Stopping gun violence
Twenty-eight dead in Connecticut, most of them first graders. Days earlier, three people killed in an Oregon mall. More than 500—including many children—shot down in Chicago in 2012.
In the aftermath of a horrific shooting, some object to any attempt to address the problem as “political.” But the issue of gun violence has a political dimension—as do such issues as funding for school security, access to mental-health services and the social conditions and popular culture that breed violence. Silence is political too. And when it comes to gun violence, silence serves one especially dreadful status quo: America’s astonishing number of firearms, their extravagant deadliness and their widespread legal availability.
America’s allergy to gun control isn’t the only cause of gun violence, but it’s a big one. State to state, stricter gun laws mean fewer gun deaths. The United States overall has by far the highest per capita rate of gun homicides of all developed countries. The nation witnesses most of the world’s worst mass shootings—crimes generally committed using weapons legally obtained.
