Mass shootings and firearm injuries are one of the main leading causes of death for adolescents in the United States of America. In 2021, there were enough guns sold to give every baby that was born that year five guns, some even six. Mass shootings have become a norm in US society.
The United States made up about 73% of the world’s mass shootings late in 2024 but only consists of 4.23% of the world’s population. The US also is ranked as one of the top five countries with the most citizens who own firearms as well as part of the top 15 countries with the most mass shootings per capita, as of 2015.
Many believe that people with mental illness are the leading cause of mass shootings in the United States. This causes people to lean towards a policy that holds stricter gun safety laws for those with diagnosed mental illnesses, but a big part of this that people don’t understand is that a lot of those people with mental illnesses are not properly diagnosed.
Many mass shooters have associations with traumatic pasts, feelings of being socially alienated, or extreme feelings of anger or revenge, making them plan their shootings ahead with a lack of intent living after the fact.
Many people believe this is what makes them mentally ill, but the fact is, no policies can be established without significant evidence of people with diagnosed mental illness being a leading cause of mass shootings.
These accusations encourage stigmatization and discrimination against citizens with mental health conditions. The American Psychiatric Association stated, “Attempts to connect mental illness to mass shootings are a distraction that inflicts enormous damage by taking attention from solutions that could actually prevent such events. This perpetuates a false narrative that encourages stigmatization of and discrimination against the millions of Americans living with mental health conditions.”
What people fail to see is that a big reason the United States has such a big part in mass shootings around the world is because of our gun regulation policies. “While the US makes up less than 5 percent of the world’s population, they make up 46% of the world’s gun-owned civilians.”
They have the largest gun-to-citizens ratio with 120 guns to every 100 citizens, making it the only country with more guns than people. As of 2023, there are approximately 466 million guns in circulation in the US. 77% of mass shooters legally owned a firearm.
All states in the United States require licensed firearm dealers to run background checks on the people they sell firearms to, but private sellers do not. In order to understand the government’s take on gun violence and mass shooting rates, people need to understand the red-flag laws of guns.
The red-flag laws allow firearms to be restricted from those that pose a threat to being violent or have intentions of violent acts towards themselves or others. It allows family members, close friends, police officers, and doctors to petition a judge to remove firearms from someone for the safety of themselves or others.
Firearm access varies throughout the states. While some states have very strict gun laws, others have very few. This is a cause of illegal selling of firearms and gun trafficking. Gun trafficking is the action of placing and selling firearms on illegal markets.
States with stricter gun laws have fewer mass shootings than ones with more relaxed gun laws. Hawai’i has very strict gun laws, they have some of the lowest rates of gun violence. Whereas Florida, which has much more relaxed gun laws, had 15 mass shootings within the first half of 2023.
This does not mean that anyone with easy access to a firearm has the intent of committing mass shootings. It just states that the people who would commit those mass shootings are more likely to do so with easy access to firearms.
Therefore, more strict gun and firearm laws can save hundreds of lives a year. It is time for a change in American society. Mass shootings are a serious problem and take a big toll on the people involved in them or have relatives that were involved in them.
There are many ways you, as a citizen, can get involved and help the community out. Everytown is a non-profit gun-prevention organization that is used to help prevent mass shootings and help save lives. You can easily donate to their website to help out. The money you donate to them gets used for other small organizations implementing community-based violence intervention programs. These organizations work together to help end gun and firearm violence.
This is more serious than we realize. Take action to prevent mass shootings and save lives.
