6 Reasons Gun Control Will Not Solve Mass Killings

From The Daily Signal.com (Mar. 16):

In the wake of the tragic murder of 17 innocent students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students, educators, politicians, and activists are searching for solutions to prevent future school shootings.

As emotions morph from grief to anger to resolve, it is vitally important to supply facts so that policymakers and professionals can fashion solutions based on objective data rather than well-intended but misguided emotional fixes.

Are there ways to reduce gun violence and school shootings? Yes, but only after objectively assessing the facts and working collaboratively to fashion common-sense solutions.

Definitions

• “Mass shooting” typically refers to mass killings where the assailant used a firearm or firearms. In 2013, Congress defined “mass killing” as “3 or more killings in a single incident.”

• A prominent 2017 study defined “mass public shootings” as incidents that occur in the absence of other criminal activity (such as robberies, drug deals, and gang-related turf wars) in which a gun is used to kill four or more victims at a public location.

1. Mass killings are rare, and mass public shootings are even rarer.

• Mass killings are very rare, accounting for only 0.2 percent of homicides every year and approximately 1 percent of homicide victims.
• Only 12 percent of mass killings are mass public shootings. Most mass killings are familicides (murders of family members or intimate partners) and felony-related killings (such as robberies gone awry or gang-related “turf battles”).

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2. Many gun control measures are not likely to be helpful.

• Over 90 percent of public mass shootings take place in “gun-free zones” where civilians are not permitted to carry firearms.
• A complete ban on “assault weapons” will save very few lives: Six out of every 10 mass public shootings are carried out by handguns alone, while only one in 10 is committed with a rifle alone.
• The average age of mass public shooters is 34, which means that increasing the minimum age for purchasing firearms would not target the main perpetrators of mass public shootings.

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3. Public mass shooters typically have histories of mental health issues.

• According to one study, 60 percent of mass public shooters had been diagnosed with a mental disorder or had demonstrated signs of serious mental illness prior to the attack.
• A large body of research shows a statistical link between mass public killings and serious untreated psychiatric illness. The most commonly diagnosed illnesses among mass public shooters are paranoid schizophrenia and severe depression.
• It is important to remember that the vast majority of people with mental disorders do not engage in violent behaviors, and there is no empirical means of effectively identifying potential mass murderers.  [read more]

I never understood why people think “gun free zones” will stop a mass shooter. That 90% makes perfect sense.

The other three reasons are:

1. The United States does not have an extraordinary problem with mass public shootings compared to other developed countries.
2. Mass killers often find ways to kill even without firearms.
3. Australia did not “eliminate mass public shootings” by banning assault weapons.

Number two above just proves that if someone wants you dead they are going to figure out a way to do it. Guns don’t kill people—evil or sometimes deranged people do. America doesn’t need gun control—it needs self-control. Guns were never the problem.

Other articles and videos on the topic:

• The Real Reason We Have Mass Shootings
• 4 Steps to Better School Security
• How Gun Control Made England The 'Most Violent Country In Europe’
• King George III Would Have Loved Today's Gun Control Movement
• YouTube Shooting Matters, but Not for the Reasons the Media Thinks
• Is Gun Ownership a Right? [video]
• Gun Rights Are Women's Rights [video]
• What Should We Do About Guns? [video]