First, the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., that left 10 dead.
Second, the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 kids and two teachers dead.
Finally, the medical center shooting in Tulsa, Okla., that left four dead.
The first thing we’d like to say, as fellow residents of a state where hunting is a way of life, is that no one wants to take away your hunting rifles.
Here comes the “but.” But we, as nation, need to make changes to gun laws. If you hear us out, you may find we don’t disagree as much as you’d think.
One thing all three gunmen from the incidents listed above had in common was easy access to AR-style semiautomatic rifles. The Buffalo shooter is 18 and was able to purchase a semiautomatic rifle as well as a shotgun, though the AR-style rifle is the one he used for the mass shooting. The Uvalde shooter bought an AR-style rifle the day after his 18th birthday, bought 375 rounds of ammunition the day after that and, two days later, bought a second AR-style rifle. He attacked Robb Elementary School less than a week after his final purchase. The Tulsa shooter, a man in his 40s, purchased an AR-style rifle the same day he went on his rampage at a clinic.
Two lessons we can take from this: 18 is too young to purchase lethal weapons, and there should be a waiting period before the purchaser can take the gun home.
There are lots of things we don’t allow 18-year-olds to do. We don’t let them buy (or legally use) cigarettes or alcohol, both of which are potentially dangerous. We don’t let them rent cars by themselves, because they aren’t considered mature or reliable enough. (We’d argue 18 is too young to send them to war, too.) Even Sen. Manchin and Gov. Justice have indicated they would support raising the age to legally buy a firearm.
Yes, we allow kids as young as 16 to drive, but that is after multiple hours of adult-supervised practice, a written test, a skills test and proof the car is covered by insurance. Many states — Texas among them — require zero training, no licenses and/or no permits for buying and using firearms. (We’ll come back to this tomorrow.)
The Buffalo shooter also had a hunting rifle his father had given him two years prior, but that’s not what he used to kill 10 Black people in a supermarket. Gifting a gun to a minor should be treated like gifting a car to a minor: The minor still has to go through the tests and training to get a license before they can drive the gifted car, and so it should be if they are given a gun.
There also needs to be a waiting period between purchase and taking the gun home. The Tulsa shooter bought his weapon just hours before he targeted the doctor he blamed for his continued back pain after a surgery.
The convenience of guns doesn’t just contribute to mass murders — it’s also a key factor in suicides and homicides. According to the Pew Research Center, “In 2020, 54% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides,” while 43% were homicides, but, “nearly eight-in-ten (79%) U.S. murders” involved a firearm, while “a little over half (53%) of all suicides” involved a gun.
Also, suicide attempts made with guns tended to be more fatal. According to a Harvard Public Health special report, in 2010, “About 85% of suicide attempts with a firearm end[ed] in death.” The report added that gun ownership is closely linked with suicide — states with more guns had higher suicide rates. However, as one expert quoted said, “it’s not that gun owners are more suicidal. It’s that they’re more likely to die in the event that they become suicidal, because they are using a gun.”
With that information in mind, here’s data summarized from a 2001 study of people who survived near-fatal suicide attempts: “Asked how much time had passed between when they decided to take their lives and when they actually made the attempt, a startling 24% said less than 5 minutes; 48% said less than 20 minutes; 70% said less than one hour; and 86% said less than eight hours.”
In an interview with Politico, Jillian Peterson, co-author of “The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic,” said, “I don’t think most people realize that [mass shootings] are suicides, in addition to homicides. Mass shooters design these to be their final acts.”
Having quick and easy access to guns contributes to America’s gun violence epidemic, where individuals in a moment of crisis can use a firearm to create a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
