Six Hundred. That is the number of mass shootings in America over the last three years, per the BBC. At the very least, that is Two Thousand Four Hundred deaths. Two Thousand Four Hundred innocent lives lost. Two Thousand Four Hundred men, women, children, brothers, sisters, parents, people with hopes, dreams, and lives. How did we get here?

Mass shootings are a social justice issue plaguing modern America. CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter. The attacks target innocent people and usually occur in a public place. 

Mass shootings are a uniquely American issue, stemming from the country’s romanticized culture around gun usage and ownership. There are also common links between shooters themselves. Mass shootings can be the product of ignored mental health issues in individuals; most attackers show warning signs of violent behavior, domestic abuse, and mental instability before carrying out a mass shooting. Inaction on these warning signs is a large reason why a shooting can happen in the first place. Many mass shootings are also hate crimes, carried out against groups based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, and other similar grounds. 

Mass shootings commonly occur in a public place, either for symbolic value or to achieve a higher number of victims. 29.4% of mass shootings took place at a workplace and 25.1% at a school. While mass shootings in school are the most infamous in the media, mass shootings can occur in any public place or any location with many people gathered. Mass shootings have been growing more chronic in the modern day, mostly within the last decade. They have only grown in numbers year after year.

Why, though, only in the powerful and prosperous United States is this such an issue? As Everytown Research said, the United States is “not the only country with mental illness, domestic violence, or hate-fueled ideologies.” The answer lies in the country’s gun control laws and regulations. As stated earlier, mass shootings are allowed to occur by ignored warning signs from the shooter and easy access to firearms. While mental health issues are the main cause for violence in individuals, research has found that access to firearms makes those issues deadly. The United States holds the unflattering title of most civilian-owned guns in the world. Gun ownership status quo in the United States, but there are also many loopholes in the gun purchasing process, allowing individuals to surpass background checks and other essential regulations. One in three mass shooters should have been prohibited from purchasing/owning a gun, but the lack of care in American gun control lets it slide. Opinions about gun control are split between the country’s Republican and Democratic parties. The constant disagreement over the issue in government is the reason the United States hasn’t been able to tighten up its gun policies. 

But, why, you might be asking, would this affect the average citizen in their cozy suburban neighborhood? “Why should a few deaths make me feel bad?” This mentality is another issue regarding mass shootings. Desensitization and apathy towards the problem are part of why no real action against limiting gun violence has been taken. Mass shootings do not just affect those killed. Survivors, families, and communities all suffer trauma, depression, etc. after such an event. Even those whose communities have never been victims have to live in fear of a mass shooting in their area. Do you really want to live in a world where children are taught what to do if a stranger attempts to kill them in their school, the place where they should be learning and growing up? Do you want to learn a new ‘active shooter’ drill at your first job? Do you want to have fear drilled into you by the media every single day? That is not some distant dystopian future. That is present day America, where guns are seen as more valuable than lives. No matter who you are, everyone wants to feel safe in their country. It is ethically unacceptable to sit idly by while this continues to happen.  

 Mass shootings result in numerous innocent casualties and leave the surrounding communities and often the country with a sense of hopelessness and sorrow. Mass shootings affect everyone in the United States and have only gotten worse in recent years. Despite the calls for action from the public and increased violence, little has been done to solve the issue. In short, mass shootings are a prominent issue in America that stems from the lack of gun control in the country.

I. What are Mass Shootings? 

A. Definition/Basic 

Rockefeller Institute of Government, an organization created for research and analysis on the issues facing the United States, defines mass shootings in their “Mass Shooting Factsheet'' as an unprompted firearm attack where four or more people (excluding the shooter) are killed. The attack must be performed in a public location. The victims/location can be chosen at random or because of symbolic value. The event is usually very short, occurring over the span of only a few minutes. The act does not correlate with gang violence or terriorism; the goal is to kill as many innocent civilians as possible. According to Rockefeller, 29.4% of shootings between 1966 and 2020 occurred at a workplace, 25.1% at a school. 

Everytown Research and Policy also researched this topic. In their article “Mass Shootings in the United States”, they found that there are many common threads between different mass shootings as well as their shooters. Trends found by Everytown Research showed that usually the shooter was legally prohibited from possessing a firearm, displayed warning signs, intermingled with acts of domestic abuse, and completed a more deadly shooting with the usage of assault weapons and high capacity magazines. 

