Are We Ignoring A Common Sense Solution To Gun Violence In America?

Thoughts And Observations About Gun Violence...Gun Safety and Gun Regulations:

“Every day, 120 Americans are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded. 43,375 people die by guns in an average year, a rate of 13.0 deaths per 100,000 people.?57% of gun deaths in the United States are by firearm suicide, an average of 24,748 deaths per year. The rate of gun deaths has increased 39% from 2012 to 2021 in the United States. This means that in 2021 there were 15,267 more gun deaths than in 2012. In the United States, the rate of gun suicide increased 19% and gun homicide increased 73% from 2012 to 2021, respectively. 57% of gun deaths in the United States are by firearm suicide, an average of 24,748 deaths per year.” From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – “Underlying Cause of Death” - A yearly average was developed using four years of the most recent available data: 2018 to 2021.

“The recent mass shootings at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas (February 15, 2023), and on the campus of Michigan State University (February 13, 2023) are two of the latest high-profile examples of what has been a deadly start to the year (2023) for gun violence in the U.S. The U.S. has witnessed more than 90 mass shootings since the start of January, according to tracking data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. In that time, more than 7,000 people have been killed by firearms, including more than 3,000 people who died by homicide and more than 4,000 who died as the result of suicide. Meanwhile, a recent Gallup poll found 63% of Americans were either ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ dissatisfied with current U.S. gun laws — the highest level of disapproval recorded in 23 years. Yet despite the rising death toll and the public frustration, advocates and experts say there is an alarming lack of knowledge about how to effectively address the gun violence epidemic. Many put the blame for that on a two-decade dearth of gun violence research they say has made it challenging both to understand the extent of the problem and to effectively combat it. ‘We know so little about the scope of this epidemic or its aftereffects,’ Dr. Megan Ranney, deputy dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, said during a recent forum on gun violence prevention held by Northwell Health in New York City. That lack of knowledge, she said, is ‘thanks in part to those 23 years of limited federal funding for research, thanks in part to some continued federal policies that limited our ability to track firearm injury data, and thanks in part to fear about collecting data.’ Such gaps in data have made it harder for researchers and policymakers to evaluate the effectiveness of gun violence prevention strategies that have already been implemented. A recent report by RAND Corp., for example, reviewed 18 common gun-related policies in states and found little evidence for their efficacy. The strongest evidence showed that safe storage laws helped to reduce both intentional and unintentional self-inflicted firearm-related deaths and injury among youth, and that both “stand your ground” and concealed carry laws were associated with increases in gun homicides.” From a report on U.S. News on March 2, 2023 by Steven Ross Johnson – U.S. journalist, public health reporter for Healthiest Communities, staff reporter for U.S. News & World Report .

“When the Second Amendment was written, guns fired one round a minute. Now they can fire over one hundred. Guns have evolved over the years. So should our gun laws.” Shane Claiborne – U.S. activist advocating for nonviolence and service to the poor, founding member of the non-profit organization The Simple Way.

“I do not accept that we cannot find a common sense way to preserve our traditions, including our basic second amendment freedoms and the rights of law abiding gun owners, while at the same time reducing the gun violence that unleashes so much mayhem on a regular basis.” Barack Obama – U.S former president.

“If arming more people meant that we would be safer, we would be the safest country on earth.” Shannon Watts – U.S. gun violence prevention activist, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America , the nation’s largest grassroots group fighting against gun violence.

“When a country with less than five percent of the world's population has nearly half of the world's privately owned guns and makes up nearly a third of the world's mass shootings, it's time to stop saying guns make us safer. … Violence isn't a Democrat or Republican problem. It's an American problem, requiring an American solution.”? DaShanne Stokes – U.S. author, sociologist, known for progressive activism regarding politics, culture, and civil rights.

“The US government is prioritizing gun ownership over basic human rights. Despite the huge number of guns in circulation and the sheer numbers of people killed by guns each year, there is a shocking lack of federal regulations that could save thousands.” ? Margaret Huang – U.S. human rights, racial justice advocate, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center , an American civil rights nonprofit, previously executive director of Amnesty International .

“Dysfunction in Washington has stalled any meaningful federal action on gun control. So it's increasingly up to big cities like New York to take bold steps to get weapons off our streets and change the national?discourse.” Letitia James – U.S. lawyer, politician, currently attorney general of New York.

“The NRA is funded by weapons manufacturers, and those same manufacturers know that they stand to lose some business if we pass common-sense gun legislation. As a result, the NRA contributes money to politicians to ensure that gun control never happens.” Ana Kasparian – U.S. educator, progressive political commentator, journalist.

“The N.R.A.'s blessing of restrictions on bump stocks - devices that make semiautomatic weapons fire faster - is designed to pre-empt anything more serious by giving the illusion of action. It substitutes accessory control for actual gun control.” Charlie Sykes – U.S. conservative political commentator, currently editor-in-chief of the website The Bulwark.

“One only wishes Wayne LaPierre and his NRA board of directors could be drafted to some of these scenes, where they would be required to put on booties and rubber gloves and help clean up the blood, the brains, and the chunks of intestine still containing the poor wads of half-digested food that were some innocent bystander's last meal. … How many have to die before we will give up these dangerous toys?” Stephen King – U.S. writer.

