<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654011975453,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000166-a247-d45e-a96f-bbefe96e0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654011975453,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000166-a247-d45e-a96f-bbefe96e0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_53497098", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1019371"} }); ","_id":"00000181-1acb-de8b-afe9-faebca2b0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedPoliticians should work relentlessly to try to prevent mass shootings from happening. However, they also shouldn’t base the merit of every gun policy on whether or not it would have prevented a mass shooting.
Universal background checks are a prime example of this issue. It’s a gun policy measure that Republicans and Democrats in Congress should support, even if it will not necessarily prevent mass shootings.
Although mass shootings, including school shootings, are horrible, they only make up a small fraction of the gun violence that occurs in the United States each year. Depending on how one defines a mass shooting, somewhere between 38 and 513 people were killed in them in the U.S. in 2020. One mass shooting death is one death too many, but there were 45,222 total gun deaths in the country that year, according to the Pew Research Center.
Most gun deaths (54%) are suicides, while murders are a not-so-distant second (43%), according to Pew. Even though suicides, accidental gun deaths, and murders outside of your metropolitan area normally don’t make the local news when they happen, they’re examples of what gun violence usually looks like. Therefore, this is where the most potential exists to reduce gun violence in this country.
That’s not to say politicians should ignore mass shootings. But politicians shouldn’t dismiss solutions to gun violence just because they would not have stopped the horrific mass shootings committed in communities such as Columbine, Colorado; Sandy Hook, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; or Uvalde, Texas.
Universal background checks are popular among the public. The idea has strong bipartisan support, with 84% of voters, including 77% of Republicans, backing universal background checks, according to a 2021 Morning Consult poll.
And universal background checks, although a small step, could prevent some gun violence. The law could prevent people with serious mental health problems from purchasing a gun that they could use to kill themselves or other people.
When Connecticut enacted universal background checks for gun owners in 1995, it was associated with a 15% decrease in suicides, according to a study from the American Public Health Association. When Missouri repealed its universal background checks in 2007, it was associated with a 16% increase in suicides, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
While most suicide attempts are thankfully unsuccessful, around 85% of suicide attempts with a gun are successful. Meanwhile, fewer than 3% of suicide attempts succeed when someone tried to overdose on pills, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. And when someone has an unsuccessful suicide attempt, about 90% of the time, they don’t end up killing themselves at a later time, according to Harvard.
Additionally, a properly crafted universal background check law can help crack down on illegal immigration. The system could notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement if an illegal immigrant tries to purchase a firearm. A proposal that would do this passed 240-190 in the House of Representatives in February 2019; eight Republicans supported the measure.
So while addressing topics such as improving mental health, preventing substance abuse, and improving school security are ways to try to prevent mass shootings, it’s important to combat other forms of gun violence as well.
It’s irresponsible to pit these issues against one another instead of realizing that many options exist that could help prevent gun violence.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
