Once again, a deranged person used a gun to kill innocent people.
In this case, the shooter was thoughtful enough to film the murders on a GoPro camera so that millions of viewers could watch the killings, over and over again, if they chose to.
And once again, the age-old debate about guns and violence in America has been brought to the forefront within the media and culture at large.
What makes this act of gun violence different, aside from the fact that it is viewable online for all of eternity?
Actually, nothing. Man (sometimes a woman, but rarely) kills person or persons, grief ensues, the media brings up the subject of gun violence — and then the story fades. Wash, rinse, repeat. Again, and again, and again. Except …
Putting aside all emotion, the facts tell another story, one that gets lost every time we all have to deal with this sad and unpleasant side of living in a country where savagery has become seemingly routine.
One fact is that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, violent crimes committed with firearms are down in this nation. Way down. In 1981, there were 6.6 people killed with a firearm per 100,000 people. By 1993, these figures peaked at 7 people killed per 100,000. By 2001, 3.8 people were killed per 100,000 people and in 2010, the number was down to 3.6 people per 100,000 people. That’s an almost 50 percent drop in 17 years from the peak in 1993.
There’s more. According to the FBI, from 2009 to 2013, the number of violent crimes in the U.S. dropped from 1,325,000 to 1,150,000. And the figures from 2007 to 2011 show that the number of homicides involving firearms dropped from 10,129 to 8,583.
America is a safer and less violent place than at any time since the early ’60s, which means for a half century, violent crime has been steadily declining. And while there was a brief increase in the early ’90s, the nation is even less violent than it was just four years ago. All of this data is literally at the tip of anyone’s fingers on the Internet, and the sources are not gun-loving wing nuts.
Speaking of gun lovers, here are few more facts to ponder: Gun ownership is at its lowest point in the nation’s history. According to the General Social Survey, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, only 32 percent of Americans in 2014 said they own at least one firearm or live with someone who does.
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, about half of Americans told researchers there was a gun in their household.
There are still a lot of guns being sold every year, but those are considered to be in fewer hands, owned by collectors and enthusiasts. So fewer Americans own guns than they did 35 years ago, and the idea that the nation is awash in guns is not really true.
Why does the average American believe that gun violence is going up at a breakneck speed and that the country is one, huge violent jungle with firefights erupting everywhere and all the time?
That’s a vastly more complicated subject for another column, but the 24/7 news cycle certainly has played a role in this affair. This is understandable; the television news shows need filler.
But the next time there is another tragic shooting in the U.S., we should all try to temper our logical emotional response with facts and figures before we declare that the country has been lost in a blaze of gunfire.
David Swann is a graphic artist and cartoonist for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