“Wanna know what a bullet feels like, Warren? A real one? It’s not like in the comics…I think you need to. Feel it…It’s not going to make a neat little hole. First - it’ll obliterate your internal organs. Your lung will collapse, feels like drowning…When it finally hits your spine, it’ll blow your central nervous system-…I’m talking. The pain will be unbearable, but you won’t be able to move… A bullet usually travels faster than this, of course. But the dying? It seems like it takes forever. Something, isn’t it? One tiny piece of metal destroys everything. It ripped her insides out… It took her light away. From me. From the world… And now the one person who should be here is gone - and a waste like you gets to live. A tiny piece of metal. Can you feel it now?” From a “Buffy The Vampire Killer” script by Joss Whedon – U.S. filmmaker, composer, comic book writer.

“The thought of just how inadequate the body's natural defenses --skull, bone, brain-- were in the face of the advanced physics-- lead, gun-powder, momentum -- of invented death. It all seemed so absurd to him: that a life comprising so many accumulated years could be interrupted with such indifferent swiftness.” From the novel “The Blinds” by Adam Sternbergh – U.S. writer, Edgar-nominated novelist, editor at 纽约时报 .

“My belief is that guns are too easy to get in America. My belief is that the NRA has bought much of our congress, to the point that guns are actually the only unregulated consumer product in America. Think about that. It’s stunning.” Elayne Boosler – U.S. comedian, writer, actress.

“If you are a gun manufacturer, the product you make is not subject to safety regulation(s) by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Toy guns are subject to safety regulation; water pistols are, but not real guns.” ?Michael D. Barnes – U.S. lawyer, politician (Democrat), former U.S. representative.

“Why should guns be treated different than toasters? If your defective product injures somebody, you’re responsible for it.”? Blake Farenthold – U.S. politician (Republican), lobbyist, previously co-hosted a conservative talk-radio program before beginning a career in politics.

“I would like to live long enough to see the day when people talk about which guns are the safest.” Elizabeth Esty?– U.S. lawyer, politician (Democrat), former U.S. representative.

“It would be refreshing to have a politician try to defend guns without any reference to the Second Amendment, but on the merits of guns.” Jonathan Safran Foer – U.S. novelist.

“There is more hooey spread about the Second Amendment. It says quite clearly that guns are for those who form part of a well-regulated militia, i.e., the armed forces including the National Guard. The reasons for keeping them away from everyone else get clearer by the day. … Fourteen-year-old boys are not part of a well-regulated militia. Members of wacky religious cults are not part of a well-regulated militia. Permitting unregulated citizens to have guns is destroying the security of this free state. … In truth, there is no rational argument for guns in this society. This is no longer a frontier nation in which people hunt their own food. It is a crowded, overwhelmingly urban country in which letting people have access to guns is a continuing disaster.”?Molly Ivins – U.S. newspaper columnist, author, political commentator, humorist.

“Twelve years after a bullet ripped through the left side of her brain, Gabrielle Giffords speaks mainly in stock phrases and short bursts, conveying meaning with her eyes or a boxer’s swing of her left arm, the one that is still fully mobile. “Enough is enough!” she might say. Or: “Be passionate! Be courageous!” But in an interview at the headquarters of the gun safety group that bears her name, amid a string of mass shootings in California, there was something more that Ms. Giffords wanted to say. …Ms. Giffords, 52, who goes by Gabby, is arguably America’s most famous gun violence survivor. … The gun safety movement she helps lead is stronger than ever. But the nation’s gun violence epidemic is worsening. In part because of the efforts of Giffords, the group Ms. Giffords and her husband founded 10 years ago, so-called red flag laws aimed at keeping guns away from potentially dangerous people have now been enacted in 19 states and the District of Columbia; states adopted dozens of new gun safety laws in 2022 alone. Breaking nearly 30 years of partisan gridlock, Congress passed a modest package of gun safety measures last year (2022). … A divided Congress means there is little hope for ambitious reforms in Washington. The Supreme Court, now with a six-justice conservative majority, ruled last year (2022) that Americans have a broad right to carry guns, making it harder for states to impose restrictions. … Ms. Giffords was a centrist Democrat who opposed the death penalty but supported gun rights. She owned a 9-millimeter Glock to protect herself after two home burglaries. In recent years, her group has sought to enlist gun owners; eight states now have chapters of Gun Owners for Safety, a Giffords initiative. In a sign of the political realities she faces, Ms. Giffords’s home state of Arizona is not among them. The state does not have a red flag law and allows people 21 or older to carry a concealed, loaded firearm in public without a permit.”?From an article in 纽约时报 on January 30, 2023 by Sheryl Gay Stolberg – U.S. journalist.

“As members of the public, we tend to hear about gun violence through the tragedy of innocent lives lost. But those shot who survive are often quickly forgotten. It is easy to think that survivors will be OK. But though they may be fortunate, in many ways they are not OK. Survivors of gun violence face not only the pain of the physical injury, but a 51% increase in mental health disorders and 85% increase in substance use disorders. The former includes depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and more. The latter includes alcohol and drug misuse, sometimes addiction to the very opioids used to treat the pain of the gunshot wound. These effects persist at least a year after injury. While the world has moved on – at times to the next mass shooting – survivors are still learning how to walk again, battling demons to go outside again and suffering through their personal, slow-moving tragedies out of the public eye. … Family members of survivors, despite not being shot themselves, also experience a 12% increase in mental health disorders in the year following the survivor’s injury. Community members are not unscathed. Trauma, anguish and survivor guilt await. Society is not unscathed. Every nonfatal firearm injury costs employers and insurers $30,000 in direct medical spending in the first year. This pays for emergency rooms, hospitals, doctor visits, procedures, imaging and tests, among other services. Ultimately, this comes out of everyone’s taxes or wages, with the victims paying 4% of it out-of-pocket themselves. So whether in health or economic terms, we all share in the pain of gun violence. With somewhere around 85,000 survivors of firearm injuries each year – a number our nation is not sure about due to a shortage of data – society thus pays an estimated $2.5 billion for direct medical care in the first year alone. Imagine the other societal needs that $2.5 billion could help address.” Dr. Zirui Song – U.S. internal medicine specialist, affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School .

