US has unique public health crisis

By David A. LOVE

Tribune News Service

The recent Oregon massacre is yet another reminder that America has a public health crisis.

No Western nation experiences this level of gun violence, and the scale of the carnage is sobering. So far this year, the United States has had more than 10,100 gun deaths.

The problem of gun violence is complex. It is not merely an issue of mental health, but also one of domestic violence and anger management. It shows a society inclined to resolve conflict, solve problems and overcome frustration and deprivation through the barrel of a gun. Of the more than 33,000 gun deaths in 2013, nearly two-thirds were suicides.

While there are concerted efforts to reduce deaths from other major causes of mortality in the United States, such as vehicle accidents and diseases, there is no such attempt when it comes to guns. Indeed, there are barely any studies on the public health impact of guns. The reason for this is the power of the gun-rights movement.

‘Open carry’

The gun lobby promotes the idea that 300 million guns in America are not nearly enough, that only more guns will make us safer, and any effort to curb their proliferation, or even collect data on gun violence, must be resisted. Its enablers in Congress and state legislatures enact policies such as “open carry” – the notion that citizens can carry weapons in public spaces – “concealed carry” and “stand-your-ground” or “shoot-to-kill” laws.

Stand-your-ground laws have an inherent racial bias. Since 2005, homicides deemed legally justifiable have increased 85 percent in states with such laws. According to a study by the Urban Institute, in these states 17 percent of white-on-black shooting deaths were found justified, as opposed to only 1 percent of black-on-white shootings. In the same states, before stand your ground was enacted, 9 percent of white-on-black shootings were deemed justified.

The gun rights movement and its sympathizers on the U.S. Supreme Court have interpreted the Second Amendment provision of a “well regulated militia” – which used to cover slave patrols in the South – to apply to individuals.

That’s just plain wrongheaded, and it blocks the United States from seeing gun violence for what it is – not an issue of individual rights, but a public health problem that plagues whole communities.

David A. Love is a freelance writer and human rights advocate based in Philadelphia. He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.