possess a permit to carry. Requirements such as these have led to Illinois having a firearm homicide rate of 13.5 per 100,000. 

Conversely, Mississippi does not require a permit to purchase, a firearm license, or the registration of the owner. Firearms in the state of Mississippi are largely accessible and have little to no barrier to access. Not coincidentally, Mississippi leads the states in firearm homicides, clocking in at a rate of 29.4 per 100,000. Over double Illinois' rate. 

I want to note that according to this study, over a quarter of guns recovered from Chicago crime scenes are traced back to trafficking from neighboring states with looser laws. To my previous point, more extensive background checks and laws in surrounding states have the potential to mitigate any weapons sneaking through the cracks in Chicago  

Conclusion

There are certainly more arguments people have in support of gun laws. I don't have time to get into them all, but I will link some good resources debunking these below. 

I know that change is scary, but by and large if you are a good, law abiding citizen, nobody wants to remove your second amendment rights. They are enshrined in the constitution and I cannot think of a single mainstream politician calling for the complete and total repeal of the amendment. 

My frustration is that, as a country, we refuse to even try.

I am so tired of reading headlines of slain college students, and murdered children. I am so sick of attending large public events and never quite being able to get the fear out of my head entirely. I have had my fill of watching videos of mothers and fathers screaming and crying hearing the news that their eight year old is unrecognizable due to the destruction of a semi-automatic. There is some strange concept surrounding this country, that since regulation won't result in the perfect absence of all violence, that there is no need to try for even some mitigation. Like the aforementioned tweet decided, if twenty children being gunned down in cold blood while hiding behind their desk didn't change America's mind.... what will? Will you only care when it's your family affected? Will you only advocate for reform when your child is killed, when your spouse is injured, when your parent is murdered?

The way I see it, an extra step in the registration process, or an additional class you have to take yearly to keep your license, or some proof of a secure safe is well worth it if it saves even just a few more lives per year.

All I ask is that we open our hearts more to the citizens of this country's right to live a safe existence rather than support a billion dollar industry that is quite literally tearing families apart before our very eyes. 

We can change, 

Sam

Further Resources: 

https://www.everytown.org/debunking-gun-myths-at-the-dinner-table/

https://giffords.org/analysis/background-checks-myths-debunked/