“This $557 billion problem represents the lifetime costs associated with gun violence, including three types of costs: immediate costs starting at the scene of a shooting, such as police investigations and medical treatment; subsequent costs, such as treatment, long-term physical and mental health care, earnings lost to disability or death, and criminal justice costs; and cost estimates of quality of life lost over a victim’s life span for pain and suffering of victims and their families. Taxpayers, survivors, families, and employers pay an average of $7.79 million daily in health care costs, including immediate and long-term medical and mental health care, plus patient transportation/ambulance costs related to gun violence, and lose an estimated $147.32 million per day related to work missed due to injury or death. American taxpayers pay $30.16 million every day in police and criminal justice costs for investigation, prosecution, and incarceration. ?Employers lose an average of $1.47 million on a daily basis in productivity, revenue, and costs required to recruit and train replacements for victims of gun violence. Society loses $1.34 billion daily in quality-of-life costs from the suffering and lost well-being of gun violence victims and their families. … The average annual cost for overall gun violence in the United States is $1,698 for every resident in the country.” From analysis of CDC Fatal Injury: 2019 and HCUP Nonfatal Injury: 2019 by Ted R. Miller – U.S. researcher specializing in health, safety and transport economics, injury and substance abuse prevention, epidemiology, risk management and insurance at the National Capital Region Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation , adjunct professor at Curtin University's School of Public Health … and Bruce Lawrence – U.S. professor of humanities at 美国杜克大学 .

“Saying gun control hurts our freedom is a false argument amounting to propaganda. Gun laws don't curtail freedom any more than speed limits or seat belts. You still get to drive your car and have guns, we're just trying to save lives as you do.”? DaShanne Stokes – U.S. author, sociologist, known for progressive activism regarding politics, culture, and civil rights.

“Death is a billion-dollar business. They can't even pass a law where it takes seven days to get a gun. Why don't you have to go through the same kind of screening you do to get a driver's license? It's totally insane.”?John Cusack – U.S. actor, producer, screenwriter, political activist.

“Gun violence, at its highest level in the US since the early 1990s, has become one of the top concerns for many American voters. As a result, the country has debated reforms to policing, bail, sentencing and other aspects of our criminal justice system. But we’ve been ignoring an even more fundamental challenge: the gaping holes in our nation’s social safety net for the group at greatest risk of gun violence — young men.If members of Congress truly want to address gun crime, they shouldn’t demand to cut spending and reduce the safety net, they should expand it. Gun violence in America is a problem driven by, and primarily affecting, working-age young men. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2021 homicide data report, two-thirds of homicides were committed by a man and two-thirds of victims were male. Most of those involved in homicides are in their 20s and 30s. … These holes in the safety net have dire consequences for public safety: they are hampering attempts by the growing number of cities turning to community violence intervention (CVI) programs to help address gun violence, as they move away from enforcement-only approaches. CVI programs, among other things, try to connect people at elevated risk for gun violence involvement (most often, young men) to a variety of programs — like employment and social support — that a growing body of evidence shows might help substantially reduce the number of shootings in our cities. CVI programs are one of the few places young, able-bodied, out-of-work men can come to receive support. But cities already have enormous difficulty bearing the costs of supportive CVI services on their own.”??Jens Ludwig – German/U.S. educator, 美国芝加哥大学 economist, research focuses on social policy, particularly urban issues such as poverty, crime, and education ... and Dr. Chico Tillmon - U.S. educator, executive director of Heartland Alliance ’s READI National Center for Safe Communities, senior research fellow at the University of Chicago Crime Lab .

“Corey Winfield was ten when he saw someone get shot for the first time. He and a friend were marching around with a drum in the Park Heights section of Northwest Baltimore, and a few older guys asked if they could use it; while they were doing so, someone came up and shot one of them in the back, paralyzing him. At eleven, Corey found his first gun, in an alley near his school. He sold it to a friend’s older brother for forty-five dollars and used the money to buy lots of penny candy. At thirteen, he saw someone get killed for the first time—a friend, who was fourteen—and that year he started selling drugs. After he was robbed a few times, he bought another gun. When he was seventeen, he was buying some drugs to sell when the dealers tried to rob him, so he shot one of them, killing him. Winfield went to prison for nearly twenty years. Two weeks after his release, in 2006, his younger brother, Jujuan, who was twenty-one, was shot to death outside the family’s house. For days, Winfield stalked the man he suspected of the murder; he might have killed him, but a police cruiser appeared as he was about to shoot. He went home, where he found his aunt Ruth, who had brought him up, sitting alone in the dark. She told him that she knew what he was up to. ‘Please stop, I don’t want to lose another baby,’ she said to him. ‘I broke down and we cried on the sofa,’ Winfield told me. Winfield promised to give up guns, and soon he committed to getting others to stop shooting, too. Baltimore was building a ‘violence interrupter’ program, modelled on one launched in Chicago, in which people who have criminal records and a history of street violence use their contacts and credibility to defuse tensions before anyone is shot. Winfield became one of the first outreach workers in the new program, Safe Streets, citing his willingness to eschew vengeance as proof that peace was possible.” From an article in The New Yorker from January 30, 3023 by Alec MacGillis – U.S. journalist covering politics and government for ProPublica. Article is a collaboration between The New Yorker and ProPublica.