The access to firearms by prohibited individuals is truly what makes them deadly, according to Paul LeBlanc, author of the CNN politics article, “One Nation, under Gun Violence: America Tops 100 Mass Shootings in 2023”. LeBlanc says many cite the mental health crisis as the reason for the high numbers of shootings. While mental challenges and issues are a large factor in prompting a shooting, researchers at John Hopkins University have found that it was the access to guns that made those issues fatal. There is a correlation between mental health and gun violence; Mental health challenges rose after the Covid-19 pandemic, and during those following years all of the increases in suicides and most of the increases in homicides were from gun related incidents.While mental health problems can be the trigger for violent desires, gun access is what turns those violent desires into violent actions.

B. Prominence of Shootings and Gun Ownership 

Mass shootings have increased in frequency in recent years (Rockefeller). As of March 6th there have been 100 mass shootings in 2023 in the United States (LeBlanc). This number was reached in record time. The BBC article, “Gun Violence in US and What the Statistics Tell Us”, also reports that there have been over 600 mass shootings in the last three years: around 2 per day on average. 

As stated earlier, the access to firearms is what allows mass shooters to claim so many victims. Why, though, would someone who has most likely displayed warning signs be able to access a gun? Well, the answer lies within the United States’ lax gun control, as well as the prominence of civilian gun ownership. 

In the United States, there is an absence of regulations relating to the sale of firearms (Everytown). Prohibited individuals can easily purchase a gun from a private seller, friend or family member, or increasingly in the modern day, online. The usage of ‘red flag’ laws, which have been shown to be effective in limiting unsafe access to firearms, are not utilized by American firearm regulation systems, making their purchase and ownership easier for a prohibited person. Everytown Research found that one in every three mass shootings involved a shooter who was prohibited from having a gun at the time. 

The U.S. tends not to bear down on gun laws, due to the country’s history with gun ownership. As Olivia Waxman said in her article for Time, “In U.S. folklore, nothing has been more romanticized than guns and the larger-than-life men who wielded them. From the nation’s beginnings, in fact and fiction, the gun has been provider and protector.” Gun ownership is higher in the U.S. than any other country in the world with an average of 120.5 civilian owned guns for every 100 people in 2018, skyrocketing from a still-worrying high of 88 per 100 in 2011 (BBC). CNN reports that 44% of U.S. adults live with at least one gun in the house, and a third own one personally. Following the trend, no other country has as high rates as these. 

The frightening part is, those numbers, along with the amount of mass shootings, are only increasing (BBC). 7.5 million adult Americans became first-time gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021, according to a study by the Annals of Internal Medicine. This exposed 11 million people to firearms in homes, including 5 million children. 

Around one-third of Americans believe there would be less crime if gun ownership was higher, but there is a clear correlation between gun ownership and gun violence (LeBlanc). The access to firearms is what allows for a mass shooting, and it has even been proven that states with weaker gun laws and higher gun ownership experience higher rates of mass shootings (Everytown). Despite this being obvious, the grip that romanticized gun ownership has on the country stops any positive change towards the problem. 

II. Impact

A. Statistics

Mass shootings lay claim to numerous horrific titles and statistics (Everytown). They have haunted the United States for a long time, but never so much as in the past decade. The gun-homicide rate in the U.S. is 26 times higher than any other high-income country. The BBC estimates that about 53 people are killed every day by firearms in the U.S. In 2020, 45,222 people died from gun related incidents, a 34% increase since 2019 and a 75% increase over the previous decade (BBC). This increase can be attributed to the worsening of mental health in the country after the pandemic, the increasing number of gun owners, and relaxed gun laws.

Assault weapons are a type of firearm designed to fire in rapid succession (Everytown). They are created for battlefield purposes and are equipped for mass killing. Unfortunately, there is not much stopping an average citizen from accessing the weapon, which was made for massacre. High-capacity magazines allow a shooter to fire rounds without pausing to reload, allowing them to harm more people. With the addition of high-capacity magazines, a shooter with an assault rifle can fire a multitude of rounds in a short time and leave many dead or wounded. 

A higher number of casualties resulted from mass shootings when assault weapons and high capacity magazines were used (Everytown). Assault weapons and high capacity magazines were used in all of the five deadliest mass shootings between 2009 and 2020. Even though they are not used in the majority of mass shootings, assault rifles result in six times as many deaths as events where a different firearm was used.

Research shows that limiting the access to assault rifles and high-capacity magazines can reduce mass shootings (Everytown).  States that restrict magazine size experience mass shootings at less than half the rate that states without restrictions. 

