Stop the shooting

They would be in shock, but it has become so normal. As Americans reel from three mass shootings in California a matter of days apart, newspapers are counting a grim toll: 2023 has already seen 39 acts of mass firearm violence so far.

In the first shooting on 16 January, a pair of gunmen broke into a home and murdered six people, including a six-month-old baby.

The second shooting took place in Monterey Park, LA, where an elderly shooter interrupted Lunar New Year festivities to kill 11 people before turning the gun on himself.

And on Monday, at least seven were shot dead in a small coastal community called Half Moon Bay.

As devastating tributes to the victims emerge, the debate about America's malignantUsed to describe something which is hostile or very invasive. It is often used to describe disease, especially cancer. gun violence problem rages on. Guns claim as many as 45,000 lives per year in America, and recently surpassed vehicular deaths to become the leading cause of death among children.

The 18 people killed in California were far from the only victims of the weekend. On the average day, 111 people are shot and killed in the US. The deaths are so common that individual stories rarely make the news.

"It must stop," said President Clinton in 1994. "We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence," said President Obama in 2011. "It's time to turn this pain into action. It's time to act," said President Biden in 2022.

And yet nothing has changed. In fact, there were 417 more mass shootings in the US in 2021 than in 2014, and four out of five of the worst mass shootings in the US since 1991 have happened in the last 10 years.

Americans are more armed than any other nationality. There are 393 million privately owned firearms in the US - 120 guns for every 100 American people. But while many see the availability of guns as the source of the problem, not everyone agrees.

Republican PartyAlso known as the Grand Old Party or GOP, it is one of the USA's two major political parties. Its first president was Abraham Lincoln. It sits on the right of the political spectrum. politcians, for example, argue that states with strict gun control laws like California are statistically no less likely to see mass shootings.

But others counter that many of the guns used for these purposes were sourced illegally from states with more lax regulations, and that whole countries that implement tighter controls usually see drastic changes.

There is evidence for this. After a mass shooting in Australia in 1996 killed 35 people, the country's government implemented gun control reforms which led gun deaths to drop by more than 50% in the next 10 years. Similar patterns were seen in South Africa, New Zealand and Britain.

Gun control advocates in the US suggest measures such as mandatory background checks for would-be gun purchasers, better regulation of unlicensed sellers and restrictions on gun sales to people convicted of hate crimes and domestic abuse.¹

But many Americans say that the right to bear arms is one of the most important rights laid out in the US constitution - if not the most important right. And these views are not easy to shift.²

Moreover, some polls suggest that support for stricter gun control among the American public is actually declining. A 2021 survey claimed to show the lowest levels of support since 2014.

Republican lawmakers, who control the House of RepresentativesThe lower chamber of the United States congress. There are 435 representatives, with a certain number allocated to each state based on the state's population., generally strictly oppose gun control legislation as a response to mass gun violence. This means that popular opinion aside, there is little chance that this CongressThe legislative branch of the American government, where elected representatives vote on which laws should be passed. Congress is made up of two chambers: the Senate, which contains two members from each of the 50 states, and the House of Representatives, which has representatives from 435 smaller districts. will push any gun control legislation through.

Yes: America is reaching its tipping point. One country can only take so much violence. This will be the year that people rise up to make a change to the system.

No: As much as it would be nice to think so, it is just not possible. Republicans control the House of Representatives, and even if legislation got through there, it would still have to get through the SenateThe upper chamber of the Congress that - along with the US House of Representatives (lower chamber) - comprises the legislative branch of the US government. Each of the 50 US states is equally represented by two senators, regardless of its population size., which is notoriously good at blocking gun control bills.

Or... It might not happen in the next few years, but there are reasons to be optimistic for the future. Some polls show a huge majority of Americans in favour of tighter controls and younger lawmakers tend to be more pro-regulation.