“While calculating the number of guns in private hands around the world is difficult, the latest figures from the Small Arms Survey - a Swiss-based leading research project - estimate that there were 390 million guns in circulation in 2018. The US ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, up from 88 per 100 in 2011, far surpasses that of other countries around the world. More recent data out of the US suggests that gun ownership grew significantly over the last several years. A study, published by the Annals of Internal Medicine in February, found that 7.5 million US adults became first new gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021. This, in turn, exposed 11 million people to firearms in their homes, including 5 million children.” From the BBC News report “Gun Violence in US and what the statistics tell us”, posted February 17, 2023.

“Gun violence is a fixture in American life - but the issue is a highly political one, pitting gun control advocates against sectors of the population fiercely protective of their right to bear arms. We've looked into some of the numbers behind firearms in the US. There have already been more than 70 mass shootings across the US so far this year, with California experiencing two of the most high-profile in January. Figures from the Gun Violence Archive - a non-profit research database - shows that the number of mass shootings has gone up significantly in recent years. In each of the last three years there have been more than 600 mass shootings, almost two a day on average. While the US does not have a single definition for "mass shootings", the Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed. Their figure includes shootings that happen both in homes and in public places. The deadliest such attack, in Las Vegas in 2017, killed more than 50 people and left 500 wounded. The vast majority of mass shootings, however, leave fewer than 10 people dead.” From the BBC News report “Gun Violence in US and What The Statistics Tell Us” posted February 17, 2023.

Recommendations on how to establish and enforce gun regulations and gun licenses from Amnesty International (an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights): “States can set up some basic systems to regulate how private individuals can own and use firearms and ammunition to prevent them from using firearms to abuse human rights. The UN has set up international guidelines that states can put in place to incorporate into national laws on firearms control.?These international standards recommend prohibiting any possession of firearms without a license; that states should register all firearms; and that unlicensed possession should be treated as a criminal offence. A firearms license should be subject to certain criteria being met. For example, the applicant should undergo a comprehensive background check to identify any risk factors, such as prior criminal record – especially for violent behavior in the home or community; history of gender-based, sexual or domestic violence; and history of problematic use of drugs/alcohol, emotional issues, mental health conditions and other circumstances which heighten the risks of the harm to self or others using firearms. Gun licenses should be time-limited and training on how to use the weapon should be mandatory. The number and type of weapons that an individual can possess should also be strictly limited in line with the principles of necessity and credible justification. Firearms and ammunition which represent an unacceptable level of risk to public safety, including those likely to cause excessive or unintended injury, such as fully automatic firearms, semi-automatic assault rifles, semi-automatic shotguns and semi-automatic submachine guns, must be prohibited for use by private individuals. To avoid fueling the illicit trade in and possession of firearms, states must take proactive measures to make sure that all stocks of firearms and related ammunition, including those for use by military and law enforcement personnel, as well as those held by dealers, are kept securely.”

“Our fundamental starting point, with guns and everything else, is this: What policies help us live well together? What's best for the most? What's good for the common good? What policies are vital for humans to thrive? We are not just thinking individualistically but as ‘polis,’ as a people — less about ‘I’ and ‘me’ and more about ‘we’ and ‘us.’ There is something that unites us that is deeper and more profound than all the stuff that divides us. Something unites us across party lines and blows all the labels and categories out of the water: our shared humanity.”?Shane Claiborne – U.S. activist advocating for nonviolence and service to the poor, founding member of the non-profit organization The Simple Way.

“America has a crime problem, and it weighs heavily on the minds of people who live in those high crime jurisdictions and those who care for them. Even if crime polls lower than issues like inflation or abortion among voters’ concerns, no one should underestimate the potency of crime as a political issue. … Universal firearm background checks, red flag laws, bump stock bans and raising the age for most long-gun purchases to 21 will not infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. It’s long past time to address the blatant lawlessness in communities across the country. There is no reason we can’t do it. It just takes political will.”?Charlie Dent – U.S. political commentator on CNN , former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who served as chair of the House Ethics Committee and chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies.

“We need commonsense measures, gun control measures, that save lives. I think that it is important that we keep the firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill and criminals and terrorists. And I also think, by strengthening our background check system and expanding mental health treatment, we can do that as well.” Catherine Cortez-Masto – U.S. lawyer, politician, serving as the senior U.S. senator (Democrat) from Nevada.

“Making improvements to our background check system and cracking down on illegal gun trafficking are common-sense ways to prevent violence without punishing law abiding gun owners. We owe it to the American people to take real action to reduce gun violence in our communities.”?Martin Heinrich – U.S. businessman, politician, serving as the senior U.S. senator (Democrat) from New Mexico.

