President Biden wants the country to act following a school shooting Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas, that left at least 19 children and two adults dead.
“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” said Biden from the White House Tuesday night. “When in God’s name are we going to do what we know needs to be done?”
While it’s understandable that there is an impulse to want to do something after these tragedies, one must pause and consider the facts about active shooters and gun-related violence in America.
Here are eight facts that need to be part of the conversation moving forward:
1. Most Mass Killers Bought Their Guns Legally
As the New York Times recently reported, “From 1966 to 2019, 77 percent of mass shooters obtained the weapons they used in their crimes through legal purchases, according to a comprehensive survey of law enforcement data, academic papers and news accounts compiled by the National Institute of Justice, the research wing of the Justice Department.”
Democratic lawmakers are now making a push to criminalize private transfers (aka pass universal background checks), but in the majority of cases, there was nothing to disqualify these killers from purchasing a firearm from a gun shop (or FFL).
2. The “Preferred” Firearm of Active Shooters Isn’t an AR, It’s a Handgun
There’s a narrative that the “preferred weapon” of active shooters is an AR-pattern rifle. However, this is not true. The majority of active shooters use handguns to perpetrate their attacks.
According to Statista, between 1982 and May 2022, handguns were used in about 77 percent of mass shootings.
The Bloomberg-funded publication, The Trace, has even reported on this. It found that pistols were used in 56 percent of active shooter events between 2000 and 2015.
The deadliest school shooting in American history, the one at Virginia Tech in 2007, was carried out with two commonly-owned handguns.
It must be said, a national ban on black rifles would not stop mass killings.
3. Armed Citizens Stop Active Shooters
The FBI’s 2021 report on “active shooter incidents,” which was published this month, indicated that armed private citizens killed four active shooters last year.
There were a total of 61 active shooter suspects last year. Percentage-wise, that means armed citizens stopped 6.5 percent of all active shooters in 2021.
If we save even one life from gun violence, it’s worth it. Tell Congress: #WeDemandAVote. https://t.co/ykZsvHHoV5, pic.twitter.com/4JQSrrnNCC
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 22, 2013
Democratic politicians often say about gun control that “If it saves just one life, it’s worth it.”
We know without a doubt that armed citizens save lives and stop at least some of these killers each year (two active shooters were fatally shot by armed citizens in 2020).
SEE ALSO: Good Guy With Gun Attempted to Stop Mass Killer in Buffalo
It’s “worth it” to wholeheartedly embrace the role that armed citizen responders, who are lawfully exercising their right to bear arms in public, can play in stopping these events.
Anyone who denies the fact that good guys with guns save lives is lying.
4. Rate of Mass Public Shootings Is Higher Globally and Increasing More Rapidly
“They have mental health problems, they have domestic disputes in other countries, they have people who are lost,” said President Biden on Tuesday night, referencing his recent trip to Asia. “These kinds of mass shootings never happen at the frequency that they happen in America.”
Back in 2020, Dr. John R. Lott, President of the Crime Prevention Research Center, considered mass public shootings worldwide between 1998 and 2015 and found that the United States makes up less than 1.13 percent of the mass public shooters, 1.77 percent of their murders, and 2.19 percent of their attacks – all while accounting for 4.6 percent of the world’s population, as GunsAmerica previously reported.
“While Americans are understandably concerned with the increased frequency and severity of mass public shootings, the rest of the world has experienced a much larger increase in their per capita rates than the United States,” Lott said at the time.
Mass shootings do, indeed, happen elsewhere.
5. Most Gun Crime is Driven By A Small Group of Known Offenders
The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform found in a new study that a small group of known offenders is responsible for the vast majority of gun crimes in Washington, D.C.
The study’s author said, “This very small number of high-risk individuals are identifiable. Their violence is predictable and therefore it is preventable.”
Per the study, 86 percent of victims and suspects have previously been involved with the D.C. criminal justice system.
“Overall, most victims and suspects with prior criminal offenses had been arrested about 11 times for about 13 different offenses by the time of the homicide,” the study said.
The author estimates that about 500 known offenders are responsible for 60-70 percent of the city’s shootings.
