![]() Offers of “thoughts and prayers” by pro-gun rights Republicans are routinely mocked by Americans looking for reform. Resignation that nothing will change is fueled by a political system that is so entrenched on guns that it can’t usually frame a meaningful response to shootings, let alone solutions. Mad that we can’t go to the amusement park.”Ī partisan political system that is little help His fears are familiar to every parent of a generation of kids who’ve grown up with the pit-of-the-stomach fear of being caught up in one of the multiple school shootings every year. “We cannot be a nation where such gun violence is tolerated and normalized.”Įven more poignantly, 10-year-old Kautier Brown told CNN Sunday that he didn’t feel safe at his Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, where the teacher shooting, allegedly by the six-year-old, took place. Phil Murphy said in a statement after the mass shooting in Monterey Park. “When any community cannot gather to celebrate without fear of being the victim of the next mass shooting, we have lost our way,” New Jersey Democratic Gov. The same applies to the perennial debate whether constitutional guarantees necessarily mean people should be able to buy high-powered weapons of war for personal use. ![]() Many gun rights advocates are not willing to even entertain this issue. So comparisons between the US and other developed democracies are not always that helpful.īut at the same time, the regularity of people being gunned down as they work, shop and play is raising growing questions about the extent to which one person’s freedom to bear arms suppresses another’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And the country’s frontier mentality, entrenched suspicion of government and authority and self-image of self-reliance help explain how it has a different relationship with guns than many other developed nations. How US gun culture stacks up with the worldĪmerica’s Second Amendment rights make this country an outlier – to the deep satisfaction of many citizens who believe in the right to bear arms. It’s also indisputable that nations that have cracked down on firearms’ availability after horrific mass killings have seen fewer mass shootings. While there are individual motives behind many shootings, it would also be facile not to acknowledge that the easily availability of deadly weapons – legally and illegally – gives people the capacity to wreak carnage. ![]() “As he’s walking into the store, he pulls out his gun and there are two people getting food and he shoots them,” Yakima, Washington, Police Chief Matt Murray told CNN, about a shooting that killed at least three people at a Circle K on Tuesday. Especially in the immediate aftermath, these shootings can appear as a baffling shattering of normality. Hate crimes or political motives can be involved. Sometimes there are workplace disputes, family traumas, personal grudges or mental health issues. Gavin Newsom on Twitter, as he reckoned with his state’s recent horror, in a comment equally applicable to the plight of the whole nation.Įach of these incidents is distinct and can have unique causes. “Tragedy upon tragedy,” wrote California Democratic Gov. On Tuesday, for instance, the accused shooter in a 2019 mass shooting that killed 23 people in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, filed notice of his intention to plead guilty to federal charges. Add to this the hundreds of yearly shootings at seemingly mundane places across the country. On a horrific Sunday morning in 2017, a gunman killed 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Places of worship are not immune: 11 people were killed in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. The most American of public holidays – July Fourth – was marred last year by a mass shooting at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois, that killed seven people. And earlier this month, a first-grade teacher narrowly survived after allegedly being shot by a six-year-old in class in Virginia. Two people were shot dead on Monday at a school for at-risk kids in Des Moines, Iowa. ![]() A gunman killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs in November. There was the Buffalo supermarket shooting where 10 Black people died in May. Anywhere can become the venue for the next preventable tragedy. ![]() This is America in 2023.Įveryday life is a soft target. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) Allen J. The investigation into a mass shooting in Monterey Park is focused on the gunmans prior interactions at two dance studios he targeted and whether jealousy over a relationship was the motive, law enforcement sources said.(Allen J. Monterey Park, CA - January 23: Mourners take part in a vigil for the victims of a mass shooting at the Star Dance Studio on Monday, Jan. ![]()
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