B. Social effect

Mass shootings not only result in numerous victims, but entire groups of people suffer as well (Everytown). Survivors, families and communities endure post-traumatic stress, depression, and hopelessness; generally their mental health deteriorates. Even those whose communities have never been directly affected can still experience these consequences. Many feel a sense of misery and fear when hearing of the countless shootings on the news and online. This can result in desensitization to the topic (which only obstructs progress to ending mass shootings), or sadness and fear in the community. 

Despite the many negative impacts of mass shootings, not much has been done to stop them (BBC). This is the fault of America’s culture revolving around gun ownership. Owning a firearm, at least by a sizable portion of citizens, is thought to be a part of the country’s heritage; the right to bear arms is worshipped. These kinds of beliefs as well as their opposition generally fall between party lines. Republicans generally believe in the romanticized idea of unchecked firearm ownership while democrats are against it. 

As one can expect, the amount of mass shootings only spark more and more social conflict between the parties and their conflicting ideas (BBC). The NRA (National Rifle Association) funds politicians and members of congress to push a republican-orientated view on gun policy. Organizations like the NRA are at war with their gun-control rivals, who have spent less money in total on propaganda than the NRA. The constant disagreement and competition between the parties is the reason that real progress and actions against this issue have been stinted, and has also caused for the topic of mass shootings and gun violence to become somewhat taboo socially, as it, like anything tied to politics, can easily spark arguments. The cost of inaction on the issue is becoming tragically clear as the death count rises and politicians turn a blind eye (LeBlanc).

III. Specific Events

A. Las Vegas Shooting

The Las Vegas shooting of 2017 is one of the most famous mass shootings. According to the article “2017 Las Vegas Shooting” by the editors of History.com, on October 1st, 2017, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd at a music festival in Las Vegas. Paddock had created plans for the attack that were later found by police. He had checked into a nearby hotel days prior to the attack. At 10:05 he fired at the crowd from floor 32 of the hotel. He used 23 guns, 12 with bump stocks (a tool for firing a semi automatic gun in rapid succession). He fired 1,100 rounds of ammo in 10 minutes. The authorities breached his hotel room an hour later, where they found him dead by self-inflicted gunshot. In the end, Paddock killed 58 people and injured more than 800. It is the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. to date. The horrific event was enough to get bump stocks banned in some states. 

B. Targeted shootings 

Some mass shootings are targeted attacks against certain groups of people. For instance, a hate-fueled mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina shook a nation already plagued by racism, according to the editors of History.com’s article “Charleston Church Shooting”. On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof killed nine African Americans at a bible study at the predominantly African American Emanuel Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Roof joined Rev. Clementa Pickney, also state senator and activist, and members of the congregation for a bible study session on June 17th. He said that African Americans were “taking over the country” and drew on them. He shot and killed nine. He was arrested the following morning, where investigation revealed his white supremacist beliefs. German Lopez reports in the Vox article “How Gun Control Works in America…” that Roof should have been barred from purchasing and possessing a firearm, as he admitted to illegally having controlled substances previously, but his record was not received in time by the FBI and he was able to purchase a handgun. 

The article by Micheal Ray on Encyclopedia Britannica, “Orlando Shooting of 2016”, talks about a targetted shooting against the LGBTQ community. On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen opened fire on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Pulse was an LGBTQ nightclub that was hosting a Latin Night. Mateen had been declared a person of interest by the FBI in 2013, and had appeared on terrorist watch lists but was later removed. Mateen had shown signs of anti-LGBTQ sentiment. He has held a firearm license since 2007, and never had it revoked for any of these reasons.. His existence on the lists and other red flags did not prevent him from legally buying firearms. So, on June 4th of 2016 he purchased a semiautomatic assault rifle. He also purchased a Glock 17 9mm semiautomatic pistol the next day. Both were used in the attack.  The night of the attack he opened fire on a crowd of 300, killing 49 and wounding over 50. The shooting was the deadliest attack on LGBTQ in U.S. history. 

All of these notorious attacks involved a shooter who was able to purchase a deadly firearm with little to no difficulty. The Charleston and Pulse nightclub shootings involved attackers who displayed signs of targeted hate on marginalized groups. This shows how mass shootings can be a product of hate and can have devastating impacts on minorities. 

IV. The Root Cause 

A. Current regulations

If you want to purchase a gun in the United States, you need to go through a background check (Lopez). Typically the buyer is screened for drug use, criminal background, mental health, etc. However, it is quite easy to get around this. The most common example is the “private sellers loophole”. Private sellers, like friends or family of the buyer, do not have to run a background check. Someone can meet a private seller at a gun show or online and purchase a gun without proper screening. 