Reducing gun violence overall starts with understanding who is mostly responsible for it. Known criminals. The question must be asked, why are politicians and prosecutors putting these known violent offenders back out on the streets?
6. Gun Violence Disproportionately Affects African American Males
While mass public shootings grab much of the mainstream media’s attention, they are a statistically rare event, accounting for less than .5 percent of all homicides in a given year, according to Rand.org.
The reality of gun violence is that it hits the black community the hardest, specifically young black males living in economically disadvantaged communities.
Per a new CDC report examining the 35% spike in gun violence from 2019 to 2020, the authors found that black males between the ages of 10 and 24 were 21 times more likely than their white counterparts to die from gun homicides.
Put another way, young black males make up two percent of the U.S. population but accounted for nearly 38 percent of all gun homicides in 2020, as a Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence analysis explained.
“We’re losing too many of our nation’s children and young people — specifically Black boys and young Black men,” Dr. Debra Houry, the acting principal deputy director of the CDC, told NPR.
7. Most Gun Deaths Are Suicides, Not Homicides
Mental health as it relates to diagnosing and committing homicidal individuals is critically important, but it’s also critically important to recognize mental health in the context of self-harm.
Year over year, firearm suicides consistently outpace firearm homicides.
In 2020, for example, there was a total of 45,222 gun deaths, approximately 24,000 were suicide and 19,350 were homicides, per the CDC.
While we need to discuss how we as a society can better identify those on the verge of harming others, we also need to do a better job of identifying those on the verge of harming themselves.
8. Virtually All the Studies That Show Gun Control Works Are Significantly Flawed
In the coming weeks, many pro-gun control politicians and activists will cite studies that ostensibly bolster their position to infringe on 2A rights. It’s important to remember that virtually all the studies that claim gun control works are significantly flawed.
Reason.com put together the video above that is a must-watch, and it explains in detail what’s wrong with the body of academic literature supporting tougher gun laws as a means to reduce crime.
“We took a look at the significance of the 123 rigorous empirical studies and what they actually say about the efficacy of gun control laws,” says Reason in the accompanying article.
“The answer: nothing,” they continue. “The 123 studies that met RAND’s criteria may have been the best of the 27,900 that were analyzed, but they still had serious statistical defects, such as a lack of controls, too many parameters or hypotheses for the data, undisclosed data, erroneous data, misspecified models, and other problems.”
“This matters because gun laws, even if they don’t accomplish their goals, have large costs. They can turn otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals, they increase prosecutorial power and incarceration, and they exacerbate the racial and socioeconomic inequities in the criminal justice system,” they add.
Conclusion
Please like and share and feel free to add to this list in the comment section.
Democrats need to acknowledge all of the facts on the table before they rush to curtail the 2A rights of law-abiding citizens.
This is what BHO meant when he said “ah inten to fundamenally restructure America as we know it”, since one must destructure a thing before one can restructure it. Its in the book! Of course, the red acolytes with the koolaid mustaches dont read far enough to find that they, as useful fools, will be tossed aside after the win, because socialism hates traitors and turncoats. This explains why the left so rabidly despise Reagan, Romney, and Trump; they were all democrats once.
I always enjoy it when the GAD trots out Prof. Lott to discourse on how low the US rates against the rest of the world when it comes to shooting mayhem. As he’s noted before, we do pretty well against Western and South and Central Asia, Sub-Sahara Africa, South America and other undeveloped and sometimes chaotic places, where killings can run into the hundreds, even thousands at a clip. But not so good against our industrial equals: From 1998 to 2020 there were 101 mass shootings in the US, against 1, for instance, in Austria, Australia, Norway and the UK, 2 in Switzerland, 2 in Netherlands, 2 in Italy, 2 in Czechoslovakia, 2 in Belgium, 4 in Canada and 8 in France. This according to a survey by William R. Silva of William Patterson University. Maybe if we confiscated the black guns from our 18- to 20-year-old set and sent them abroad, the Europeans would start pulling their weight.
