To answer the question of what our best response to gun violence is, let’s look at the numbers behind the headline. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the New England Journal of Medicine article reported in 2020 there were 4,357 deaths of children and young adults between the ages of 1 to 19 involving firearms. This represented a 39% increase from the year before of 2,658 deaths in the same age category; 65%, or 2,832, of the 4,357 deaths were due to violent assault; 30%, or 1,307, were suicide. The remaining 5%, or 218, were unintentional/accidental.
From the CDC website, “Firearm homicide rates are the highest among teens and young adults and among Blacks, American Indians and the Hispanic populations.” Interestingly, from 1999-2013, the rate from violent assault was decreasing, but from 2013-2020, it started to increase. Between 1999-2020, the rates for suicide and unintentional/accidental remained about the same.
Weapons ownership goes back to the beginning of the human species. Arguments on whether weapons are needed or not are valid for both sides. You will never hear the stories about firearms being used to defend against criminal activity, but you will always hear about firearms being used in a negative way. To ban firearms will only tip the scale in favor of those who will use them or any weapon in a criminal manner.
We can debate the pros and cons of the gun lobbies and politicians, but they are not the ones pulling the triggers. Young adults are making the decisions to pull the triggers. Why is it so easy for them to take another human life? It comes from fear, jealousy, intimidation, but above all, hate. Beliefs that they were taught. We have to start teaching about and building character, respect, civility, responsibility and merit back into our society. Instead of learning to hate each other, we need to learn from each other.
Hate is the breeding ground for this violence, which results in these deaths. So long as people hate each other, lives will be lost senselessly, regardless of the tool used.
Ed Pham
La Cañada Flintridge
First published in the April 27 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