The current background check system is underfunded and neglected (Lopez). This allows many people to slip through the system. This often happens because of the lack of waiting periods whenever a check turns out inconclusive. 

Progress on gun restrictions is limited by the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the 2nd Amendment (Lopez). The court struck down a proposed handgun ban for Washington D.C. in 2008 for this reason. 

In 1968, over 50 years ago, a gun control act was signed by Lyndon B. Johnson, according to the Time article, “How the Gun Control Act of 1968…”. The act was created after the JFK assassination. The act banned interstate shipments of guns and ammo to individuals and sale of guns to minors, drug users, mentally ill people, and felons. It also strengthened the licensing and record referencing process during gun sale which gun dealers were not held very responsible for previously. 

The 1968 law was changed by a law passed in 1986, which protected the rights of gun owners (Waxman). It sought to void the 1968 act but only succeeded in altering it. It allows the interstate sale of rifles and shotguns as long as they are legal in the state they are bought in, which eliminated certain record-keeping requirements for dealers, which in turn made it easier for buyers without license to get guns. This was also around the time that the NRA began endorsing presidents. 

The last time the United States government passed laws on gun regulation was in 1994, as stated by the Quartz article, “The Last Time the US Federal Government…” . It was called the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and it was a temporary law that was set to expire ten years later. It banned the manufacture, sale, and possession of some assault weapons. A study found that the ban reduced the number of mass shootings during the time that it was active. Today individual states have passed their own laws regarding assault weapons, but easy passage throughout the states makes it easy for someone to purchase an assault weapon in another state (Gelling).  

When it expired, many people wanted to revive it (Gelling). Former President Obama attempted after the 2013 Sandy Hook School Shooting, where 20 children were killed, but the senate voted against it. 

B. Internal political barriers 

Democrats are in support of gun control while republicans are less unified in their opinions of it (BBC). Controls like restrictions for mentally ill people and people on “watch lists” are almost unanimously supported.

Some states have banned or tightened regulations on assault weapons (BBC). California has banned ownership of assault weapons with small exceptions. On the other hand, some states have greatly removed restrictions on who can own a gun. In June 2021, Texas introduced a law that allows state residents to carry handguns without a license or training. Also, in April of 2022, Georgia eliminated the need for a permit to conceal or openly carry a firearm. That law was backed by the NRA, who said it was a “monumental movement for the Second Amendment.” 

Gun violence has recently become a central part of Democratic politics, with President Joe Biden advocating for tighter gun restrictions after the many mass shootings of this year (LeBlanc). The bipartisan gun safety bill of 2022 was the most significant new federal legislation addressing gun violence since the expired assault weapons ban of 1994. Yet it failed to ban any weapons and fell short of what democrats had advocated for. 

Support and opposition for gun control fall along party lines, as stated many times in this paper. Which is why it was no surprise that a vote in 2019 for a sweeping gun-control legislation was split between Democrats and Republicans (Gelling). The senate, where the republican majority is held, did not advance or debate the potential regulation. This constant disagreement between the two parties prevents any potential progress towards stopping mass shootings. 

V. Foreign Policy

A. Regulations in other countries 

The Harvard School of Public Health’s Injury Control Research Center has noticed a correlation in higher numbers of guns with greater gun violence (Lopez). The United States is the quintessential example of this, as the country with the highest amount of civilian-owned guns in the world. This is because of the relaxed regulations in the U.S. around gun purchase and ownership. When compared to the laws of other developed countries, the problem is obvious. 

As a reminder, there are around 120.5 guns for every 100 people in the U.S. according to the BBC, and 29.7 gun-related deaths for every one million people according to Lopez. Contrastingly, in Canada, there are 30.8 guns owned per 100 people, which results in 5.1 gun homicides per one million people (Lopez). You have to be 18 years old to purchase a gun, but minors can use one under the advisory of an adult. A license for gun ownership is required where you must pass safety tests, and licenses are required to be renewed every five years. Similar to the U.S. they consider mental health, drug history, and criminal record during required background checks. Unlike the U.S, they require safe gun storage, like a gun cabinet. Guns have to be unloaded when they are stored. This prevents people from stealing guns from houses (such as teens who take their parents' guns in the U.S.). Canada’s laws are essentially a stricter version of America’s.