“In my world, you don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and be against common-sense gun control — like banning public access to the kind of semiautomatic assault rifle, designed for warfare. ...The term ‘pro-life’ should be a shorthand for respect for the sanctity of life. But I will not let that label apply to people for whom sanctity for life begins at conception and ends at birth. What about the rest of life? Respect for the sanctity of life, if you believe that it begins at conception, cannot end at birth.”? Thomas Friedman – U.S. political commentator in 纽约时报 , author.

“There is a recognition that Second Amendment rights, like First Amendment and other rights, come with responsibilities and limitations. There is no reason both sides of the gun debate can’t support policies that both protect the right to legally own guns for sport and safety, and reduce the likelihood of mass fatalities.” Randi Weingarten – U.S. labor leader, attorney, educator, president of the American Federation of Teachers and a member of the AFL-CIO , former president of the United Federation Of Teachers .

“We need a new approach to reducing gun violence. Rather than demonizing gun owners, perhaps we should focus on cutting funds from the gun profiteers. Instead of concentrating on the issue of rights, maybe we should approach it as an issue of conscience.” Shane Claiborne – U.S. activist advocating for nonviolence and service to the poor, founding member of the non-profit organization The Simple Way.

“The leading cause of injury and death among children and young adults in the country used to be car accidents, now it’s firearms, according to the National Institutes of Health. The shift has healthcare providers also looking at ways to not only address the impacts on families and communities but also look into prevention. Kaiser Permanente recently announced its efforts to expand gun violence prevention with more funding, $25 million, into its Center for Gun Violence Research and Education through research, education, and programs. ‘In many cases, we in health care, see the people who are at highest risk of committing or being victimized by firearms,’ said Dr. David Grossman, the VP of Social Health and Equity for Kaiser Permanente. ‘Also we are the ones that ended up being seen that people were the victims. So I think for those reasons, you know, we have our fingers on both sides.’ The Center for Gun Violence Research and Education aims to study gun violence as a public health issue, a public health crisis, looking at how to prevent violence. There’s a push to encourage providers to identify people who need help, take part in intervening by connecting them with resources, and focus on not just the physical impact but the emotional toll gun violence can have on a community. ‘At least 60% of gun deaths are actually related to suicide,’ said Dr. Grossman. ‘We have other types of gun violence that show up in communities with youth and through intimate partner violence, but this issue has become a public health crisis and something that we believe really needs to get addressed together with the health systems.’ Think of it like how healthcare providers intervene when there’s a drug or alcohol-related incident in the emergency room and how doctors will connect those patients with recovery programs. ‘We know that emergency physicians and trauma surgeons who were actually very active in this area were ready and have a role to play because they're the ones that are sitting in in the ER.. have to take care of these patients,’ explained Dr. Grossman. ‘They can serve as an early Sentinel, to identify who these people are and connect them to community workers who actually can help individuals break the cycle of violence.’?From a news report broadcast on March 3, 2023 prepared for WJLA-TV in Washington D.C by Joy Wang – U.S. television news reporter.

“So long as you have a society with a lot of guns- and America has more guns per capita than any other county in the world- children will be at risk of being shot. The questions are how much risk, and what, if anything, is being done to minimize it? If one thinks of various ways in which commonplace items, from car seats to medicine bottle tops, have been childproofed, it's clear that society's general desire has been to eliminate as many potential dangers from children as possible, even when the number of those who might be harmed is relatively small. If one child's death is preventable, then the proper question isn't "Why should we do this" but rather "Why shouldn't we?" It would be strange for that principle to apply to everything but guns.”?Gary Younge – U.S. journalist, author of “Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives”.

“The National Crime Prevention Council reports that 89% of unintentional shooting deaths of children happen in the home, when children play with loaded guns.” Aditi Srivastav Bussells, PhD, MPH – U.S public health researcher focused on improving programs, systems, and policies that directly impact children’s health and well-well-being, specializes in the topics of adverse childhood experiences (also known as childhood trauma), risk behavior prevention, health communication, and community resilience, city councilwoman at-large in Columbia, South Carolina.

“It takes a monster to kill children. But to watch monsters kill children again and again and do nothing isn’t just insanity — it’s inhumanity.” Amanda Gorman – U.S poet, activist, focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora.

“We are so sure we know what freedom is in America that we cannot imagine a world in which true freedom might come after sacrifice of personal rights. Freedom is sending your kids to school with confidence that they will come home at the end of the day. … The argument about gun reform is, at its core, about individual rights versus the collective good. We live in a country—the United States—where individual rights and personal freedoms are elevated above all else. We have a really hard time understanding that to ensure the good of all of us, we may have to make personal sacrifices.” Taylor Schumann - U.S. author, activist, author of “When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough”, survivor of an April 2013 shooting at the New River Community College in Christiansburg, Virginia, evolved from gun-rights supporter to gun-control activist.

“I want to live in a country where my presence is not seen by some as an existential threat. But this feels like a fantasy. I want to walk past the school where my son will attend kindergarten next year and see a place that will keep him safe. But this is impossible. We live in a country that has failed us. Where legislation is written — and erased — by the gun lobby. Where manipulations and distortions of Second Amendment rights prevent politicians from enacting any semblance of sensible laws that would at least attempt to prevent this. Where claims about what our Founders wanted supersede the slaughter we see right in front of us. Where the cocktail of easily accessible guns and the normalizing of extremist views makes nowhere feel safe. There is no other country in the world where this happens. And the fact that it does happen, and happens with such frequency, is reflective of a choice that has been made. But just because a choice has been made doesn’t mean that different choices aren’t possible. Different choices are possible.” Clint Smith – U.S. writer, teacher.

