American carnage Shattering the myths that fuel gun violence

Chapter 1 Combatting Misinformation on Gun Violence United States Senator Hiram Johnson once said that the first casualty of war was the truth. The debate over guns and gun violence is nothing short of a clash of cultures and over how to best achieve personal security. And truth has been a major casualty of this clash. Outrageous claims are often made about such things as the meaning of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, the value of gun ownership as a self-defense tool, the protection certain gun laws may provide, and even the number of guns owners in America. One reason for the many false claims in this area is that gun violence research has been starved of funds, leaving a huge void in our understanding of many issues, including basic ones such as the number of guns and gun owners in the country. For over twenty years, Congress kept the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from funding research on firearms through the Dickey Amendment, which threatened the CDC's funding. This provision prohibits the use of federal funds to advocate or promote gun control. The amendment, introduced by Congressional Republicans, followed lobbying by the National Rifle Association which was becoming increasingly concerned about research that was showing that guns in the home increased the risk of a homicide. Sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body's response to an infection, kills the same number of people each year as gunfire, but receives 100 times the funding. There has also been a rejection of science by a segment of the population that ignores or minimizes the gun violence problem in the US just as some Americans have refused to acknowledge the harm produced by the COVID-19 pandemic. A general distrust of government or cynicism in relation to broadening its powers predisposes some Americans to question any issue that might justify government expansion. The gun debate is so intense and acrimonious because it lies at the center of the great cultural divide in this country--a chasm that pits urbanites against rural dwellers, and splits the country along racial, geographic, and educational lines. Those rejecting research exposing the dangers associated with gun ownership tend to take the view that the "right to keep and bear arms" is an unlimited constitutional right. Therefore, for them, the science is moot. They believe they have an absolute right to acquire virtually any type of gun--case closed. As seen in Chapter Seven, the interpretation of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution by the courts has evolved and is more nuanced than the simplistic notion that this right is unlimited. In fact, the "right to keep and bear arms" throughout most of this country's history was not recognized by the courts as an individual right at all but, rather, a right to form a state militia. The right to firearms is different from, say, the freedom of speech as an overly expansive view of gun rights can threaten the lives of others. For example, if it is permissible to carry an AR-15 rifle to a rally, this action may not only stifle the free speech of those who are intimidated but may threaten the lives of others present if an altercation breaks out. A more recent line of argument asserts the right of the public to be protected from violence. Some legal scholars are arguing that the first duty of government is to protect citizens from abuses by public officials and from private actors. The human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the US for failing to protect its citizens from gun violence by not developing a comprehensive system of firearm regulations. In a 2018 report, Amnesty writes, "The USA has failed to implement a comprehensive, uniform, and coordinated system of gun safety laws and regulations particularly in light of the large number of firearms in circulation, which perpetuates unrelenting and potentially avoidable violence, leaving individuals susceptible to injury and death from firearms." The debate about the true costs/benefits of guns is not just an academic one or one waged by ordinary citizens in person or on social media. Egregious statements and claims are often made at hearings in Washington or state legislatures and used to prevent reform that can protect Americans. Recently a federal judge overturned the thirty-year assault weapons ban in California saying: "Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home-defense weapon and homeland defense equipment." The judge failed to acknowledge the role of such military-style rifles in many of the deadliest mass shootings and in the murder of police officers. We are not aware of any mass killings with Swiss Army knives. *** Myth #2: An Increasing Percentage of Americans Are Buying Guns. There is a widespread belief that gun ownership levels in the US are continuing to climb. Many believe that a majority of Americans are gun owners. The National Shooting Sports Foundation stated the following in 2012: "Violent crime has fallen 65 percent since 1993. While there are many factors in the mix, it is incontrovertible that firearms ownership continued to grow, by astronomical rates, over the same time period." [i] The Foundation is not so subtly saying that the fall in violent crime is due at least in part to the growth in gun ownership. Therefore, according to the Foundation, guns protect us from crime.   