Density of population is not accounted for. Multiple ethnic groups are not accounted for. Upbringing not accounted for. And other things to consider.
I note we seem to have a fellow commenteer who signs as jerry; please do not blame him for anything i said….
Facts are irrelevant to Maoists & neo-communists when a political
agenda is at stake . To them the ends justify the means .
The plan , I believe , is to disarm and enslave the American people .
Thereby mandating any policy with no resistance , creating a happy
communist utopia where they are in charge .
Any disputes with that suggestion ?
Firearms are not the problem, people are the problem. What is needed to reduce the violence will be very difficult to achieve. But, we should try our best because our lives, quite literally, depend on it. Targets for improvement include: breaking up gangs, reducing glorified violence in the media and on the internet, teaching morality and core values in homes and in our schools, addressing the single parent household issues, strengthening the bonds of church and faith affiliation, treating criminals like what they are instead of making excuses for their criminality, getting rid of the “woke” and “me too” mindset, restoring personal responsibility. If you are thinking the list is too long or unachievable then you might be part of the problem.
So much BS,excuses,and defection. Bubbinator left his loaded 357 on a stool beside a busy street for 24 hours and it didn’t kill anyone. What kind of delusional idiot would say,do or believe that? Then there’s Joe it’s the Dems fault trying to push their agenda on us. Ivo who wants schools to be locked down like a prison it wasn’t like that when you went to school was it. Then there’s JD the Dems and liberals were behind the school shootings to divirt attention from Roe vs Wade and the rising cost of living. So much BS. An eighteen year old should not have access to a military style weapon unless they’re in the military. Our founders had no idea whatsoever how the country would evolve yet people keep falling back on that horse and buggy mentality. Kids are being murdered for no reason and we continue to allow it to happen. Does it have to be your child before you understand?
The MAJORITY of murdered kids is because of gang and drug violence. “For no reason” shows your gross ignorance on the subject.
And the vast majority were not killed by “military style weapon”‘s, it was handguns mostly, and often weilded by a criminal who has been realesed multiple times.
Did you even read the article, or just start typing your misinformation like a good little minion?
Well said.
Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people and never used a gun. Deranged determined killers can find many means to kill from bombs to cars running people over. In over 90% of cases we know in advance a person will act violently based on their behavior. School killers fall into one of 3 diagnosis, psychosis, antisocial personality, and PTSD. These are easily identified by parents teachers and mental health professionals. Heres the problem, we cant mandate long term treatment. After few days they can refuse and be free to do as they please. Getting them in a long term commitment gives us control of their behavior and we can prevent most of these acts of violence.
Include a HIPPA waiver part of every background check form. Define these specific diagnosis as rejections; psychosis, antisocial personality, PTSD with a violent history, and involuntary commitment for any reason. Then require the FBI to investigate each of these rejections.
We can make changes that will prevent many mass shootings.
Make changes in 3 areas based on the history of school shooters that involve background checks, mental health law, and school security.
1. Expand the background database to include specific diagnosed mental disorders associated with past school shooters, psychosis (schizophrenia), antisocial personality (psychopath), PTSD with a history of violence, any involuntary commitment, will be an automatic rejection. The FBI will be mandated to investigate each rejection. A HIPPA waiver must be added to the background check form.
2. Laws that limit mandated treatment for the above diagnosis and the violent mentally ill must be changed to allow long term treatment they can’t refuse. Today commitments last for days we need them to last for months, years, and in some cases for life. Treatment can be outpatient in most cases we don’t have to lock people in institutions anymore.
3. Harden the schools with federal standards involving security and impose severe penalties for noncompliance. The Texas shooter entered through an unlocked door that can’t be allowed to happen. Let the experts define those standards. This will prevent many of the school shooters before they act out.
I think that many understand that the communist ideological leaning democrats and rinos could care less about facts, their goal is total control of the country and the little people having guns gets in the way if that goal! They apparently could care less about loss of life as long as they can blame an inanimate object for it they are happy!
And you doing nothing means what? That you care? NONSENSE. Anyone with a brain and a conscience can see the need to do a better job keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.
