On too many occasions when we turn on a newscast or read a headline, there has been another mass shooting. While that frequency might be a bit of an exaggeration, it is as close as damn is to swearing.
And while these shootings are terrible incidents, many do not seem to be repercussions but appear to be random acts and often not targeted events. That observation might lead one to suspect that the shooter was maybe off balance or mentally deranged.
It does seem that many of these shootings appear to be irregular occurrences and thankfully on the decrease from former years. As of this writing and according to an American police reports there have been nearly 300 shootings in the US and about 130 deaths to date this year. Tragically, some of these recent massacres include victims under the age of 18. Sadly enough it seems that these terrible acts know no bounds and are happening regardless of national boundaries.
Statistics for north of the border are not easily obtainable at this time but these tragedies know no boundary. Canada has an unenviable share of mass killings. However, it is not this writer’s intent to list these in either the US or our country.
It should appear as no surprise, but many crime-fighters report that there is a very direct relationship between these terrible instances and the lack of gun control. Subsequent to some of these mass shooting the police discover the shooter’s residences contain a cache of weapons and are virtual armed encampments. Many of the weapons are illegal semi-automatics capable of killing many persons before the shooter can be stopped. It is absolutely astonishing that the illegal weapons trade continuously supplies these killing machine guns and avoid the best efforts of the police to intercept these practices.
As noted earlier, many of these killing sprees appear to be witless and without warning or provocation. That then makes potential interdiction almost entirely impossible before the massacre.
The prevention of these terrible mass shootings has proven to be very difficult to forestall. One of the major reasons for this is the large number of guns and the apparent ease of obtaining these weapons from both legal and illegal sources. In the US, the Second Amendment arguably states that a person is entitled to bear arms—though specifically only to take part in a “well-regulated militia.” It is almost heretical to assume the authors of the US constitution had in mind an entirely different premise than the present scenario.
Interestingly, in spite of being a major concern, mass shooting research is a small proportion of gun violence research. The reality is that mass shootings account for less than one percent of the approximately 40,000 people killed by guns each year in the US.
Despite the limitations associated with enacting tougher gun laws there is some hope to the lowering the rate of fatal mass shootings.
One such hope is enacting the requirement that gun purchasers go through a licensing process. Research has demonstrated that the tougher licensing procedures lower the rate of mass shootings.
A second approach that appears to reduce the deaths from mass shootings is the banning of large-capacity magazines for semi-automatic weapons. The logic is simple. If a shooter has to stop to reload there are more options to stop the gunman.
Tragically, in recent weeks there has been a couple of truly tragic mass shootings. Let us all hope that the majority of citizens support any and all measures to eradicate this terrible fatal phenomenon. It will be a tough fight but hopefully without the use of weaponry.
