Thirteen killed at an immigration center in New York. Eight at a nursing home in North Carolina. Five in a house in California. These were among the 57 people killed in mass shootings in a 30-day period this spring in the U.S. Meanwhile, new laws are easing restrictions on guns.

Congress recently approved a bill to allow guns in national parks. Tennessee has passed similar measures for its state parks. In South Carolina, a bill under debate would allow weapons on school grounds. Texas may welcome guns into bars. In Montana, a new law requires landlords and hotel owners to allow firearms on their premises.

The bills’ supporters say these measures may actually help head off greater violence. “Crime can happen anywhere,” says Andrew Arulanandam of the National Rifle Association. “The only thing that can stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun. Law enforcement can’t be everywhere, so law-abiding people should have as many options as possible if and when they are attacked.”

Gun-control advocates argue that weakening laws is disastrous. While it wouldn’t necessarily lead to more mass shootings, they say, it would almost certainly increase the number of gun-related murders in the U.S. There are currently more than 11,500 each year, and America has one of the world’s highest firearm homicide rates. Per capita, our rate is 39 times greater than that of England, 13 times Australia’s, and

6 times Canada’s.

“We have the equivalent of a Virginia Tech massacre every day in this country. It’s just not all in one place,” says Daniel Webster of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. “It’s what happens when a person gets mad and has easy access to a gun. Someone is shot over a game of dice. Had the gun not been in their hands, no one would have died.”

— Rebecca Webber