Fact Check: While there are indications that gun ownership has risen somewhat during the pandemic, there is no evidence of an increase over the last few decades. Did gun ownership in fact grow from 1993 to 2012 as suggested by the National Shooting Sports Foundation? Nobody has a precise count of the number of guns in America or the proportion of citizens who are gun owners. In fact, it is a violation of federal law to use the national background check system to create a national database of guns owned by Americans. [ii] Therefore, we rely on surveys of representative samples of the population. While the number of guns in America continues to grow, so does the total population, which is why it is important to examine the percentage of adults who own guns or to calculate, say, the number of guns per every 100 people.   The US is a clear outlier with regard to its arsenal of privately-owned firearms, surpassing other nations by a wide margin both in terms of the absolute number of guns and in the number of guns relative to its population. The most credible recent estimate, taking into account guns that are no longer operational, is about 400 million total firearms in the US, or about 120 guns for every 100 people. [iii] Recent polls show that 30 percent of American adults own a gun. [iv]   While there have been some spikes in gun ownership over the last few decades, including a surge in gun purchases during the pandemic, the overall trend is clearly heading downward over the last 40 years at least. According to the National Opinion Research Center, household gun ownership declined from 50 percent in 1977 to 31 percent in 2014. [v] Changing demographics, urbanization, the decline of hunting, and the lack of a military draft have all played a role in this decline.   The proportion of households involved in hunting is half of what it was in the mid-1970s. [vi] The decline in hunting is in turn a result of declining rural populations and changes in social attitudes relating to hunting. Changing demographics and the end of conscription into military service in 1973 are other reasons given for the decline in household gun ownership. Specifically, the growing Hispanic and Asian populations have lower gun ownership levels than white Americans, and the lack of a draft means that fewer Americans are introduced to firearms through military service. One factor has become more relevant as a reason for purchasing guns: self-protection. The Pew Research Center has found that the proportion of those citing protection as the reason for buying a gun rose from 26 percent in 1999 to 48 percent in 2013. [vii]   The surges in sales following certain shootings illustrate the importance of self-protection as a motive for gun purchases. [viii] The mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in the summer of 2012 was followed by a dramatic jump in firearms applications and enrollments in firearms classes. Similar increases in applications were observed following the shootings on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007 and the near assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona in 2011. The FBI has also documented spikes in background checks following high-profile mass shootings. Individuals purchasing guns exclusively for self-protection are not those with a gun fetish or obsession. They may even buy guns reluctantly, feeling that self-preservation is at stake.   The increasing frequency of purchases of guns for self-protection may lead people to believe that gun ownership overall is increasing. However, the forces described--declining rural populations and hunting, the changing demographic composition of the US population, and the end of the draft--have collectively led to a net decline in the number of households owning guns.   ***   About three-quarters of Americans do not own firearms, and their desire to live in gun-free settings must also be respected. America's continuing paralysis in relation to gun policy and our failure to respond effectively to gun violence mean that the trend of more frequent and extreme acts of violence will continue until meaningful reform occurs. As long as we remain on the current path, some people will limit their own activities out of fear, security measures that restrict our freedoms will be stepped up, and our privacy will be increasingly compromised by more surveillance of our movements and communications. This is an erosion of our freedoms, rather than the reverse.   [i] Michael Weisser, Gun Myths (Ware, MA: Tee Tee Press, 2021), 13. [ii] Michael Scherer, "Fact Check: The Gun Registry Red Herring," TIME , January 24, 2013, https://swampland.time.com/2013/01/24/fact-check-the-gun-registry-red-herring/. [iii] Aaron Karp, Estimating Global Civilian-Held Firearms Numbers (Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 2018), https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-BP-Civilian-Firearms-Numbers.pdf. [iv] Katherine Schaeffer, "Key Facts About Americans and Guns," Pew Research Center , September 13, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/. [v] Tom Smith and Jaesok Son, Trends in Gun Ownership in the United States (Chicago: National Opinion Research Center, 2015), https://www.norc.org/PDFs/GSS%20Reports/GSS_Trends%20in%20Gun%20Ownership_US_1972-2014.pdf. [vi] Smith and Son, Trends in Gun Ownership in the United States . [vii] Sara Goo, "Why Own a Gun? Protection is Now Top Reason," Pew Research Center , May 9, 2013, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/05/09/why-own-a-gun-protection-is-now-top-reason/. [viii] Rachael Calcutt et al., "Effect of Mass Shootings on Gun Sales--A 20-year Perspective," Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery 87, no. 3 (2019): 531. Excerpted from American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence by Fred Guttenberg, Thomas Gabor All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.