After a 1996 mass shooting in Australia in which a man killed 35 people, the Australian government banned semi-automatic guns, self-loading rifles, and shotguns. In May of 2018, a family of seven was found shot to death, marking Australia’s first mass shooting in 22 years. In the U.S., by May of 2018, there had already been 79 mass shootings, according to Business Insider [1]. There is no standardized definition of “mass shooting,” so Business Insider based its statistic on the definition used by the Gun Violence Archive: “a single incident in which four or more people…are shot and/or killed in the same general time and location” [2]. Though the definition is flexible, the U.S. undeniably has a gun violence problem. There have been so many mass shootings in even just the past decade that it’s difficult to remember them all: Las Vegas, Pulse Nightclub, Sandy Hook Elementary, Thousand Oaks, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Squirrel Hill, Aurora—this list, and the lives lost, goes on and on.
The issue of gun violence is particularly pertinent after last month’s mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, during which a gunman murdered 50 people and injured another 50 [4]. The day after this gruesome attack, New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced a plan to change the country’s gun laws, and as of April 1, the country has banned all semi-automatic weapons [5]. If Australia and New Zealand can change their gun laws to protect their citizens, why hasn’t the U.S. ever done the same?
A principal cause of the lack of legislative gun reform is the N.R.A. (National Rifle Association), one of the largest and most influential single-issue special interest groups in modern politics. A 2018 report by C.N.N. Politics states that 307 of the 535 members of Congress have received campaign contributions from the N.R.A. or have benefitted indirectly from independent N.R.A. spending; only six Republican members of Congress hadn’t received any contributions from the organization when the data were collected [6]. Politicians whose campaigns benefit from the sale of guns are unlikely to support restrictions on gun sales. American politicians’ inaction on gun reform effectively demonstrates that at least some of them care more about money and power than about human lives.
A similarly troubling component of gun violence in the U.S. and worldwide is the influence of “alt-right” rhetoric. The New Zealand shooter published a manifesto before the attack that contained a number of Islamophobic statements aligned with white supremacist ideology [7]. The perpetrator of the Squirrel Hill shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pennsylvania last fall conducted similar bigoted online activity before murdering eleven Jewish people inside their place of worship. And experts who monitor hate groups say that violent white extremism has been on the rise worldwide in recent years, largely influenced by online activity where white supremacist ideology is encouraged and indoctrinated [8]. Ideologically-motivated extremists killed at least 50 people in the U.S. last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, and all but one of these murders were somehow linked to right-wing extremism [9]. President Trump may deflect such worrying claims by pointing to illegal immigrants as the principal threat against our nation, but the data show the real danger is right-wing extremism grown right here at home.
White supremacy is not limited to the United States, and neither is gun violence. But comparing Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S., our country is clearly falling behind, and it’s literally killing us. New Zealand sprung to action to condemn both bigotry and gun violence within a day of an attack, while the list of mass shootings in our country grows longer each year. Groups that profit from gun sales like the N.R.A. may forcefully oppose a ban on semi-automatic guns and other weapons, but we have to be willing to challenge these industries that seem to prioritize money over lives. The argument “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” overlooks the fact that without guns, it would be much harder to kill on the mass scale that we saw in New Zealand and countless times in the United States. As hateful ideologies rise in popularity on the internet, easy access to weapons means the threat of widespread, ideologically-based violence persists. We don’t need thoughts and prayers; we need action, reform, and leaders who aren’t afraid to stand up to bigoted ideology or rich benefactors. We need to have the courage to prioritize our lives and the lives of those around us over our distinct ideologies and desires. We need to care and to act now so that we can finally prove true the words spoken by so many: “never again.”
SOURCES:
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-mass-shootings-in-america-this-year-2018-2
[2] https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/methodology
[3] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2530362
[4] https://www.npr.org/2019/03/16/704133810/number-of-dead-rises-to-50-in-new-zealand-mass-shooting
[5] https://www.dw.com/en/new-zealand-outlines-strict-new-gun-controls/a-48143616
[6] https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/nra-political-money-clout/index.html
[7] https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/16/asia/christchurch-new-zealand-mosque-shooting/index.html