This commentary is by Joe Randazzo of South Burlington, a writer and a former case resolution specialist for ICE.
There’s a lot of outrage over the U.S. Senate failure to pass gun control measures. In response, President Biden is attempting to initiate controls by executive action. The Justice Department is moving quickly to hold the nation’s police departments accountable for their abuses.
These efforts are necessary but, ultimately, the legislative approach will not end the violence.
If you look at the mass murders committed in this country, they are but a small part of our total. There were 38,390 deaths by firearms in 2018, the last year for complete statistics; 337 were part of mass shootings.
But if we also take into account those wounded (28,233) and defensive shooting deaths (1,888), the total jumps to 68,511 people shot by firearms in the U.S.
Our lawmakers feel that insisting on background checks at gun shows, or limiting capacity to a 10-round magazine, or outlawing assault rifles or a particular pistol stock, it will somehow ensure our safety. This is false security.
So far this year, as of April 20, 177 people had been killed in Chicago, 32 more than in all of 2020. More people are killed in that city, in one year, than in all of Scandanavia or in many European countries.
This wasn’t one mass murder in Chicago. These people have died one or two at a time, often in gang-related crimes. The shooters who get these weapons will always be able to find them. There are millions in circulation and they simply cannot all be confiscated. If they are outlawed, a thriving black market will be created.
There are thousands of weapons on the streets of New York City, in spite of the Sullivan Law, one of the toughest anti-gun measures in the U.S. The same is true in Boston: Massachusetts has one of the toughest gun laws in the country, yet gang members in Boston can get any handgun they want.
As of 2020, there were 393 million guns in the U.S. for 328 million people. We are ranked No. 1 in the world in per-capita civilian gun ownership, with 120 guns per 100,000 people.
Out of 230 countries surveyed, Canada is ranked very high at seventh place in per-capita gun ownership with 34.7 guns. The U.S.has twice as many as second-place Falkland Islands (62) and four times more than 19th-place, violence-torn Iraq (29.6).
Vermont ranks 16th in the U.S. in per-capita gun ownership, but we are last in gun homicides. Why don’t Vermont and Canada have high gun-murder rates? A .22-caliber farm rifle or shotgun can be loaded and fired quickly enough for anyone to commit mass murder.
No, it isn’t just the availability and type of firearms: It’s our quality of life. We have a culture that glorifies violence. Look at the video games that our young people are playing. Have you ever stopped to examine the level of violence present? Many school murders have as their root cause exposure by young people to these games.
In our major cities, unjustified police violence against people of color is unprecedented. Our police departments are now militarized, and our national ethos is based on military dominance. Ninety-five percent of all the military bases on earth are American.
Is it any wonder then that all of this trickles down to the streets? This problem isn’t about a lone terrorist sympathizer who shoots up a nightclub in Orlando, or a mentally disturbed Federal Express employee and the rifle he was carrying.
It’s about an entire culture that is immersed in violence, and our violence starts at the top. Our military/industrial/government complex is too powerful. Yes, laws are needed to keep military firearms out of the wrong hands, but it’s a distraction and a partial solution at best.
The French pediatrician Dr. Jérôme Lejeune said, “The quality of a civilization can be measured by the respect it has for its weakest members.”
When our national policy calls for sending drones around the world that kill innocent civilians in “collateral damage,” and people like Trump talk about building walls and racial profiling as if they were no big deal, it’s no wonder we’re in a state of despair.
The killing will stop when it stops of its own accord. You can’t legislate against it. If we pass laws against firearms ownership, magazine capacity, or any other methods of false security, it will not end the violence. Our country is awash in weaponry and they will not disappear.
Our lawmakers instead should be creating universal health care, affordable housing and college tuition, raising the minimum wage to livable levels, and battling the drug epidemics in our inner cities. Our social infrastructure is crumbling, and we are in decline.
We can’t create a permanent, poor underclass who have no hope and then wonder why there is violence. If we fail to realize that all Americans have the right to a happy life, the killings will never stop.
Guns are just the method, not the cause.