“These extremists are afraid their guns will be taken away — we’re afraid our children will be taken away.” Shannon Watts – U.S. gun violence prevention activist, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America , the nation’s largest grassroots group fighting against gun violence.

“We lose eight children and teenagers to gun violence every day. If a mysterious virus suddenly started killing eight of our children every day, America would mobilize teams of doctors and public health officials. We would move heaven and earth until we found a way to protect our children. But not with gun violence.”?Elizabeth Warren – U.S. politician, former law professor senior U.S. senator (Democrat) from Massachusetts.

“Each and every child in this country is valuable because they are our future as a society. We cannot afford to lose a single child to ill-health, under-education, abuse, addiction, jail, or gun violence. America's highest goal should be for every child to grow up to be a successful young adult -- healthy, educated, free, secure, and a good citizen.”?John F. Kerry - American attorney, politician, diplomat, currently serves as the first U.S. special presidential envoy for climate.

“Preparing school administrators for a mass shooting is becoming routine. Rising gun violence, punctuated by massacres like the attack at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year (2022) and the shooting on Michigan State University’s campus this week (week of February 13, 2023), is fueling not only the debate over gun control but also a more than $3 billion industry of companies working to protect children or employees against mass murder. The offerings are numerous: automatically locking doors, bullet-resistant tables, Kevlar backpacks, artificial intelligence that detects guns and countless types of training exercises, like breathing techniques to avoid panic during an attack or strategies for how to use a pencil to pierce a shooter’s eyes. But even as Congress increases funding for school security measures — including $300 million to help schools “prevent and respond to violence” as part of a bipartisan gun control compromise — the effectiveness of the school security industry’s products and services remains largely unproven. “This is an entire industry that capitalizes on school shootings; however, these companies have very little evidence that what they are selling works,” said Odis Johnson, the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools and a Bloomberg distinguished professor at the university. … (T)here is no equivalent of rigorous and standard monitoring of whether an employer is reasonably prepared for an active shooter. … With each new mass shooting, more schools and businesses, even in parts of the country that support stricter gun control, are taking steps to bolster the security of their buildings and train their staff. In a survey of more than 1,000 public schools last year by the National Center for Education Statistics, a research arm of the Education Department, the majority said they were taking some measures, such as putting locks on doors, to defend against shooters. … But Mr. Johnson, the Johns Hopkins professor, said that while teaching self-defense skills was important, the focus should be on preventing guns from falling into the wrong hands. “The idea that a teacher escalating the situation by confronting the shooter is not going to have unintended consequences is na?ve,” he said. “That is why we need comprehensive gun reform to prevent guns from getting into the building.”??Posted on 纽约时报 on February 19, by Michael Corkery – U.S. journalist, business reporter at The New York Times, previously with The Wall Street Journal and The Providence Journal … and Zackary Canepari – U.S. photographer, filmmaker, specializing in documentary storytelling.

“If gun control in the US proves impossible to get over the line, it may be time for architects to design new buildings with special lockdown alarms that divide buildings into six or seven sections, trapping potential shooters and denying them access to everyone in an entire school, workplace or place of worship.”?Stewart Stafford – U.S./Irish writer.

“The whole gun debate needs to be infused with a discussion about manhood. It's frustrating to hear debates about gun rights vs. gun control, and yet very few people say what's hidden in plain sight: It's really a contest of meanings about manhood.”?Jackson Katz – U.S. educator, filmmaker, author, has created a gender violence prevention and education program entitled 'Mentors in Violence Prevention', which is used by U.S. military and various sporting organizations.

“Guns make small men feel big.” Oliver Gaspirtz – German/U.S. cartoonist.

“America's gun culture demonstrates itself in the Wild West, Dirty Harry mentality of people who actually believe that if a number of people were armed in the theater in Aurora, they would have been able to take down this nutjob in body armor and military style artillery. When in fact almost every policeman in the country would tell you that that would have only increased the tragedy and added to the carnage.” Bob Costas – U.S. sportscaster/commentator.

“Owning a gun doesn't increase civilian security, it only threatens it, thus making it far more difficult for law enforcement to ensure public safety.” Abhijit Naskar - Indian neuroscientist, writer.

“A system in which legal police shootings of unarmed civilians are a common occurrence is a system that has some serious flaws. In this case, the drawback is a straightforward consequence of America's approach to firearms. A well-armed citizenry required an even-better-armed constabulary. Widespread gun ownership creates a systematic climate of fear on the part of the police. The result is a quantity of police shootings that, regardless of the facts of any particular case, is just staggeringly high. Young black men, in particular, are paying the price for America's gun culture.”? Matthew Yglesias – U.S. journalist, has written about economics and politics for The American Prospect, The Atlantic, and Slate.

“In addition to needed gun control reforms, America urgently needs a stronger protest movement dedicated to reducing the glorification of violence in our culture - in music, film, television, video games, and even the Internet.”? Bernice A. King – U.S. lawyer, minister, youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

“In Europe you see movies from many different countries. They're all unique in their own way. The unique thing Europeans notice about American movies: hyper-violence.” Oliver Markus Malloy – German/U.S. novelist, comic artist.

