China Daily Online, October 30th-The mass shooting incident in Lewiston, Maine, USA has become another tragic milestone of gun violence in the United States. According to the data of the non-profit organization "Gun Violence Archive", there were three shootings in this incident, which killed at least 22 people and injured as many as 60 people, making it the deadliest mass shooting incident in 2023.
An article on The Trace website in the United States wrote: "Are incidents like the Iuvaldi campus shooting and the Lewiston shooting really becoming more and more common in the United States? Answer: Yes. " Mass shootings have become so frequent in the United States that Americans often feel that those random and indiscriminate shootings may happen anytime and anywhere without warning.
Screenshot of the American The Trace website article
The data from 1966 to 2023 collected by The Violence Project, a non-partisan organization that studies gun violence, shows that with the passage of time, mass shootings in the United States are not only more frequent, but also more and more deadly.
VOX News reported on the 26th that the factors leading to the tragedy such as the shooting incident in Lewiston are deeply rooted in American politics, culture and law. Gun violence is unique to the United States, but it should not be normalized.
Screenshot of American VOX News Network article
Since 2015, the number of mass shootings in the United States has been increasing, reaching a peak of 686 in 2021. As of the end of October this year, there have been 565 mass shootings in the United States. At this rate, the record in 2021 will be broken.
Spain’s MARCA website reported that this was the third consecutive year that there were more than 500 mass shootings in the United States before November. Studies show that five years ago, the number of mass shootings in the United States did not exceed 500 in a year.
Screenshot of Marca newspaper website report
Gun violence has increased at such a rapid rate that more and more lives have been taken away across the United States. This trend is worrying. According to the data of "Gun Violence Archives", as of October 28, all kinds of gun-related incidents in the United States have caused more than 35,500 deaths this year.
According to the report, the availability of guns is one of the important factors that caused this crisis. There are about 120 guns for every 100 Americans, and a large number of American adults live in families with guns. No country has more private guns than the population like the United States.
VOX News Network pointed out that although the US Congress reached an agreement on limited gun reform last year, "narrow reform" did not stop the spread of gun violence in the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the social view of supporting citizens to own guns has been deeply rooted in politics, culture and law. Under such circumstances, many red states have relaxed their gun laws in the past few years, instead of making it more difficult for the public to obtain guns.
David Yamane, a professor of American gun culture at Wake Forest University, said: "The uniqueness of the United States is that guns always exist, and ordinary people widely own guns, and the government does not claim to have a greater monopoly on guns."
According to the article, it is difficult to estimate the number of privately owned guns in the United States, not only because there is no nationwide database to register whether people own guns, but also because the black market of guns "flourishes" in the absence of strong federal gun trafficking laws. In addition, people can make their own guns by using DIY kits or 3D printers, and gun lobby groups strongly oppose federal legislation to track gun sales and establish a national pistol registration system.
A large number of guns and more guns mean more gun-related deaths. Researchers have found that there is a clear connection between gun ownership and gun violence in the United States, and some people think that the two are causal.
In 2013, a study led by Boston University showed that for every one percentage point increase in the family gun rate, the gun-related homicide rate in the state increased by 0.9%. The research of "Everytownfor Gun Safety", an advocacy organization for gun control, also shows that states with weak gun laws have higher rates of gun-related homicide and gun-related suicide.
Robert Spitzer, a professor of gun control politics at new york State University SUNY Cortland, pointed out that in modern times, the hunting element of American gun culture has been covered by a highly politicized concept. This concept holds that carrying guns is freedom, individuality and expression of personal self-protection.
The occurrence of large-scale shootings is not only difficult to promote the implementation of gun control, but also more difficult to explore policy solutions against gun violence under the influence of American gun culture, because these measures are too extreme by American standards. For example, it was nearly ten years after the shooting incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School that the US Congress passed a new gun control law. The "Two-Party Safer Community Law" passed in June 2022 has limited effect.
At the same time, many states have been seeking to expand gun ownership in recent years. At present, at least 27 states have passed laws that allow residents to carry pistols without permits and allow school staff to carry guns on campus.
The article further points out that the US Supreme Court makes it impossible to solve the problem of gun violence. In 2008, the Supreme Court wrote Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association (NRA), into the US Constitution.
The Second Amendment of the American Constitution stipulates that "well-managed militia is necessary to ensure the security of a free state, so the people’s right to hold and carry weapons shall not be violated". According to the article, under this legal system, for those who believe that the US government should protect citizens from gun violence, the situation facing the US gun control is still grim.
(Compile: Gao Linlin Editor: Yip Wong)
[Editor: Gao Linlin]