Image Credits: Eliezer Muller, Unsplash
It seems like everyday there’s a new violent story in the news. Most of these unfortunate instances reveal the persistent issue that plagues and divides the United States: gun violence. With calls from both sides to restrict access and others to maintain their right to own a firearm, it’s time to look at how our country’s policies can mend such a divisive issue.
With the state our nation is currently in, would establishing strict federal gun restrictions or bans limit the extent of gun violence our nation endures? Likely not, with the extensive amount of civilian-owned firearms already in circulation. Banning more guns may contribute to the amount of illegal firearms owned. In addition to a predictable public outrage over highly restrictive gun laws being enacted, this solution would not necessarily solve America’s gun problem. While taking the restrictive route has shown to be successful for other countries such as Australia, Canada or Japan, passing firearm restrictive federal gun legislation for the United States, “…has been illusive, and law enforcement has been divisive and often detrimental.”
Currently, federal gun legislation prohibits felons, drug users, domestic abusers and other categories of dangerous people from owning firearms as well as prohibiting anyone from giving someone in these categories access to a firearm. Federal legislation also prohibits the possession or discharge of a firearm in a school zone, and also now requires background checks for anyone purchasing a firearm. With these laws in place, guns should, in theory, only be obtained by those who are law-abiding citizens with responsible intentions. However, these federal laws struggle to limit the amount of illegal activity surrounding the obtaining and usage of firearms.
From 2017 to 2021, more than one million guns were stolen from private citizens. These guns were initially purchased legally from a citizen who went through the legal process, and are now in the hands of someone who went through none of those precautions.
Buyback programs can theoretically combat this by providing financial incentive to citizens owning legal, or illegal guns. By offering an incentive, this process can help reduce the amount of guns in circulation, potentially decreasing gun violence. Unfortunately, these programs have not seen much success in the U.S. Gun buyback programs rely on the willingness of the citizens, and in the U.S., they “…do not usually recover a large share of guns circulating in a community,” according to a study in 2021 by National Bureau of Economic Research. This study also found that buyback prices may rarely exceed the value gun owners place on keeping a gun.
However, less “umbrella-like” solutions like adjusting state laws or funding more interventions and programs can offer more publicly agreeable and impactful solutions. States that have strengthened their gun legislation have seen impactful and positive change.
Sometimes, when America can be a mess, it is important to remember we can succeed through state reformation. States know their people and how their laws will impact them better than a federal approach.
Programs that facilitate a community’s growth and its needs have also shown to reduce homicide and gun violence rates. According to a 2017 American Sociological Review of programs in 264 cities, every 10 additional nonprofit, community-building programs per 100,000 residents were associated with a 9% reduction in homicide and a 6% reduction in violence. Ensuring that a community has access to housing, green spaces, food and mental health programs addresses the root causes of violence. Federal legislation should be reviewed and reformed when it comes to gun violence, however, the likelihood for any changes to pass through the House or Senate is currently dismal. Instead, new approaches should be considered such as state legislation and community programs. Gun violence has long been a dark issue our country struggles with. Gun violence will not disappear overnight, but through collective commitment at the state and local levels, America can begin to rebuild trust, reduce harm and move toward a safer future.
Grace Powell is a third-year Media and Culture major with a minor in Human Resource Management. GP1019074@wcupa.edu
If one is willing to accept the dissolution of the union, local measures the violate the constitutional denial of ANY authority to ANY constitutional jurisdiction to in ANY way regulate ANY arms possessed by the people at ANY time or place for ANY reason, might just be legal.
Of course when local jurisdictions rebel against the constitution of the United States they face the possibility that forces sworn to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestis, will liberate, occupy and reconstruct those jurisdictions as was done with jurisdictions in rebellion from 1861 to 1877.
I enjoyed this article. Glad to see some research and statistics on solutions. I feel we are inundated with people and politicians talking about gun violence with no further information on a solution. This article was informative on the fix not just the problem