First of all, let’s dispense with idea that the American gun problem cannot be solved. Australia, Japan, and the UK have all more or less solved the gun homicide problem, and eliminated the mass murders that are routine in America. It is common for Japan to have as few as 2 gun homicides in a given year. While in the US, there have been over 1,500 mass shootings since Sandy Hook.

The gun lobby trots out useless platitudes and silly slogans about how “good guys with a gun” can stop armed mass murderers. Or “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” The numbers don’t bear that out at all. Mother Jones used data from several studies to show that states with more guns have significantly more gun deaths. The more guns that are in a given area, the more dangerous that place tends to be. The data shows this, and pretty much everyone knows it on some level. Guns are designed to kill people: unlike cars or knives, they have no other function. Yet our society allows pretty much anyone who desires a weapon to have a firearm, with virtually no regulation in far too many cases. Logically, we all know that absent federal gun regulations, we are going to have another Las Vegas, Orlando, or Sandy Hook. Probably within the next 12 months. I would argue that America’s gun fervor isn’t based in rationality or even some misguided theme of freedom or patriotism. American’s gun addiction is caused by the illness of white racial hierarchy that upholds the entire system.

The Problem Isn’t Economics, It Is Culture

There are plenty of people on the left side of the political spectrum (and the right side of the gun control argument) who nevertheless insist that the gun industry can’t be fought because it is indeed incredibly wealthy with the strongest lobby in the country. If you see the country through an economically driven lense, I can see how you arrive at this conclusion. But there is an immediate counterexample that proves wealth alone doesn’t prohibit regulation: the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry was the strongest in the country at a time, with an army of well-paid lobbyists in Washington and a cascade of advertisements in a cornucopia of mediums. But the money didn’t stop the industry from being brought to its knees by science — the deaths from tobacco smoke drove doctors and advocates to push the country into collective action. The tobacco industry has been effectively regulated and no longer holds the power or sway over our society it once did. The American Medical Association has said that gun violence should also be treated as a public health crisis. So why is there no action on the issue?

The problem is American culture, or to be more specific, American racism. For the purposes of our examination they are effectively the same thing. When white America feels intense racial resentment, they move towards guns. This can be evidenced by the massive increase in gun sales during the Obama years. The effect is definitely one that correlates to race, not party. Take a look at this chart from Pew Research. Democrats feelings towards guns have stayed relatively static over the last 20 years, while Republicans urge to protect and promote gun ownership spikes during periods of racial resentment (after 9/11 and the Obama Presidency):

I haven’t yet seen a study that perfectly correlates gun ownership with racial resentment, but the states with the highest levels of gun ownership tend to be deep red.

The counter argument from gun advocates will be that there are Black gun owners in America. Sure, that is true. But their rights aren’t fully protected by the state — one of the most common excuses when police murder Black people is the “I thought he had a gun!” And it works so often, police are so rarely prosecuted for these brutal excesses, that Black people effectively have no gun rights, even in open carry states. A Black person openly carrying a firearm, with all proper licenses, is at extreme risk of having fatal police violence thrust upon them.

When large numbers of white people gather for political rallies and carry weapons, our society considers that a normal event, even if the political rally is promoting hate speech against marginalized groups. When large numbers of Black people carry weapons, pro-gun politicians suddenly become gun control advocates. In 1967, then California Governor Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford Act, which made the public carrying of loaded firearms illegal. The impetus? Armed Black Panthers marching on the California State Capitol.

Gun ownership is a right that is only freely extended to white citizens. Black Americans who carry far more likely to face state sanctioned violence or restrictions on their legal right.

The NRA Functions As An Agent Of White Racial Resentment

Guns aren’t some tool of American liberty. Studies have shown that having one in your home actually increases your risk of gun homicide or suicide. We’ve already established that states that have more guns are more dangerous. Everyone knows this. But guns are part of the broader culture war. The idea that white people must arm and protect themselves from “others” drives gun sales. Notice how minorities who use guns for violence are called monsters, animals, terrorists, and gangsters, while whites who use guns for violence are called lone wolves or even defenders of home and family.

The National Rifle Association functions as an agent of white resentment, effectively egging white people on. They regularly cut outright racist ads and push the idea that gun ownership is the only way to protect your family from “them.” The “them,” of course, being minorities who aren’t supposed to have political influence, money, and the like.

The NRA’s function couldn’t be any clearer when they declined to defend Philando Castile, a Black Minnesotan who was killed by police. Castile legally owned a registered firearm, but did not have the weapon on him when he was shot by a police officer in his vehicle. Not only did the NRA decide not to defend Castile, they went as far as to blame him for his own death.

The NRA has no interest in defending Black people who own firearms, as that is not their intended audience or stated purpose. They (and pretty much all conservative actors) use the racist concept of Black on Black crime (especially Chicago) as a way to silence both Black protests of racism and calls for gun control.

The Reason We Can’t Progress On Gun Control? The Same Reason We Can’t Progress On Police Brutality

The idea of gun control upsets white racial hierarchy. Conservatives see guns as their tool to maintain white racial hierarchy and keep the current system of racial injustice with white interests at the top. It is the same reason conservatives refuse to progress on police brutality and stance staunchly opposed to any federal police accountability law.

Of course minorities are only asking for equality, but as the saying goes, when you’re the beneficiary of systemic inequality, equality itself feels like oppression.

Massive gun restrictions, gun buy backs, and federal incision into the gun industry with registries and federal checks would make everyone safer. Police that don’t racially profile and target Black people would make everyone safer too. But white America collectively values white racial hierarchy over safety. It values white racial hierarchy over economics (as seen with poor white Americans voting for anti-union Republicans over pro-worker Democrats). Until we first come to grips with the fact that the country is, at its core, systemically racist (we’re still in the awareness stage) there won’t be political change. But if we can fundamentally tackle the idea of white racial hierarchy, what it means, and why it is bad for everyone, then we can work on effectively regulating guns and getting them out of the wrong hands.