“In Canadian comedy, you'll almost never see guns. If you bring a gun into a scene, it's like, 'Whoa! Wow, how are we going to deal with that!' Guns in an American comedy are a given. Violence in America is used in a much more cavalier way.” Scott Thompson - Canadian comedian, actor, best known for being a member of the comedy troupe “The Kids in the Hall” and for playing Brian on “The Larry Sanders Show”.

“America's addiction to violence is partly evident in the heroes it chooses to glorify.” Henry Giroux – U.S. Canadian scholar, cultural critic.

“America has become numb to violence because it just drowns in it, day in and day out.” Janet Reno – U.S. lawyer, served as the 78th U.S. attorney general.

“I think America's obsession with guns and with violence in media and society is a horrible sickness.” Jeff Lemire - Canadian comic book writer, artist, television producer, author of the “Essex County Trilogy”, “Sweet Tooth”, and “The Nobody”.

“Despite widespread and vocal public outrage - often in the wake of gun violence - support for stricter laws fell last year, although a majority of Americans are still in favor, according to polling by Gallup. 57% of Americans surveyed said they wanted stricter gun laws, while 32% said they should remain the same. Ten percent surveyed said laws should be "made less strict". "Democrats are nearly unanimous in their support for stricter gun laws," another Gallup study noted, with nearly 91% in favor of stricter gun laws. Only 24% Republicans, on the other hand, agreed with the same statement, along with 45% of Independent voters. Some states have taken steps to ban or strictly regulate ownership of assault weapons. Laws vary by state but California, for example, has banned ownership of assault weapons with limited exceptions. Some controls are widely supported by people across the political divide - such as restrictions governing the sale of guns to people who are mentally ill or on "watch" lists.” From the BBC News report “Gun Violence in US and What The Statistics Tell Us” posted February 17, 2023.

“There are no free and democratic and wealthy countries in the world that have US rate of gun violence. We have to worry about loners and alienated people. We have to do better on mental health.” David Brooks – U.S. conservative political and cultural commentator, columns appear in 纽约时报 .

“Mental illness and gun violence are not directly correlated, but when the two go hand in hand, Americans - often children - lose their lives.”?Emma Gonzalez – U.S. activist, advocate for gun control, survived the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida.

“We must urge a national dialogue on better methods of curbing preventable gun violence, and address the need for mental health awareness and access to psychiatric services in this country. … Supporting mental wellness is crucial to any goal of decreasing gun violence in America.” Charles B. Rangel – U.S. politician, was a U.S. representative (Democrat) for districts in New York from 1971 to 2017.

“Legislation being pursued by Republicans in several U.S. states aims to limit use of a planned merchant code for credit card transactions at gun retailers meant to detect suspicious firearms and ammunition sales, undermining a tool welcomed by gun control advocates. The bills were introduced in states including Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming. They would prohibit or limit banks or payment processors from using the ‘merchant category code,’ or ‘MCC’, approved for gun sellers in September by the Geneva-based non-governmental International Organization for Standardization, which develops standards on various aspects of technology and manufacturing. The major credit and debit card companies have committed to using the code. Discover Financial Services has said it will introduce it in April and that it is following other companies in doing so. Discover is the first company to publicly state a timetable. The code was requested from the ISO by Amalgamated Bank of New York, which calls itself a socially responsible lender and investor. The state proposals mark the latest flashpoint for U.S. Republicans in their attack on the growing corporate consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors - what some conservatives deride as ‘woke capitalism.’ The Republican state lawmakers sponsoring the bills have said they want to prevent the code from being used to infringe upon gun rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment. Jansen Owen, a state representative who is the author of legislation in Mississippi, said that as a conservative he worries that the code among other things could be used to track lawful ammunition purchases. ‘I don't want card companies to raise interest rates or fees on merchants as a way to dissuade them’ from selling guns and ammunition, Owen told Reuters. ‘This MCC would lead to the creation of a backdoor registry’ of gun purchases in violation of state law in Florida, state Senator Danny Burgess told a February hearing on legislation he has authored. From a report posted on Reuters on February 3, 2023, by Ross Kerber – U.S. journalist.

“Thoughts and prayers won't stop a speeding bullet.” DaShanne Stokes – U.S. author, sociologist, progressive activist.

“Only with gun violence do we respond to repeated tragedies by saying that mourning is acceptable but discussing how to prevent more tragedies is not. But that’s unacceptable. As others have observed, talking about how to stop a mass shooting in the aftermath of a string of mass shootings isn’t ‘too soon.’ It’s much too late.” Ezra Klein - U.S. journalist, political analyst, 纽约时报 columnist, host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast, co-founder of Vox .

“As a nun, I’m expected to offer thoughts and prayers, and indeed I do. But that’s not enough. We must rise up and take action together to stop this violence. This can’t keep happening.” Sister Helen Prejean - ?U.S. Catholic nun, death penalty abolitionist.

