Since Gun Violence is a Public Safety Issue, state and local governments have a constitutional duty to protect public safety, under the 10th amendment.
In California
- Every 3 hours in California, someone is killed by a gun.
- Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death for California youth ages 19 and under.
Nationwide
- Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death for youth under 24 nationwide
- 22,000 firearm related deaths in the US in 2022 (132 per day) Center for Disease Control Data
If the government can mandate child resistant packaging of pharmaceutical and toxic substances (Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970), establish food preparation and packaging standards, and mandate seatbelts and states can require that drivers get licenses, what could we do if we were serious about protecting people from gun violence?
The first step towards identifying solutions might be to share what we know about Gun Violence (Pew Research)
- Who do Guns Kill?
- 60% of firearm related deaths are suicides
- 37% are homicides
- There’s been a steady increase in suicides since 2006, and in homicides from 2014-2016
- Does this differ by Gender, or by Race?
- 90% homicide offenders are male
- Almost 90% of suicides are male
- Rates differ by Race for Homicide (more black homicide victims than white homicide victims)
- Suicide rates highest for whites, followed by Native Americans
- Does this differ by Age?
- Yes, but the trends are reversed for homicides vs. suicides
- Homicide victim incidence peaks at age 21, declines as one gets into the 30–40-year age
- Percent of murder suspects using a firearm – greatest among 12–17-year-olds, next highest group 18-24
- Suicides have a spike during late adolescence then low till get into 60’s
- Does this differ by location: part of the country?
- Firearm Homicide rates are lowest in the North and Central West
- Firearm Homicide rates are highest in the SouthEast, and in parts of the MidWest (Missouri, Illinois, Michigan)
- Suicide mortality rates are highest in the West-Northern Plains, and in the SouthWest, plus Kentucky and West Virginia
- Does this differ by whether the location is Urban/Rural?
- Yes, but the trends are reversed for homicides vs. suicides
- Homicides appear to be more of a “city/urban” issue while suicides a greater issue in “rural” areas
- How many Guns are in the United States?
- No definitive count – because there is no handgun registry
- 494 million firearms produced for the US Market since 1899 (ATF & US International Trade Commission)
- ATF estimates in 2009 approximately 310 million: 114 M handguns, 110M rifles, 86M shotguns
- 22.8 million firearms sold nationwide in 2020 (Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting)
- 20 million assault rifles (National Shooting Sports Foundation)
- What do we know about US Gun Owners? (Pew Research, June 2023)
- 40% of adults say they or someone in their household owns a gun and 32% say they own one
- 40% of men say they own a gun, compared with 25% of women
- 47 % of adults living in rural areas report owning a firearm vs. 30% suburbs and 20% urban
- 38% of White Americans own a gun, compared with 24% Black, 20% Hispanic and 10% Asian Americans
- Republicans/conservative Independents more than 2x as likely as Democrats to say that they own a gun
- What gun is used most in crimes?
- Handguns are used in nearly two-thirds of the nation’s gun murders (FBI)
- What firearm is used most in mass shootings?
- Assault weapons have been used in the seven deadliest mass shootings in the last decade.
- An analysis of public mass shootings resulting in four or more deaths found that more than 85% of such fatalities were caused by assault rifles (Charles DiMaggio et al, “changes in US Mass Shooting Deaths associated with the 1994-2004 Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Analysis of Open Source Data,” Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery)
Why Focus on Assault Weapons?
- What firearm is used most in mass shootings?
- Assault weapons have been used in the seven deadliest mass shootings in the last decade.
- An analysis of public mass shootings resulting in four or more deaths found that more than 85% of such fatalities were caused by assault rifles (Charles DiMaggio et al, “changes in US Mass Shooting Deaths associated with the 1994-2004 Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Analysis of Open Source Data,” Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery)
- Are Mass Shootings an Increasing Problem?
- Since 2015, over 19,000 people have been shot and wounded, or killed in a mass shooting.
- In 2022 alone, over 600 people were killed with over 2,700 wounded.
- No other industrialized nation experiences mass shootings with this frequency.
