Gun Violence in America: Race, Reform and Freedom

 American seem increasingly terrified of the upcoming November elections regardless of the outcome. If the "Trumpsters" win, the fear is mass riots by the Far Left worse than when won Trump in 2020. If the Democrats win, the concern is another "January 6th" on steroids. One indication is the fact that Americans are arming themselves like never before. 

Case in point, in 1999 just 26% of Americans owned a firearm for self-protection. Today that number is  80%. One professor, Dr. David Yamane of Wake Forest University equated the uptick to the radical change in cultural values, which is something not seen to this degree since the late 1960's and early 1970's.

A recent Pew poll showed that 40% of households had at least one firearm in the house. 45% of Republicans and conservative leaning Independents owned a weapon while just 20% of Democrats or liberal leaning Independents did. When it came to gender, 40% of males owned a gun compared to 25% of women.

When we look at race, Americans of European origin made up 38% of gun ownership. Black Americans comprise 34% of gun ownership. Meanwhile, the nation's largest minority, Hispanics, made up 20% of the ownership. Asians were just 10% of gun owners. The reason most often cited by 72% gun owners for the reason they owned a firearm was self protection of person and property. 62% say they use their firearm mostly for hunting or sport. 15% claim they simply collect weapons of various sort. Lastly 7% it's a part of their job (such as security guard).

What type of guns do most Americans own? 72% of gun owners have a pistol/handgun. 62% have a rifle of some sort (including lever action and semi-automatics like an AR15). Finally, 54% own a shotgun (either single or double barreled). It bears mentioning that  58% of Americans in general favor tighter gun control laws. 26% believe current laws are about where we need to be, and 17% think that current gun laws are too restrictive.

Where do most of these gun owners live? Not surprising is that the majority---47%---live in the country where a firearm is commonly used for a wide variety of reasons such as hunting, protection against snakes and dangerous animals as well as theft of personal property and livestock as well as self protection.  Suburban neighborhoods, which comprise mostly Middle Class families and individuals, make up 30% of gun owners. 20% of those who own a firearm line in urban areas.

When it comes to the 2nd Amendment and the right to bear arms without restrictions, the percentages are quite low. The majority of gun owners regardless of political "affliction" said they believe that there should be some form of restrictions. For instance, respondents favor legislation to prevent those with some form of mental illness to own a firearm in near equal measure. 88% for conservatives and 89% for liberals.

What about carrying a concealed weapon without a permit? 60% of Republicans say no while 91% of Democrats agree.  When it comes to military styled weapons (which are typically semi-automatic deigned to look like a military grade firearm) as well as high capacity magazine clips (clips which hold more than eight rounds), the difference between ideologies becomes crystal clear. 81% of Democrats and those who lean liberal oppose both. 

In addition, there are now 17 states which no longer require a permit to carry a firearm---Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Some states, such as New Hampshire is expected to pass a law to allow residents to have a loaded gun in the car provided the car is locked when unoccupied and the weapons is not readily visible.

So, where does gun violence most often occur? Globally, the U.S. is the overwhelming leader when it comes to gun related deaths. at 12.1% per 100,000. The next highest is Finland with 3.25% per 100,000. Canada's rate was 2.05%. Japan had the lowest rate of gun related deaths at 0.06%.

States with the highest rate of gun violence tend to take place in "blue states", that is, states controlled by Democrats, especially in the South. Mississippi is the worse state when it comes to gun violence at nearly 30% per 100,000. Louisiana is next with 28.2% per 100,000. Rhode Island was the safest state with just 3.1%.

When it comes to cities, Pueblo, Colorado was the worse city for gun violence with a murder rate of 119% over the previous year, is a moderate size city with a population of about 112,000. As an aside,  Pueblo has a racial makeup is 71.78% white, 12.36% mixed race, 9.26% listed as "other" and 3.14% Native American. Perhaps of more significance is the poverty rate, which stands of 16%.6. The unemployment level is 7% which are known to affect crime levels.

Pueblo was closely followed by Amarillo, Texas, which has a population just over 200,000, at 117%. Next on this shameful list is Lansing, Michigan. It has 112% rate of gun related deaths. Lansing has a surprisingly low population of 112,500. Whites make up just half the population with 52.6%. Blacks comprise 23% while mixed race is 6.03%. Hispanics are 5.52% of the residents and Asians are  4.93%. Lansing's poverty rate is 20%, which far exceeds the national average of 12.5%. It's unemployment rate is 3.90%.

Austin, Texas, with a population of 974,400, has been shown to have a gun violence rate of 86%. Rounding out the top five of this nefarious list at 77% is Fayetteville, North Carolina and its population of just under 209,000.  Their unemployment rate  is 5.2%, and poverty level of 18.7%, both of which are higher than the national average.

Other cities with higher than average gun related deaths include St. Louis, Missouri, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana,  Jackson, Mississippi, Birmingham, Alabama, Baltimore, Maryland and Cleveland Ohio. Cities like Louisville, Kentucky, Memphis, Tennessee, West Palm Beach, Florida, Columbia and North Charlestown, South Carolina and Atlanta Georgia have higher levels of gun deaths relative to their population size. 58% of Americans say they've either personally experienced some form of gun violence or know someone who has.

In examining percentages of gun related deaths, we unsurprisingly find 66% are homicides. 32% are suicides and 3% are accidental.   It's worth mentioning that among the suicides, 16.9% were known to have some form of medically diagnosed mental illness at the time of their death and one person per day accidentally dies by a firearm (the most common form of accidental death was while cleaning their gun). 

