After the recent shootings in Aurora, Colorado, Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and Newtown, Connecticut, we are being forced to confront an undercurrent of violence in American society. Mass murders, like the ones mentioned above, are certainly uncharacteristic among similar countries in terms of economy and political system. But mass violence is really just the tip of the iceberg. By far, most violence occurs in more localized incidents - many of them suicides - among the youngest and most vulnerable members of society. As I wrote just a week before the shooting in Newtown, after a 4-year-old accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sibling in Minneapolis, many of the victims are also from accidental shootings. Even police shootings account for approximately 500 deaths per year.
I truly believe that President Obama is correct to call gun violence an epidemic. There are multiple sources of evidence showing this. Gun violence is one the most common forms of violent death for people between 15-44 (CDC data for 2010).
Regardless of whether you think gun violence is a problem (and with 40,000 people - mostly young dying per year it's hard to argue that it isn't), the United States must come to terms with the extraordinary difference in the number of assault deaths we experience and those experienced in other so-called First World countries. Even if the numbers are declining since the mid-nineteen seventies, our numbers are at least twice as high as other countries. (See chart and link below)
Gun ownership cannot effectively control violent assault. It simple adds to it. If increased gun ownership and decreased gun regulation over the past ten years were a factor, then why has the number of deaths from firearms increased, rather than decreased?
It seems that our country has lost its way on this issue due to mixed messages from powerful sports and self-defense lobby groups. I think we need to set a course towards nonviolence. In the coming days and weeks and months and years I hope to show, not tell, why as A.J. Muste, a pacifist, wrote, "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way."
I hope that if you agree with me, or even if you are open minded to consider that violence may not actually prevent violence, I would urge you to investigate your own beliefs further as well as what the facts are on this important issue.
Disclaimer: I realize that there are many more sides to this issue - including mental health, substance abuse, poverty (inequality), education, etc. I intentionally chose to start with the concept of nonviolence and plan to address the other topics in the future.
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