On mass shootings in the United States

“Mass shooting” is defined as four or more people shot. A list of the number of those mass shooting events by year is cited below.

2022: 249 as of May 24. In all of 2021: 671; in 2020, 611; 2019, 416; 2018, 336; 2017, 346; 2016, 381; 2015, 335; 2014, 269.

The number of people who were shot and the number who were killed is given by the following website, and it also reports the date and location of each event.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2021/may/27/us-mass-shootings-database

On Oct. 1, 2017, one individual shot 471 people at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tragedy and sorrow are unlimited when any of these shootings occur, large or small.

Fifty years ago or more, gun shops carried firearms designed for hunting and target shooting. During recent decades and currently, most of the firearms sold are designed for shooting people, and too many of them are being used for that purpose. Background checks are, obviously, rudely deficient. We now have unedited social media where people can become disoriented and isolated from the mainstream of society. Does a nation of accomplished and successful people need to tolerate so many mass shooting events? We solve many difficult problems. We can surely solve the mass shooting problem — if we choose to solve it.

Would we be having these tragedies if some of the attacks had been directed at legislators?

Second Amendment:  “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Second Amendment was ratified in 1791, six years after the colonists sent the British back to England and only 21 years before the British returned and burned the U.S. Capitol in 1812. The colonies did not maintain a standing army. The colonies did not have armories full of military weapons. The British occupiers certainly did not want their subjects to be armed. The purpose of the Second Amendment was defense of the country if a foreign entity invaded. The words “regulated Militia” and “security” of the “State” (national government) make that clear. Carrying firearms to shopping centers, workplaces, entertainment events, and political rallies is not what the writers intended, and they certainly did not intend to facilitate the mass murder of American citizens.

Frequently, public statements accuse legislators of failure to act to solve this problem. But it is “we the people” who elect and re-elect the legislators. If there is a failure, it is us. 

Jack Stevenson is a retired infantry officer, civil service and private corporation employee who now reads history, follows issues important to Americans, and writes commentary from his home in Pensacola, Florida.