Native Americans and Alaskan Natives have the highest percentage of suicide of any racial group. The root cause is believed to be extreme poverty coupled with drug and alcohol abuse.  Should we be surprised that around 50% of Americans admit being anxious when firearms are present? 36% said they or someone they know will be exposed to a gun related crime in their lifetime.

When we delve further into homicides, we find that Black Americans have the highest statistical rates of firearm related deaths at 8 times the national average (on average, just slightly under 10,000 blacks die of gun violence every year.  

The police have shot and killed more whites than any other racial group in terms of raw numbers. However, Black Americans are shot and killed at a higher percentage relative the size of their population. They are  followed by Hispanics and finally other racial groups.

To put it in further perspective, blacks comprise just 13% of the U.S. population while owning 24% of all guns. However, 60% of all gun related deaths are Black-Americans. When compared to the largest minority population, Hispanics, blacks die at a rate 11.5% more often than Hispanics. 83% of deaths among Black Americans are gun related. If blacks don't think back lives matter, why should the rest of America? 

Black youth of either gender die much more often due to gun violence than any other racial population. From birth to age 17, black youth die at a rate of 7.87% per 100,000 compared to whites and other racial groups of the same age, the death rate is 0.58%. From ages 18 through 24, their death rate is sickening 58.78%. For everyone else, it's roughly 3.10%.

From 25 to 39, the percentage of black deaths by gun violence is 42.35%. Other racial groups have an average of 3.21%. Finally, blacks 40 and over, their death rate is 11.5% per 100,000. For everyone else it's 1.78%. The average across all age brackets for Black Americans is 21.05%. For everyone else it's 1.93%

When we break down by gender, we find that black males are far more likely to die by gun violence than black females. If we group together all age brackets, black males have a death by firearm percentage of 40.09% compared to other races which have a death rate of 2.77%. The highest death rate among black males is between ages 18 and 24, While Hispanics, whites, Asians, and other races have a 4.59 death rate percentage, the death rate among black males is a horrific 104.07%!

Even when you look at older age groups, the percentage of gun related deaths for black males far exceed their population percentage. For age 19 up to 39, it's barely under 80%! Other racial groups show a 5.02% rate. You would expect that late middle age men would do better. Guess again.

Blacks males 40 and over have a gun related death rate of 20.42% per 100,000 compared to 2.48% for males of other races. It bares mentioning that 85% of all gun related murders of blacks were committed by other blacks, and while white on white gun rated murders have increased. Roughly 84% of whites are killed other whites, yet black on black homicides are roughly 93%.  A interesting aside mentioned in a Department of Justice report states that 52% of victims are familiar with their murderer. 

Politicians (mostly Democrat) have been promising serious gun law reforms for decades. Several such as Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have said they would "go door to door" if they had to taking away people's guns. Even 2024 Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, has promised serious gun law reform, making it more difficult to buy or own a firearm. Of course, that's great for a sound bite on nightly news and aimed as invigorating the anti-gun crowd, that's neither realistic or likely ever to happen.

Many Americans are willing to accept tighter guns laws in order to keep firearms out of the hands of people most likely to cause harm such as the mentally unstable, drug addicts, and so forth. But as the old adage goes, "when guns are taken away, only criminals will have guns". It will be like fat sheep being guarded by hungry wolves.  

Besides, Americans have had a love affair with guns since the founding of this nation. They are part of our national fabric like freedom of speech, assembly, or the right to vote (not that it does us any good), Nevertheless, 89% of Americans agree there should be mandatory background checks without exception.

66% of Americans favor laws to allow the Feds to track gun sales (which means keeping records so they'll know who owns what). I understand the reason behind such a law, but to me that seems to violate our right to privacy. 64% want to ban high capacity magazines which hold more than 10 rounds. Proponents say there is no reason for anyone to shoot more than 10 rounds. Opponents point out that it's no one's business how many rounds they shoot.

Another 63% want to ban "assault weapons" all together. I suspect that most of these individuals have little idea what a "assault weapon" actually is. A so-called "assault weapons" is merely a semi-auto rifle like any other used in hunting or recreational shooting. The one key difference is that the stock has been changed to give it a "military" style. It just makes it look "cooler". It is not a military grade weapon.

So, when they say they want to ban "assault weapons", in reality  they mean any rifle other than a single shot bolt action rifle. I suppose they'd like to see us return to Colonial era black power flint locks too.  It's more likely they want to ban any add-on mechanisms or devices which can convert a rifle or other firearm into something approaching a full automatic such as was used by the 2017 mass murderer, Stephen Paddock, in Las Vegas where he killed 60 individuals and injured 413 more. At the time Paddock was using something called a "bump stock" which used the gun's recoil to continue firing. While it came too late for the victims, the 'bump stock" and similar devices have been banned.

There is no question tighter laws should be considered, but first existing laws to be enforced and extended to include gun shows where used guns can be bought with no background check. Transactions between individuals could be conducted using a intermediary such as a licensed gun store dealer.  It would be a little harder on both buyer and seller, but with proper ID, sellers could do a electronic background check. I'm sure everyone would agree that the minor inconvenience would be worth a possible life lost.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, attitudes toward gun violence must change, especially among those who've come to believe the only way to settle a disagreement is through violence. These people need to accept that all life has value, even those you disagree with. That people are murdered for  chump change makes no sense. Stealing someone's car or breaking into a house is placing more value on their stuff than your own life. Gun violence is the first choice of the weak and ultimately solves absolutely nothing. 

 

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