This is not normal!
- What do people believe is a major cause of mass shooting?
“People want a quick solution; the long-term solution here is to address the mental health issue,” Texas Governor Abbott told Fox News’ Shannon Bream. (May 27, 2023 post Uvalde shooting)
- Do we have to fix the Mental Health System to Prevent Mass Shootings?
If that’s true, then you have to assume that:
- People with mental illnesses are likely to be violent
- And it’s mental illness that makes them so
- And that they’re responsible for much of the gun violence that we’re experiencing
- Let’s test these assumptions!
- 104 Million Adults in the US have Serious Mental Illness (NIMH Data 2016)
- 3.7M of these do not receive treatment
- Looking at state prison inmates convicted of violent crimes, 17% have mental illness, and 83% do not. (DOJ Inmate Survey 2017)
- About 13% of people hospitalized for mental illness who return to the community engage in some minor form of violence, like shoving, or slapping or pushing someone against a wall (Choe et al. Meta-analysis, 2008)
- Another way researchers tried to test these assumptions…looking at samples of “regular” communities
- Studies do not find a strong correlation between mental disorders and violence
- Only about 4% of the violent behavior in society is directly attributable to serious mental illness. (Swanson, 1994)
- 96% of the violence that’s happening now would still happen because it’s caused by other factors.
- In a case where a person with mental illness does do something violent, mental illness isn’t why – not all by itself
Violence Risk Factors include Substance Abuse, Childhood Victimization, Impulsive Anger Traits, Poverty and Neighborhood Disadvantage, Exposure to Violence in Social Environment, Antisocial Personality, Young Men. (Swanson et al, 2015)
- It’s really rare that someone with an untreated mental disorder hears voices in their head telling them to do something to harm others.
- Studies do not find a strong correlation between mental disorders and violence
- Only about 4% of the violent behavior in society is directly attributable to serious mental illness. (Swanson, 1994)
- 96% of the violence that’s happening now would still happen because it’s caused by other factors.
- Fixing the Mental Health System, while important, will not solve the problem of mass shootings.
We believe that Assault Weapons are a weapon of war. Many other firearms are available for self-protection – and the danger to society does not warrant their use in personal households. Banning Assault Weapons can prevent their use in mass shootings, and the associated deaths.
FIX the NICS National Instant Background Check System
The NICS is a set of three, massive, interlinked databases containing state and federal records on firearm transactions. It was designed 3 decades ago to run at a fraction of its current capacity. In 2021, the system processed 40 million firearms transactions, 88 percent of them within a few minutes, and blocked hundreds of purchases per day attempted by people with criminal records, mental health problems, drug dependency or other factors that prevented them from buying a gun under state or federal law. But, if an investigation is not processed within 3 days, gun dealers can sell weapons to a waiting purchaser.
So what’s the problem with NICS?
- While all 50 states participate in the system, it’s technically voluntary
- The federal government has no authority to order states to provide records, or dictate delivery timetables
- Gaps in the system have been associated with several high-profile mass killings and many other less-publicized crimes
- Records of a buyer’s domestic violence, juvenile justice and mental health history are among the hardest to collect, track or define
- The most recent study, undertaken by the nonprofit National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics in 2013, estimated that up to a quarter of all felony convictions were “not available” in NICS.
- It is not known how many crimes have been committed by buyers who were allowed to retrieve their guns after three days with still-incomplete background checks — but between 5,000 and 6,500 weapons a year are confiscated from people who were later determined to be disqualified, according to the F.B.I.’s 2021 NICS operations report.
Those people are deemed so dangerous that armed agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — the agency tasked with recovering the weapons — are told to drop whatever they are doing to retrieve the guns, according to current and former agents.
- Congress has consistently not appropriated funds to support states with the needed resources to fund timely, accurate data
Why is timely, accurate data on convictions so critical?