I hope that someone is looking into how this murderer was able to purchase $6,000 to $8,000 in guns, sights, ammo and other gear. I also want to know about the teacher that prop the door open before the murderer got there. This is starting to smell like a politician or anti-gun group had involvement. This murderer was an easy mark. Since he was known by his friends as “School Shooter”.
Thank you for pointing that out! Seems nobody cares about that little detail!
What about these facts.. in most states….you need a license to fish.. a license, a physical exam, a drug and alcohol screen to drive a truck, plus get evtered into a data base,you need id. And get background check to fly at airports, an 18 cannot purchase cigarettes, a beer or lottery tickets !!! .. to just get a stupid crap job, you gotta have a background check, take drug and alcohol tests screens .. not a god damn thing to purchase a firearm in A LOT of states…. And.. the NRA convention was a gunfree zone ???? americas gun culture is really pathetic..and back asswards!..but keep spewing bs and lies about gov tyranny and such!.. the only REAL tyranny is coming from so called christians and gun owners as they oppress everyone with their rhetoric, agenda and violence.. see you in hell mfs!
Take a fishing license. Why in the hell would anyone need a license to fish?
It’s known as government overreach. Americans who wrote out the Constitution had NO idea how corrupt future politicians would be.
Which, BTW, explains the need for the Second Amendment.
Didn’t I see you at that Antifa rally last summer? Oh yeah, you’re the guy who got duct taped to a telephone pole with a dildo on your head. How you doing man?
How bad are the liberal/democrats if we can even think they might have been behind a mass shooting? They want to divert attention from what they have done to our recently flourishing economy. Food prices are up 50%, gasoline and heating fuels are way up. Divert attention from the doddering mental giant they elected. It’s plain who let out the news of the SCOTUS review of Roe vs. Wade. Could this be dirty politics at its worst? is there no end to their hate?
The goal among gun owners and especially the gun community, should be to seek ways to reduce gun violence. Gun owners need to identify ways, of which there are many, to reduce gun violence. It begins by securing weapons. It continues with inculcating pride and responsibility among gun owners. Gun owners who leave their loaded pistol on top of the refrigerator in a house shared with children and young adults, and say, for example, “My son knows never to touch my gun,” are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
What? Nobody remenbers Eddie Eagle? The left hated him so much, that they lied about his message, and poured tons more money into their lie than the NRA could afford. I read where on the last handful of presidential elections, planned parenthood (aka plannd non-parenthood) pours (who to believe?) 30-50× the money into electing “democrats” than the NRA/gun lobby has in their 150 years of freedom advocacy, but alas cannot pinpoint the pertinent quotes.
I have yet to see a study on the toxicology of mass killers. I think it is vital to report the types of legal and illegal drugs in the systems of these maniacs. The silence on this issue is deafening to me.
Big Pharma does not want that data disseminated, exposing the role of Psychotropics in many of those violent crimes.
Best source i can think of, right-off, is Art Bell, Coast To Coast radio, early 2000’s, and his interviews with the military nurse who studied and compiled ritalin/et.c. data, cant recall her name, joyce reilly? Gulf war syndrome, prions in food, drugs forced on schoolkids, withdrwal from them, interesting base to begin your own search if gooogle hasent wiped it all
The deinstitutionalization of the US began in the 1960’s. Due to the negative stigma of “Insane Asylums” as they were called back then, along with the bureaucratic mismanagement of these institutions and many of the horrors that went on behind their walls.
But, where did they put the residents of these facilities as they were shuttered? In the streets, to self-monitor and self-medicate.
Simultaneously, young men who were heavily mentally damaged from the Viet Nam war (oops, “conflict”), (Oops, “police action”), returned home with something that was not identified or studied at that time, but now commonly known as PTSD.
So, as population increased, and mental illness continued to remain unaddressed, this component of the “problem” continued to fester. When you pile on new factor after new factor (fatherless homes, urban blight, institutionalization of the education system, social pressures, economic pressures, a shift away from moral values, influence of violence in entertainment, the list is long, btw), you’re putting good tinder atop a powder keg, in direct sunlight, during a string of hot days, with no rain for weeks, and lit cigarettes strewn about, why is there shock when that powder keg ignites?