“I still remember the raspy voice of the wizened cancer patient with the hole in her throat. So addicted to the poison that was killing her — cigarettes — she interspersed her words of warning about the dangers of smoking with taking puffs of a cigarette through her tracheostomy hole. It was a short, disturbing public service video shown in my sixth-grade classroom as part of an anti-smoking campaign linked to a U.S. surgeon general’s report, which for the first time officially linked smoking to cancer and heart disease. That night, I flushed my father’s cigarettes down the toilet. The woman’s image haunted my nightmares for years. After seeing that video, I never lighted up. Today that kind of video would probably not make it into the classroom, deemed inappropriate for preteens, too triggering. But that’s arguably just the kind of aggressive messaging campaign — particularly aimed at young people — we need right now to combat what has become the country’s No. 1 public health threat for American youth: guns. Firearms became the leading cause of death among those 19 and younger in 2020, owing to a dramatic spike in youth gun violence deaths during the pandemic. The gun homicide rate in the U.S. for people ages 15-24 was already 49 times as high as in other developed nations more than a decade ago. It’s a racial justice issue, too. Black males 15 to 34 are more than 20 times as likely to be a victim of gun homicide as their white counterparts. Though much of the media attention surrounds mass school shootings and the proliferation of semiautomatic weapons, handguns were used in 59% of murders and “non-negligent manslaughters.” Most gun homicides involve the shooting of a small number of people, the “ones and twos.” Little national data is available on the age of the perpetrators of this day-to-day violence, but there is evidence they are getting younger. Where I live, in Washington, D.C., 40% of suspects in shootings were 18 to 24 years old and 11% were under age 17, according to a 2021 report. Dr. Babak Sarani, co-chief of trauma surgery at George Washington University Medical Center, tells of how he’d treated one teenager four times since 2018 for gunshot wounds, until the young man died after being shot in November, at 19. In response to rising gun violence, Congress last year passed its first gun safety measure in decades and more than 500 state gun safety measures have passed in the past decade. But the carnage continues, and laws alone are unlikely to stop it, with gun ownership protected in some form by the 2nd Amendment and a Supreme Court that takes a broad view of what that means. The year 2020 saw the largest number of gun sales in the nation’s history. Our country is supersaturated with weapons. Despite all that, one important lever remains oddly underutilized: using the media, social media, and the entertainment industry to rebrand guns from symbols of status, power, and personal freedom to ones of death and carnage. Gun manufacturers, following the playbook of tobacco companies in the 1940s and 1950s, have fostered a positive image for deadly weapons among young Americans, particularly men. And they have had collaborators in the process — violent films, TV shows, and video games that glorify and glamorize weaponry. Smoking was normative in America until public health officials took it on. What allowed smoking bans in public places to gain traction was decades-long public health work to re-image the cigarette — frequently and forcefully — by officials like Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. The anti-smoking campaigns depicted the health scourge with images and language that were often deeply disturbing. That message was then echoed by public service announcements featuring celebrities from sports and films. Research has found that such emotionally charged ads can work in smoking cessation. Today we recognize guns as a public health threat. So it’s time to act with the same kind of visceral public campaign that put my dad’s cigarettes into the toilet. Today’s public service announcements on gun safety feel somewhat sanitized. None really captures the horrifying physical and emotional damage caused by guns. Maybe if we showed the public what it looks like when a kid is shot, the shock and disgust — a view of reality — would counter the social glamour of guns. The airwaves and social media channels are filled with messages urging young people to attend to their mental health. Where are the ads saying it’s not cool to pack a pistol? Would filmmakers commit to making action movies without guns, just as filmmakers stopped making smoking sexy in films? There will, of course, be debate about whether the images of gunfire and bodies would be traumatizing, especially to kids and victims’ families. But some may feel differently. Emmett Till’s mother demanded that his body be displayed in an open coffin because “everybody needed to know what happened to Emmett Till.” Disturbing images have proved powerful in awakening public outrage and prompting action: The horrific video of George Floyd’s murder lent fuel to the Black Lives Matter movement. If we want gun violence to end, there may be little choice but to show the public the true damage of guns in all its ugliness and brutality.”?Posted on Physician's Weekly on March 3, 2023 by Elisabeth Rosenthal -?U.S. physician, briefly practiced medicine in a New York City emergency room before converting to journalism, former reporter for 纽约时报 who focused on health and environment matters, currently Editor-In-Chief of KFF Health News , a nonprofit news service (editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente) covering health issues.

“If gun violence isn't already personal to you, then make it personal. Picture the faces of someone you love when you read the numbers. This conversation means nothing if a number is just a number--it has to be personal. It's going to be uncomfortable and hard--but important things often are.” Taylor Schumann - U.S. author, activist, author of “When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough”, survivor of an April 2013 shooting at the New River Community College in Christiansburg, Virginia, evolved from gun-rights supporter to gun-control activist.

“We can choose to be hopeful, try and possibly fail or not be hopeful, give up and definitely fail.” David Hogg - U.S. gun control activist, survived the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, cofounder and board member at March For Our Lives .

“We know we can't stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world, but maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence.”? Barack Obama – U.S. former president.

“Gun violence feels too big, too powerful to stop. But it’s not too big for you to take some real, meaningful actions. You control what you decide you can live with, and what you can't. You can choose whether you do something, or do nothing. You are not powerless.” Jennifer Rosen Heinz , U.S. writer, activist, founder of Outside Voice, co-creator of the viral "Kindness is Everything" sign which raised over $400k for nonprofit organizations.

“Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.” Steven Pinker – Canadian/U.S. cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist.

“Don’t let anyone tell you that these bad things happen and then everyone goes back to “normal.” … You don’t have to be ‘everyone.’ Stay with the grief. Stay with the anger. Stay troubled by it all. Stay open-hearted to those who grieve. Stay tuned to those working for change.” Morgan Harper Nichols – U.S. Christian musician, songwriter, mixed-media artist, writer.

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