Background
It has been zero days since the last mass shooting occurred in the United States.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit organization documenting instances of gun violence and crime nationwide, more than 16,000 people have been injured or killed due to mass shootings across the country since 2014.
An analysis of the Gun Violence Archive shows that injuries caused by mass shootings between 2014 and 2022 have increased by 148%, while fatalities have increased by 146%.
The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident where, excluding the shooter, there are four or more individuals shot or killed (GVA – General Methodology). This definition means that more types of shootings are included in statistics, whether they be murders, home invasions, accidental gun injuries, and more traditional mass shootings. Numbers and incident details are pulled from more than 7,500 local and state police, media, and governmental sources; this means that unreported incidents are unlisted.
Causes for Increases in Mass Shootings and Gun Violence While the data shows that mass shootings and acts of gun violence are becoming more frequent, the reason is far less clear. Special interest groups pay close attention to mass shootings, gun violence, and the personal profiles of the gunman. These interest groups have led many debates surrounding gun safety to become increasingly polarized, with both sides of the political spectrum blaming the other.
Some gun-rights advocates attribute the increase in mass shooting events to gun control laws that prevent teachers and employees from defending themselves, said Corey Graff, the Executive Director of Wisconsin Gun Owners, Inc.
“One does not tend to see mass shootings at gun shows or police events, for example, where it is evident that attendees are armed,” Graff added.
On the other hand, gun control advocates attribute the increase of mass shootings and gun violence to political apathy and corruption, armed supremacy, and the increased glorification of guns in media, said Micah Rector-Brooks, Press Associate at March For Our Lives. March For Our Lives is an organization founded in 2018 dedicated to supporting communities and pushing for gun violence prevention at local, state and federal levels.
Another possible reason for an increase in gun violence is an increase in the number of firearms sold each year and a lack of gun control prohibiting access to specific weaponry.
The National Firearms Act Division, a sub-department of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives within the national government, regulates and registers all applications for NFA firearms to be made, exported, have ownership transferred or imported from other countries.
According to the ATF, weapons that are regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA) within the National Firearms Act Division include (but are not limited to) the following characteristics:
rifles and shotguns that have a barrel(s) under a minimum length, modified weapons made of shotguns and rifles that are under both a minimum barrel length and a minimum length overall, and any machine guns, silencers, and generally destructive devices.
Figure 2: Public data collected by the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) – 2023
Despite the regulation of such weaponry, the number of petitions to the ATF by those wishing to own NFA-regulated items is rising drastically. Between 2005 and 2022 the ATF has seen an increase of nearly 2000% in how many NFA firearms are processed within the fiscal year, from 147,484 to 3,059,054. The increase alone between 2021 and 2022 was 12%. NFA forms processed between 2005 and 2022 saw an increase of 1600%, from 41,579 to 709,508. This means that, on average, each NFA form applicant owns 4.3 regulated firearms.
Effects of Mass Shootings and Gun Violence – What Can Be Done?
Gun violence affects communities at a large scale, whether it be through survivor’s guilting haunting those that have experienced mass shootings first hand or those who are attempting to make a change.
Many gun control advocates believe that an increase in regulation surrounding gun ownership is vital to decreasing the number of mass shootings and gun violence within the country. They lobby to further limit regulate weaponry and regulate the sale of guns and ammunition by establishing stricter licensing and permit processes that potential gun owners must follow.
The key to these reforms, said Rector-Brooks, is a holistic approach to gun violence and mental health crises – as well as causes of both – by passing safety legislation at all levels of government. They referenced work recently done by March For Our Lives in Michigan, where safe gun storage and universal background checks legislation was recently passed.
“Each day without change is another day that a child dies looking down the barrel of a gun,” said Rector-Brooks.
Despite bipartisan cooperation in establishing more effective gun safety policy being necessary, steps forward to do so have been hindered by political tension. A large majority of gun owners and pro-gun rights individuals strictly believe that any gun control measurements are an
infringement on the rights of the people.
“There is no other group of people in this country who would tolerate being subjected to that level of criminalization and control,” Graff said, adding: “This is despite the clear language of the Second Amendment enumerating the right of the people to keep and bear arms — and despite gun control’s proven ineffectiveness.”
When asked how individuals can help decrease deaths caused by general gun violence, Graff responded with: “First, if you want to be serious, you must quit repeating linguistically nebulous terms such as “gun violence.” (Unless you’re willing to start tackling “vehicle violence,” “knife violence,” “alcohol violence,” or “fist violence,” – which are all intellectual dead ends.).”
“If you mean deaths measured quantitatively in “mass shootings”, we believe the solution is deterrence,” Graff said, adding: “The causal drivers of any increase in mass shootings can’t be discerned from the raw numbers in the data above and would require proper design research and multivariate analysis.”
Continuing, Graff suggested creating a ten-year experiment to be studied in either a normal distributive test or an ANOVA-style data analysis. An ANOVA, or Analysis of Variance, is used to determine the difference between mean variables of more than one large study group. The suggested groups by Graff are the following: Arm some teachers and staff in 50% of schools across the United States and operate them under “STAFF IS ARMED” signs, and have the other 50% operate as normal (“defenseless”) under “GUN-FREE ZONE” signs. After the experimental period is over, analyze statistics and determine which experimental group had the most incidents
of gun violence and mass shootings.
Kiersten Cira, a third-grade teacher at Decorah Elementary School in West Bend, Wisconsin, relayed her experience as an educator during a time of heightened gun violence and mass shootings – especially in educational settings.
“I’ll say this…I made the mistake of watching the school camera footage of the Nashville shooting and I’ve always said that locked glass doors will do nothing to keep a shooter out of a school,” said Cira.
“I’ve told my family that if there is a shooting at my school, to expect that I won’t come home because I’ll defend my babies until the very end,” said Cira, adding, “but please, don’t suggest arming teachers. Nothing good will come from putting more guns in schools. Nothing.”