It’s a mad, mad world we live in today, and these are strange days, for sure. But, yet, the talking point after tragedy immediately goes to the 2A, along with actions to infringe it.
The talking point from the side of those who support all 27 words of that one written sentence that makes up the beauty of #2 of 10 original good building blocks of a country that values liberty and sovereignty of its citizenry, MUST shout down the non-supporters with our need to act instead on mental health, including the hard conversation of reinstitutionalization, and how to ensure it’s properly funded and correctly managed.
This is the best answer, in my opinion.
Max, I think you nailed it.Back in the day almost every county had a facility and yes they weren’t the best places for people with mental illness because they were for the most part under funded.They were paid through county and state support.When they closed there was no place for them to go unless private facilities took them in,so a medicate and release policy took over.Government turned a blind eye
Loss of life is bad but in each of the cases from Parkland to Texas each and every parent which is blaming the weapon when out of their own mouth is the reason for the tragic incident. They explain how someone just walked into the school with the AR15 and in 4 minuets shot 150 rounds from a look alike assault weapon. Remember the words (Just Walked IN). If you don’t harden the target so no one (Just Walks In) you cannot protect the children from any person who in intent in harming them.
That Uvalde school has been described as a hardened building, but some lazy fool either unlocked that teachers lounge door, and left it unlocked, or propped it open. This monster may have known it was a habit, and hoped it still was. These doors should be alarmed, but lazy peopke are known to find ways to defeat alarms…..at their own peril.
All the laws in the world will not stop people from ANY kind of violence. There is and always has been a law throughout time which is ALWAYS ignored by these “shooters” and the Left – murder, by any means, is illegal.
Not true loser!.. this gun dynamic ONLY happens in good ole merica.. .. this happens in no other nation in the world at the Usa rate.. not even close.. you can by a gun .. but not a lottery ticket? ..i hope you all have loved ones that get smoked when you cant be there to “ save” them haha…everything needs to be regulated to some extent because humans .. are fools and idiots….this includes most of you loser mfs!
Ah, the sound of reason…..the reason we let youse say any silly-assed thing youse wants to say. Is it better to remain silent, and be thought a fool, or to speak out, and remove all doubt? Be careful, there; God (or, if you will, karma) remembers the things you wish upon others…..
OK folks time to stop the BS. First, stop talking about gun control. That’s a stupid left wing liberal phrase that has nothing to do with the problem. No one wants to control you. Second, gun laws do work. It took me 8 months to get my pistol permit. My state knows I’m one of the good guys, they checked me out. I’m not crazy and I not a criminal. I’m an Army veteran and a firefighter. Third, if it was as hard to buy a handgun in Virginia or Texas as it is in New York you wouldn’t have someone who lives in NY with a Virginia drivers license going down south to pick up a few cheap pistols to sell to gang bangers in the Big Apple or any other big city where gun violence is out of control. That’s where gun legislation works. Fourth, unless you’re in the military no one under 21 should be able to buy a gun. And if daddy bought it for you he should be responsible for what happens with that gun. Kids are messed up in the head that’s why they call them kids. Just my opinion.
You assume that all “crazy” people and criminals are in some sort of government data base….they are NOT. A couple of years ago, the USAF failed to report a known violent domestic abuser to NICS, and he shot up a church after being dishonorably discharged. You also suggest that a “crazy” 18yo will suddenly be “normal” @ 21, or that a “normal” 21yo won’t go “crazy” @ 22. There are too many variables in mental health, including patient’s refusal to seek treatment, “crazy” people flying under the radar (without their own loved ones knowing), FAILURE of treatment, WORSENING of symptoms from treatment (increased suicidal thoughts, increased anxiety and mania, etc), and, of course, a total inability of psychiatry to predict who will be violent and when. Sure, help the folks who are willing to seek treatment or whom get committed, but don’t expect “mental health services” to be a cure-all for evil and psychopathies
Gotta love these “Army types” who think only government workers should be allowed to possess firearms, since WE ALL “KNOW” none of THEM are criminals! (smh)
Gun laws do not work. Show me where the restrictions you had to go through stopped one crime. Laws are only followed by those who are LAW ABIDING citizens. Criminals by nature, do not follow laws.