In the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) there are 6.2 guns for every 100 people, and 0.7 gun-related deaths per 1 million people (Lopez). The UK has very strict gun laws, which correlates with its low gun violence rates: Handguns are banned, with exceptions for police officers, military members, and those with special permission from the home secretary (Lopez). For different firearms people must go through a strict licensing process. They need a logical reason for owning a gun; self defense does not qualify. Local law enforcement has to verify if the reason is valid. For example, if an applicant needs a firearm to kill household pests, police would need proof of pests in the house. Applicants also must complete background checks which search for the same things as the American and Canadian checks. Licenses must be renewed every five years, and police can revoke a license if the person poses any kind of public risk. Anyone found unlawfully possessing a firearm can face a five-year minimum sentence in prison.  

In recent years, Great Britain has seen around 30 gun deaths (Shapiro). The U.S. has seen 19,384 in 2020.  "Even setting aside the difference in the size of the country, that is a horrendous difference," says Mick North, founding member of Gun Control Network.  

In Japan, there are 0.6 guns per 100 people and a gun death rate of 0.1 per one million people (Lopez). To purchase a gun you need to attend a full-day class and pass a written exam. You have to pass a shooting range class as well. You are required to do a mental health and drug test at a hospital. Lastly, you need to pass a thorough background check. 

Once you obtain a gun, you must provide the specific location of the gun in your home, which must have the ammo and gun locked separately (Lopez). The police inspect the gun once every year and the gun owner must retake the test and class every three years. 

Japan’s low gun violence levels are due to its strict gun laws (Lopez). In 2013 the rate of gun homicides was 350 times greater in the U.S. than in Japan. Simply implementing Japan or another country’s laws into the U.S. would probably not work, but the U.S. could take some ideas from these countries if it wants to stop gun violence.

B. Dunblane Shooting

The recent mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a school shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead, has reminded the public that the United States is the only country with this problem (Shapiro). Today that is true, but in 1996 something eerily similar happened in Scotland. Twenty-six years ago, there was a school shooting in the Dunblane Primary School, which killed 16 students, one teacher, and left 15 injured. It is the deadliest mass shooting in UK history.

But that is where the similarities stop. Public outcry came after the event, and gun control activists were able to mobilize and improve gun regulation (Shapiro). One year after the shooting, Parliament had banned private ownership of most handguns, and semiautomatic weapons required registration of shotgun owners. The Dunblane shooter had held the guns lawfully, so the government created more laws about gun possession and purchase (Lopez). There have been no school shootings in the UK since (Shapiro). 

At the time, the Royal Family opposed the gun control measures (Shapiro). Prince Philip compared the proposed regulation to the banning of cricket bats, saying both could be dangerous in the wrong hands. This is similar to the arguments made by pro-gun lobbyists in the U.S. What these criticisms ignore, however, is that guns are inherently more dangerous than other weapons. It is far too easy for someone with access to a gun to massacre. 

VI. Solutions 

This kind of action taken in other countries has eluded the U.S. due to its gun culture and heritage, especially the interpretation of the right to bear arms in government (Shapiro). Mick North, advocate for new laws after the Dunblane shooting and founding member of the Gun Control Network, believes the U.S. can change. "Yes, the whole culture around guns is different in the U.S. But there are other countries in the world where there's a frontier mentality - shall we say, Canada, Australia - who have adopted tighter controls over guns," North says. 

The United States can implement some of the regulations in other countries. In addition, it can attempt a slow cultural shift away from the admiration and dependency on guns. Nomatter what, the United States needs to take some kind of action to prevent mass shootings from continuing. 

Conclusion

Mass shootings are a prominent issue in America that stems from the lack of gun control in the United States. Mass shootings are attacks involving firearms that target innocent civilians. They take the lives of thousands every year and have only increased in frequency. The lack of gun regulations in America is to blame. Compared to other countries, the U.S. has relaxed gun laws and regulations as well as a gun-admiring culture. 

If the United States can address this problem and work towards solutions, such as tightening gun regulations, the amount of mass shootings and gun violence in general will decline. Mass shootings would become an extremely rare occurrence, and people would not have to live in fear of them. The newly placed regulations on gun ownership would also likely decrease the admiration of guns in American culture. If the country does not attempt to resolve this issue, it will only continue to get worse. Children will continue to fear for their lives in school. The news will report shooting after shooting. People will become apathetic towards the issue. Nothing will change. The arguments over the death counts will only divide an already split country. When they should be uniting in the face of tragedy the masses will turn their backs on eachother. The average person will think “It will never happen here.” and will not give the massacred thousands a second thought. But it can just as easily “happen here”. This issue affects anyone living in the United States. Every person is at risk of losing their lives at any time, which is not right. In conclusion, mass shootings will continue to plague America until action is taken to stop them.