America’s smoking guns are going nowhere

Editor’s note: Stephen Ndegwa, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is the Executive Director of South-South Dialogues, a Nairobi-based communications development think tank. The article reflects the author’s opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN. 

The month of July in the United States has passed with the dubious distinction of accumulatively recording more than 400 mass shootings so far this year. With slightly less than half a year left in 2023, the number of mass shootings was up by 9 percent, compared to the 365 mass shootings recorded in the same month in 2022. It is a scenario reminiscent of the Wild West.

According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a national website that tracks firearm deaths and injuries in the U.S., there were 647 mass shootings in 2022, a figure that is set to be exceeded this year going by the current crime rate. According to these grim statistics, there is at least one mass shooting per day in the U.S. The GVA defines a mass shooting as a single event in which four or more victims are injured or killed, minus the shooter.

We would never hear the last of it if this outrage happened in another country. The superpower would be pontificating about the responsibility of every government to protect human life and practice the rule of law. But, hey, it seems Americans can get away with murder both at home and abroad.

The U.S. authorities seem unable to come to grips with the worsening situation. Otherwise, one cannot fathom how a superpower that prides itself on having the best democratic and governance credentials in the world has failed to eradicate such a large-scale gun crime pandemic within its borders.

Still, there are people and institutions that gain massively from this almost daily chaos and cannot afford to lose their profits. The usual suspects include the U.S. gun industry and its gun lobby lapdogs like the National Rifle Association (NRA). The U.S. gun industry’s in-country revenues run into billions of dollars annually, a profit motive propelled by economic liberalism and liberal democracy. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an average of 13 million guns were sold legally in the U.S. each year between 2010 and 2019, increasing to about 20 million per year in both 2020 and 2021.

The gun lobby is a law unto itself. In May 2022, President Joe Biden reiterated his appeal to Congress to “stand up” to the gun lobby following a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where at least 19 children and two adults were killed. He was using the precedence set by a reduction of mass shootings after the enactment of the 1994 assault-weapons law, which expired in 2004. But Biden, like his previous predecessors, has been unable to silence the guns.

One can feel Biden’s frustrations. According to The New York Times, at least nine members of Congress have served on the NRA’s board of directors over the last half-century. In February 2018, nonpartisan group OpenSecrets published a list of congressional candidates who received money from the NRA. In 2016, the amount totaled $54 million in direct contributions, lobbying and outside spending. As of March 2023, total NRA funds donated to or used to elect members of the legislature was $27 million. Expecting these political cohorts to bite the hands that feed them would be a tall order.

The increase in drug abuse and the post-COVID-19 mental health crisis have also contributed to spiraling gun crime in the country. In addition, rising unemployment and declining economic performance have worsened the deepening frustrations and the list of grievances. All of these problems that Americans grapple with were hitherto seen as the preserve of poor countries.

The police can also be blamed for setting a bad example of the rule of law in a country that prides itself as the epitome of democracy and civilization. The extrajudicial killings of, mainly, members of the Black community on flimsy excuses such as minor traffic offenses and petty misdemeanors have created a culture of intolerance.

Clearly, socioeconomic pressures have exacerbated mass shootings as people vent their frustrations on the nearest soft targets. Since it seems impossible to take on the oppressive system, the perpetrators resort to punishing these defenseless targets.

According to a study by the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus published on July 26, other causal factors of mass shootings include “social motivations” like religious hate and domestic terrorism. The states with the highest number of mass shootings are predominantly in the south – Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Missouri. These states have a long history of socioeconomic injustice.

Observers are of the view that mass shootings are actually genocide against minorities. The majority of the perpetrators of mass killings are white, while the victims are mainly people of color. According to a study published by Statista, the authoritative German online data portal, between 1982 and April 2023, 74 of the 142 mass shootings in the U.S. were carried out by white gunmen. In comparison, the perpetrators of 25 mass shootings were African American and 11 were Hispanic. This corresponds to 52 percent, 17 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

On mass shootings, the U.S. is in a class of its own. Statista also shows that the number of mass shootings in other members of the Group of Seven (G7), the most economically advanced countries, was negligible. For instance, there were 288 recorded school shootings in the U.S. between 2009 and 2018, which was 57 times as many as those in other G7 countries combined.   

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