Saving Lives: Just One Thing
This week marks the one year anniversary of the tragic and preventable shooting and death of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. It has been six years since the largest mass shooting so far in U.S. history in Las Vegas where there were 60 killed and 500 injured while enjoying a music concert. Seven years ago, 49 people were killed at Pulse Nightclub while celebrating LGTBQ+ Pride month. Eleven years have passed since 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Earlier this year in California, there were three mass shootings three days apart-one in Monterey Park where 11 were killed, another in Half Moon Bay and another in Oakland. So far in 2023, there have been 24 school shootings. Since 2018, there have been 167 across the country. This deadly phenomenon continues as headlines flash across our screens, tears and blood are shed, hearts are broken and lives are lost and forever changed.
There are many common-sense solutions like background checks and waiting periods that can reduce the tragedies and traumas of gun violence, but one single solution would go a long way to prevent these violences: banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. That one single action would prove that Americans are able to make an intelligent choice to preserve the lives of their children.
We know this works to save lives. Data analysis by the RAND Organization shows that states with high-capacity magazine bans had a 48% drop in mass shooting incidents, and a 33% drop in deaths from mass shootings. The risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower during the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, according to The Journal of Trauma and Acute Surgery.
If we did just one thing-ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, deaths would be prevented. We know one of the most vulnerable groups in our population, children, are most affected by gun violence, as guns are the number one killer of children in the United States, exceeding car accidents and cancer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
Gun violence and domestic violence are inextricably linked. In nearly half of all mass shootings, the perpetrator had previously shot an intimate partner or family member (Everytown for Gun Safety). Guns turn domestic violence deadly. Abusers use guns to threaten and control victims, and threats often lead to murder. Nearly 1 million women alive today report being shot or shot at by an intimate partner. Every month, an average of 70 women are killed by an intimate partner. The risk of death to a domestic violence victim when an abusive partner has a gun is five times higher, according to a study by the American Journal of Public Health. Restrictive gun laws help! States that restrict access to guns by people subject to active domestic violence restraining orders have seen a 13% reduction in intimate partner homicides involving firearms (American Journal of Epidemiology.) Some states like California have developed a Gun Violence Restraining Order program that prohibits restrained persons from having firearms and ammunition. We at Peace Over Violence are partnering with the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence and 40 other agencies across the state to educate on this important topic.
Many responsible gun owners are on record proclaiming that you do not need an assault weapon and a rapid-fire gun for hunting or for self-protection. Think about it! Of course, to do this, it will require an amazing cultural shift. But think about it, just one thing can go a long way in saving our children and innocent lives. Just one thing would allow people to go shopping, go to music venues and festivals, congregate in their churches and temples, and allow kids to go to school without fear that somebody is going to walk in with an AR-15, shoot up the place and kill people.
Just one thing.
