Guns in the U.S. Are Out of Control
Something needs to be done to stop the insanity. Not tomorrow. Today!
Can you believe there have been this many school-related shootings since 1999?
Number of K-12 school shootings U.S. 1999-2024 | Statista
Sure, not all of them were mass shootings. These numbers are based on “every time a gun is brandished, fired, or a bullet hits school property.” But look at the exponential increase in the last four years– near 1,000 since 2021.
The chart below shows all school shootings internationally from 2009-2018, which shows that 85 percent of all school shootings occurred in the U.S.
School Shootings by Country 2024
No words can illustrate better than these charts. We have a serious problem with guns in the U.S. The recent school shooting in Wisconsin monopolized the news for a few days but it’s already going away, and not a peep from Congress.
Certainly, we have a mental illness problem and part of it is the mental illness that afflicts our legislators who refuse to pass stricter, common sense gun control laws. I guess it’s the control they’re worrying about, even if it is to control death by gunfire. They’re certainly not doing a good job of that. However, the next chart shows, as of 2019, we’re actually second to Brazil when it comes to all deaths by gunfire. Thing is, they don’t seem to go after kids like they do in the U.S.
A statistic that cries out from this chart is the number of suicides in the U.S. If we have a mental illness crisis in the U.S., then why are we making access to guns so easy?
What could be more insane than that!
Another statistic that screams for attention is the number of deaths by gunfire caused by law enforcement vis-à-vis the U.S. and other countries. Now, let’s use some common sense, there are very few, if any, police officers who wake up in the morning and decide that today I’m going to murder someone. That’s antithetical to everything they believe. So, how do you explain this?
US Police shoot more people than in other countries
We’ve all heard the stories of police shooting unarmed persons brandishing their cell phones. What do you expect in a nation with more guns than people, more guns than any nation in the world. They’re on edge; they’re in fear of their lives like never before in our nation’s history.
There are more than 400 million guns in the U.S. And the more guns, the easier to access them. It’s just common sense. Of course, that’s something there is now little of in our nation.
Recently, in my hometown, there was a shooting that resulted in a man’s death. It occurred during a road rage incident. While stopped at a traffic light, one of the drivers pulled off the road, got out of his car and approached the driver waiting at the light. There is confusion about what happened next and some witnesses said the man who got out of his car was making violent gestures towards the other man. Whatever he was doing, the man in the car wanted no part of it and pulled out his gun and shot the man in the chest killing him.
The dead man was unarmed. However, the DA sent his findings to a grand jury which found the shooter innocent under the “Stand Your Ground” law, which allowed him to defend himself if he was in fear of his life. What wasn’t made public, but what I learned from someone who knew the DA, was that the shooter claimed to be suffering from PTSD as a result of combat while in Iraq.
What? Then what is he doing carrying a gun? The man has mental illness. Yes, we have a mental illness problem and it’s just as prevalent among those who don’t pass laws to prevent the mentally ill from possessing guns.
We also need to deal with the problem of parents with children who have guns. Some of these shooters have actually been given guns by their parents. We need to be more responsible and cautious about gun use, and parents whose children murder others with their guns need to be held accountable. Talk about a society that’s too permissive, a mantra of conservatives—tell us why you are so permissive when it comes to guns?
They always justify it by citing the Second Amendment, a constitutional right bestowed by our government 240 years ago when our nation was a virtual wilderness with no standing army and little law enforcement. People needed guns for survival and a nation without an army needed its citizens to protect its sovereignty.
Then they will say, but citizens need to protect themselves from the government itself, if a rogue political force takes over the government and threatens us – sure, someone with a gun is going to protect themself against an army with tanks or a swat team with sharpshooters?
Even crazier is the development of military assault weapons for domestic use. The only purpose of these weapons is to kill as many people as possible in the shortest time. Why are they are needed by private citizens? So they can defend themselves during a government takeover, or an alien invasion? With the public furor about unidentified objects in the sky, don’t be surprised if they use that justification soon.
Currently 40 states allow civilians to own assault weapons, and the number of privately-owned assault weapons is increasing. Of the 17 deadliest shootings in the U.S. from 2012-2020, ten involved the use of an assault weapon.
What is the fascination with them?
Are Handguns or Rifles Used More Often in Mass Shootings?
A case in point is the mass shooting killing 21 at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas in which the shooter used an assault rifle. The police in that incident have been widely criticized for their hesitancy in taking out the shooter, which might have led to more loss of life. The reason was that they realized by the sound of the shooter’s rifle that it was an assault weapon and they knew that if they were hit by one of its bullets they would likely be killed.
To support their belief, one of the doctors who viewed the victims at the hospital said their bodies were torn into pieces by the power of the shots.
Why do individuals need such weapons? Because plain and simple, they’re brainwashed.
The intense promotion of guns by the National Rifle Association (NRA) has glorified the Second Amendment and sanctified gun ownership, exponentially increasing the number of guns possessed by American citizens. This has led to a progressive increase in the number of mass shootings.
An example of its recent spending shows expenditures in 2016 to be $54 million with more than $4 million going to legislative campaigns and political lobbying. As of 2023, the grand total of NRA monies donated to elected representatives currently in office is more than $27 million.
It’s time to stop this assault on our right to life in America and repeal the Second Amendment.
The U.S. has about four percent of the world’s population and 40 percent of all guns owned by civilians. More guns than people. We allow open carry and assault weapons. Why? It’s more than just the NRA.
We need to realize that the problem is the violent character of American culture, a society founded on the brutalization of slaves, one whose huge military-industrial complex has bullied the world for 80 years. But the more guns we have, the more Americans will needlessly die. The map below is a confirmation of this as it shows that six of the states with the greatest number of gun owners also have the highest number of gun deaths, and a seventh, West Virginia, ranked ninth in a different year.
Gun Violence Statistics — American Gun Violence by the Numbers
It makes you understand why the Star Spangled Banner and “its bombs bursting in air” is our national anthem, and why we have engaged in endless wars. It is the American way.
If what we really want is less violence, less killing, and more peaceful coexistence, then we need to stop glorifying our guns and sanctifying the Second Amendment. Does anyone think that if you have more candy available for your kids in your house that they will eat less candy?
We need to confiscate our weapons, or at least most of them. Other countries get along fine without them. They’re killing us and making America a deadly place to live.
So, Frank, tell me what it is, because every time I read a report about someone who commits a mass shooting, they are definitely mentally disabled. I'll take a look at it, but common sense tells me someone has to be deranged, misled, or confused about their circumstance to senselessly kill a group of people -- no? I guess you could say that what's happening in Gaza is mass murder. That's motivated by pure hatred and evil.
Clearly it’s a mental illness created by the various media emphasizing the worst with little corresponding portrayal of the actual reality . Add to that is a politically insane neglectful culture