Violent Crime Victimization per 100,000 People, 12 and Older

Pew

People aren’t wrong to note that gun violence recently overtook deaths by automobile as a cause of death in the United States, but the important context is that both of those numbers have been steadily decreasing—which is a good thing!

ANSWER

I get it, but that’s beside the point. When I look at the number of murders in Chicago and Baltimore last year, or the succession of mass shootings, it tells me that we need to do more to stop gun violence. I think President Obama has the right idea: background checks for all gun sales; an assault-weapons ban; a 10-round maximum for magazines; and strict enforcement of laws against “straw purchasers” for guns.

QUESTION

Okay, fair enough—but would Obama’s proposals really have much impact on the problem of gun violence? They might look like “common sense” to many (though

certainly not all) Americans, and they might prevent some deaths, but it’s hard to believe they would make a serious dent in the rate of gun violence. Let’s take them one at a time. But first, it’s important to draw a distinction. Many of Obama’s proposals have been inspired by and publicized after mass shootings. But most gun violence isn’t mass shootings. Around two-thirds of annual U.S. gun deaths are suicides. Of the remaining third, only a tiny fraction are from mass shootings. It doesn’t take anything away from the horror of those events to suggest that mass shootings are a fairly small part of the problem.

Now, on to Obama’s ideas. First, background checks: The idea here is that there are people who shouldn’t be getting guns but are, and are causing mayhem with them. The best research we have suggests that universal background checks would probably have some negative effect on the number of shootings. The main reason appears to be simply that it takes guns out of circulation. In terms of what effect it might have on the cases you cite, one calculation based on a database compiled by Mother Jones found that more than 80 percent of guns in mass shootings were legal.

One of the more striking pieces of journalism about mass shootings in the last year has been The New York Times’ “How They Got Their Guns,” a visual display of the types of firearms used in notable shootings, tracing how the shooters got the weapons. What starts to jump out as you trudge through the tragedies is how many of the guns were acquired legally.

All 14 guns belonging to the Umpqua shooter? Legally purchased. Adam Lanza? He had access to guns belonging to his mother, who bought them legally. There are some more marginal cases. For example, Dylann Roof should have been blocked from buying his pistol because he admitted drug possession. He was allowed to buy the gun not because the rules weren’t strict enough but because of human error—meaning the existing system should have worked to stop him. Why bother tightening controls if the current rules work but aren’t enforced, some gun-rights advocates ask?