What data can you bring forth/link to that shows people are going to Virginia to purchase guns to sell in NYC?
You have heard about all the new excessively restrictive “laws” on firearms that have been passed in Virginia?
Your post sounds a lot like sound bites from NYC officials.
“Fourth, unless you’re in the military no one under 21 should be able to buy a gun.”
So it’s the CLOTHES people wear? Is THAT it? The UNIFORM makes you special, sane, and altruistic? Because I thought the military was full of people who signed up to kill others for a PAYCHECK.
This is as stupid as saying that the Uvalde shooter shouldn’t have been able to possess an AR because he didn’t have MILITARY TRAINING… as if THAT would have made the situation better. The military doesn’t train you to be considerate of others, they train you to be a BETTER KILLER. And NEWS FLASH (headline):
“Army lifts ban on recruits with history of self-mutilation, drug and alcohol abuse”
(Miami Herald, Nov. 12, 2017)
“People with a history of drug and alcohol abuse, self-mutilation, depression and bipolar disorder can now seek waivers to join the Army, according to USA TODAY.”
How about THIS: No purchasing of “assault weapons” until TWENTY-FIVE years of age, AND no VOTING, no ALCOHOL, no CIGARETTES, no joining the MILITARY, and NOTHING ELSE that requires the age of majority? Just change the legal age to 25… DEAL?
You missed one important one: criminals by definition don’t obey laws. Why do the dems think criminals are going to obey the next ine?
If the truth was really known I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dems weren’t really behind these mass shootings. A sacrifice for the greater good. To get their agenda pushed on us.
I left my .357 magnum pistol, loaded, sitting on a stool beside a busy street for 24 hours. It did not shoot a single person! People are problem. Sick people need help, bad people need incarceration. Untrained police need training. Lazy police need firing! Politicians need to stop with proven time and time again to fail Gun Control and start funding security measures known to work. Gun free zones are a joke just like gun laws are a joke to a criminal. By definition they will violate the law. Lax judges need censuring, laws on the books need enforcing. Fact: Of 193 countries USA is #3 in murders. Take the murder rates from these 5 long time democrat controlled cities – DC, Chicago, New Orleans, St. Louis and Detroit that drops the USA to 189 out of 193! Facts needing to be told. Democrats fail on all counts.
We need to speak the truth. The select few who hold political sway in our country don’t give a rat’s ass how many “little people” die. If they did, career criminals would never see the light of day. The oligarchy’s REAL objective is an emasculated & defenseless population that can be easily subjugated.
Our founders understood this and we once learned such history in our schools. We slowly lost the educational system over the past 50 years. I don’t see a peaceful way forward for people who are so diametrically opposed. There already ARE two “Americas”… we just haven’t worked out the geographical boundaries yet. That process will likely be via the ammo box rather than the ballot box.
Let’s take this one step further, all males must register their DNA in a National database to stop rape.
According to the CDC, having studied the prevailing “gun control” models in the U.S., none are effective at reducing violence. NONE! Now let’s consider the real problem. Since guns are inanimate objects, it takes “something” animate to commit a crime with one. Until the country admits this simple fact and addresses human problems– like poor education, hopelessness, etc.– the incidents will continue.
You indicated that over half of all active shooter incidents use pistols. This is not surprising. What I think would be a far more interesting statistic would be the number of victims in active shooter events by gun type. When a shooter wants to kill as many people as possible I would think they turn to the AR-pattern rifle.
You might think so . . . but you’d be wrong. Read the article again, and look at the underlying data. You’ll find that what “you would think” diverges from what’s actually true.
at least half the country is on some kind of medication, drugs are basically legal, excuses are made to mitigate the shooter’s involvement, criminals are catch and release, celebrities are above the law……just what do you think these kids/people are learning from this crap???? Answer: it’s okay to do what I want, ain’t nothing going to happen to me! Mental health problems my ass……