Studies have shown that violent behavior does predict future violent behavior
- A 14-year study of purchasers of handguns found that 24.9% of individuals with prior convictions for violent misdemeanors had a new conviction vs. only 4.9% for those who had not had a prior conviction (Source: Kuhns et al. (2013)
Other reasons to extend the federally required waiting period
- Studies do find a strong correlation between depression, firearms and successful suicides
- Studies find a moderate correlation between waiting periods and reduction in firearm suicides
- 9/10ths of people who try to commit suicide using a firearm are successful
- 9/10ths of people who try to commit suicide using other methodologies are not successful
Institute Federal Firearm Licensing Requirements
We believe that if you need a license to drive a car, you should have a license to own a gun.
Studies have shown that licensing laws can significantly reduce gun violence in places that have enacted them. For example, according to the Giffords Law Center, Connecticut saw its gun homicide and gun suicide rates decrease by 28 and 33 percent, respectively, after passing a state licensing law.
In contrast, after Missouri repealed its firearm licensing law, the state saw a 47 percent increase in its gun homicide rate and 24 percent increase in its gun suicide rate.
Licensing laws also enjoy strong support from Americans, with 77% backing the idea according to a Quinnipiac survey from 2019.
What could such a licensure program entail?
The version proposed by Sen. Cory Booker in November 2023 included:
- Firearm safety training, including a written test and hands-on training including firing the firearm to ensure safe use and accuracy, and safe storage training.
- Attorney General to conduct a history background check of any individual purchasing a firearm.
- Fingerprint registration for the licensed individual
- Registration of the make, model and serial number of the firearm and individual owning it
- Issuance of a license by the Attorney General within 30 days of the completion of thapplication and qualifications
- Purchase of the firearm within 30 days of the licensure approval
- Renewing licensure (like your Drivers License) every 5 years – requiring a renewed background check and training
Firearm Safety includes Safe Firearm Storage
- Over 4.6 million kids aged 18 and under in the US live in households with loaded and unlocked firearms. (American Academy of Pediatrics)
2. Gun control statistics uncover that over 75% of first and second graders know where their parents keep firearms. (Brady United)
- That’s one of the alarming statistics parents must pay attention to. Moreover, 36% of 5–14-year-olds have also admitted to handling a weapon without their parents’ knowledge. Baxley, Frances; Miller, Matthew. Parental misperceptions about their children and firearms. Annals of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 2006; 160:542-47.
4. Studies show that keeping ammunition separate from firearms also reduces the frequency of childhood firearm accidental injuries
5. In 2020, at least 125 toddlers under five unintentionally shot themselves or someone. Youth gun violence statistics show that suicide rates in children and adolescents who live with guns are four times higher. (Society for Research in Child Development)
6. Over the past decade, there’s been a rise in teenage gun violence, especially in children and adolescent suicides, with an increase of over 80%.
Out of those deaths, around 40% were due to firearms. It’s important to note that having a gun in the house does not automatically mean there will be suicide. However, it creates increased risk factors and opportunities, leading to these terrifying teenage gun violence statistics.
Increase minimum age to own a firearm to 21
Adolescence through age 21 is associated with:
- Greater life stress and access to alcohol and drugs
- Transitions in education, employment, relationships, living situations
- Less adult involvement/guidance
- Age of onset for mental illness; emergence of latent conditions
- Suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts are highest during this time
What’s happening physiologically (in their brains?)
- An adolescent’s pre-frontal cortex develops later – through ages 21-24
- The prefrontal cortex helps with things like planning, delay of gratification.
- The striatum is also most active during adolescence– (the striatum is a cluster of interconnected nuclei that form a part of the basal ganglia. It is involved in decision making functions such as emotion, reward, habit formation and motor control.)
- The striatum is really telling the brain and behavioral systems – “lets go”. The prefrontal cortex is telling the brain “lets stop, lets wait and think about this.
- Adolescent brains are associated with increase in novelty seeking and impulsive behaviour.
“Age-based or age-related firearm restrictions are really designed to delay adolescents and young adults’ access to lethal means just until they’re old enough to age out of some of these risky periods of transition. The goal in doing that is not only to protect adolescents themselves and young adults, but also to promote public health and public safety.”
Sarah Johnson
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and
Public Health at Johns Hopkins