Recent polling suggests that Americans are very worried about gun violence. A Quinnipiac University poll taken from Oct. 26 to 30, right after the Maine shooting, found that 46 percent of registered voters worried about becoming a victim of a mass shooting themselves. That matches a high set in July 2022 in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting at Robb Elementary School, and is 9 points higher than a low of 37 percent in December 2017, the year the survey began asking the question.
Americans also feel pessimistic that anything will change. Indeed, 68 percent don’t believe the federal government will do anything to reduce gun violence within the next year, per the Quinnipiac poll.
So the people getting shot on the regular are what, sacrifices to patriotism? Soldiers dying in defense of the American way? The tens of thousands of deaths by suicide each year are the price we pay for freedom?
And are you seriously okay with that?
I don’t see firearms as the cause of those deaths. No data shows more than a correlation between firearms and firearm-related deaths. I believe there are other issues that are causative.
Additionally, I don’t see firearm-related deaths as worse than deaths in other categories. Are we more concerned with firearm-related deaths than with deaths with known causes, such as unaffordable healthcare, heart disease, or unsafe driving? Firearm-related deaths accounted for 1.5% of all deaths in the United States in 2022. Rifles, including AR-15-patterned rifles and other types, accounted for 0.02% of deaths that year, while handguns accounted for 0.25%. Meanwhile, 21.88% of deaths were caused by heart disease, 19.53% were caused by cancer, and 5.47% were caused by strokes (these percentages are approximate).
Instead of addressing the 1/50th of one percent of deaths by illegally infringing upon an enumerated right, we should address real causes of mortality by increasing access to affordable healthcare, solving the affordability crisis, and improving access to mental healthcare. Those truly concerned for the safety of children in schools should do away with “gun-free zones” (I call them “Shoot here without fear” zones) and insist upon modern physical security standards and better funding for schools. We have awful schools! Millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted attempting to legally defend indefensible Second Amendment infringements that could otherwise be spent improving our schools and the education of our children.
If you really think that guns are a problem and you really want to address the problem, why the AR-15 “assault weapon” fetish? Why do you gun grabbers focus on everything except for facts?
Data sources in this comment:
I would buy that if gun lovers voted like they cared about schools, health care, and affordability. But you don’t. You pay lip service and post screeds on the Internet and vote with people who will make things objectively worse on all those fronts.
Nothing has changed since Columbine, and nothing will, because you don’t act like you honestly care people are dying.
How do you know what gun owners vote for? You’re making an ignorant assumption about what gun owners vote for. Gun owners exist in every single demographic. There are Black gun owners, Indigenous gun owners, Jewish gun owners, Latinx gun owners, LGBT gun owners.
We own guns because we desire the ability to protect ourselves and we understand the history of gun control in this country: To disarm and victimize undesired groups, in particular, Blacks.
I see the push for gun control to be hand-in-hand with the movement to criminalize self-defense. This is reprehensible.
Gee, why would I think that?
This conversation was old after Sandy Hook. You’ve already answered my question: You don’t honestly care that Americans aren’t safe anywhere because of guns because that’s the price of freedom. Thanks for at least being honest.
Your dishonesty is tiring and pathetic. Don’t presume to read my mind, and don’t put words into my mouth.