The recent mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia are tragic reminders of something we have long known: America has a gun problem. Each day, over 100 people in the United States are killed by guns, and over 230 are wounded. We face an average of 38,826 gun deaths each year, about two-thirds of which are suicides. These ongoing daily tragedies have formed a kind of white noise in the background of our national life. To our shame, we have become so accustomed to it, we sometimes forget it is there—until another horrific mass shooting breaks through and reminds us. Gun rights have become a grotesque parody of their original intent. The “well regulated Militia” specified in the Second Amendment has become the active shooter in the shopping mall, spa, or school, the toddler accidentally discharging her parent’s gun, the depressed individual turning a pistol on himself.
This problem has been prolonged and deepened by long-standing intransigence at the federal level. The success of the gun lobby has been a triumph of special interests over the will of the American people, the majority of whom favor common-sense gun laws. According to a 2019 Pew Research Center poll, 60 percent of Americans favor stricter gun laws, an increase from 52 percent in 2017.
In recent years, calls for action on guns have grown louder. The 2018 Parkland, Fla., shooting, in particular, catalyzed a new approach to the issue of gun violence, led by young people, notably reflected in the March for Our Lives.
Read the full piece on BU Today.