Fifty national religious organizations, 14 health organizations and nine national police organizations have advocated for gun control, according to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s website, yet no viable gun regulations have taken effect since 2004. In 2013, Feinstein tried unsuccessfully to pass legislation that would extend the 10-year ban on assault weapons.
Extending the ban could have had a powerfully detrimental effect.
According to polling done by the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of Americans favor background checks on private gun sales, and 57 percent support a ban on assault-style weapons. Surprisingly enough, a number of people from NRA households also are in favor of background checks (74 percent) and bans on assault-style weapons (33 percent).
Psychologists and other mental health professionals will be trying to discover the motives of the most recent shooting that took place in Oregon, yet it is important that major efforts be made to prevent more of these massacres. Over 40 have taken place in schools during the past year, so it is clearly apparent that a growing number of disaffected youth feel compelled to act out violently. With 300 million guns in households in the U.S., the temptation to use them for criminal acts or self-harm or mass shootings becomes relatively easy. For instance, the Oregon shooter had 14 guns at the home he shared with his mother purchased either by him or family members.
This year alone, firearms will kill more than 33,000 people, according to projections based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many of them youths under 25. America ranks near the very top of the list of developed nations when it comes to firearms abuse. Compared with the U.K., the rate of people killed by the guns in the U.S. is 40 times greater. The U.S. rate is more than 20 times the rate of firearms deaths in the Netherlands, 10 times that of Australia, and at least five times that of Canada, Israel and Italy.
A “Youth Gun Violence Fact Sheet” from the National Association of School Psychologists notes that 25 percent of all adolescents in the U.S. have easy access to guns and that there is a strong relationship between gun availability and homicide. The fact sheet also notes that the U.S. has the weakest gun control laws and the highest homicide rates among all developed nations. In addition, the fact sheet notes, areas with higher rates of household firearms possession have disproportionately higher numbers of death by homicide and when guns are more prevalent, suicides, homicides and unintentional firearm deaths are highest among youths. The fact sheet notes that there is no credible evidence that having a gun in the home assists in self-defense. In fact, the contrary is true: Guns in the home increase gun violence, and the risks of having guns in the home are far greater than the benefits. The fact sheet also points out that people with mental illness are much more likely to be victims of violent crime rather than perpetrators, so one cannot ascribe mental derangement as a primary cause of gun violence.
Recommendations for reducing gun violence have been made not only by gun control advocates but also by a significant number of NRA members who support gun laws that keep guns out of the hands of those likely to self-harm or those with a mental illness that could cause violence. Other recommendations include keeping guns away from felons and requiring gun show dealers to follow strict guidelines such as background checks.
Some may recall that President Ronald Reagan became an advocate for sensible firearms legislation and backed the Brady Bill, which was signed by President Bill Clinton. It required background checks for criminals and a waiting period. He also supported an assault weapons ban, as most Americans still do, although Congress hesitates again and again at even the most modest restrictions on guns.
Enacting legislation that will reduce the proliferation of assault-style weapons and closing the loopholes on background checks are of immense importance, both as a symbolic gesture and as a practical step in curbing the horrors of mass shootings that have been taking place and will likely continue to take place unless serious gun-control measures are taken.
Hugh Curran teaches courses on nonviolence in Peace and Reconciliation Studies at the University of Maine.