According to Brady United, 97% of Americans want expanded background checks for gun owners. In fact, firearm deaths are significantly lower in states with stricter gun control legislation.
Gun violence cannot be correlated with mental illness, stress, drug use, unemployment, or inequality but with poverty, dominance of working class jobs, and with the rates of high school students who carry weapons on school property.
Firearm deaths are less likely to occur in states with higher levels of college graduates, more people employed in creative jobs, higher levels of economic development and higher levels of happiness and well being. States with the most immigrants have lower rates of gun violence.
GUN LAWS DECREASE GUN DEATHS
A Brady Campaign analysis found that the states with few or no gun laws export nine times the crime guns as the states with the strongest gun laws. For an annual Gun Law Scorecard, see the Giffords Law Center: 21 states received an F. California is number one in gun law strength and number 44 in gun death rate. Weaker gun laws are common among the states with higher gun death rates.
California mandates a universal background check system, retention of purchase records, limiting of handgun purchases to one a month, and bans assault clips. The state continued to strengthen its already strong gun laws in 2018 by, among other things, raising the minimum age to purchase and manufacture guns and broadening its domestic violence laws. The Giffords Law Center also recommends that California substantially increase its investment in violence intervention programs, restrict bulk firearm purchases, and regulate the sale of homemade “ghost gun” components. Check out your state’s ranking.
RESOURCES
Here are some resources for talking to your children about mass shootings.
Helping Children Cope with Trauma
Dealing with Trauma After a Disaster or Disturbing Event
Helping Children Cope with Frightening News
And, here’s a video from Peter Levine, “Helping Kids and the Community After Shooting or Terrorism.”
About Peggy O’Mara. I am an independent journalist who edits and publishes peggyomara.com. I was the editor and publisher of Mothering Magazine for over 30 years and founded Mothering.com in 1995. My books include Having a Baby Naturally, Natural Family Living, The Way Back Home and A Quiet Place. I have conducted workshops at Omega Institute, Esalen, La Leche League, and Bioneers. I am the mother of four and grandmother of three. Please check out my email newsletter with free tips on parenting, activism, and healthy living.
thank you for some statistics. this is so emotional a topic, it helps to have real facts. i remain simply stunned at the sheer number of senseless deaths in this spread of hate and violence.
Thanks, Lee. I was surprised about mental illness not being correlated, but poverty and lack of education being the culprits. And, I was thinking about how the 2nd Amendment legalizes a “well-regulated militia,” which implies that guns be regulated.