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What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest an Answer [View all]
When the world looks at the United States, it sees a land of exceptions: a time-tested if noisy democracy, a crusader in foreign policy, an exporter of beloved music and film.
But there is one quirk that consistently puzzles America’s fans and critics alike. Why, they ask, does it experience so many mass shootings?
Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad.
- Snip -
If mental health made the difference, then data would show that Americans have more mental health problems than do people in other countries with fewer mass shootings. But the mental health care spending rate in the United States, the number of mental health professionals per capita and the rate of severe mental disorders are all in line with those of other wealthy countries.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/americas/mass-shootings-us-international.html?
But there is one quirk that consistently puzzles America’s fans and critics alike. Why, they ask, does it experience so many mass shootings?
Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad.
- Snip -
If mental health made the difference, then data would show that Americans have more mental health problems than do people in other countries with fewer mass shootings. But the mental health care spending rate in the United States, the number of mental health professionals per capita and the rate of severe mental disorders are all in line with those of other wealthy countries.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/americas/mass-shootings-us-international.html?
Study after study shows that the gun violence problem in the USA is NOT a mental health issue -- it is an overabundance of guns issue. It is much too easy for people who should not have them to acquire a gun in this country. According to a landmark 1999 study by Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins of the University of California, Berkeley:
More gun ownership corresponds with more gun murders across virtually every axis: among developed countries, among American states, among American towns and cities and when controlling for crime rates. And gun control legislation tends to reduce gun murders, according to a recent analysis of 130 studies from 10 countries.
No we can't confiscate all of the guns already in the wrong hands, but we can certainly take steps to strongly regulate who gets to purchase or otherwise own a gun, and where they can carry or use them. Like all other civil rights, the Second Amendment can be sensibly regulated to ensure the welfare and safety of the public at large.
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