The weekend’s headlines were grim. “At least 54 wounded and 11 killed, in 7 separate mass shootings this weekend,” highlighted the Axios portal. NBC News read: “At least 12 dead in another weekend of mass shootings across America.” “At least 12 killed in 10 mass shootings across the US over the weekend,” reported Yahoo! News.
The headlines are clearly designed to create the impression that the United States is experiencing a Buffalo or Uvalde almost every day. Is not true. None of the weekend shootings had anything in common with these horrific events. As far as I could determine, none were executed with an AR-15 rifle and most involved fights between people at parties, in or around bars, with many having the characteristics of gang shootings.
The first incident, narrated by Axios, involved two cars that stopped at a graduation party in Summerton (South Carolina) and opened fire, killing one and injuring seven others. Almost all the victims were teenagers. According to police, it was a gang-related shooting, a consequence of previous shootings.
The everyday violence of teenagers shooting teenagers in petty disputes and gang-related vendettas should not be minimized – in fact, it is a significant plague on American life, disproportionately affecting young African Americans and rendering certain neighborhoods across the country uninhabitable. But they are a different category than what we commonly think of as a mass shooting.
There is a difference between the phenomenon of a disturbed young man, who was inspired by previous mass shooters to go to a school or other public place and kill as many people as possible, and the gang member who targets his rivals.
The former are relatively rare and unique events for a community and the nation at large, and are unfortunately very difficult to combat.
The latter are much more common, often do not gain national attention, and are more susceptible to standard anti-crime initiatives, including more policing and robust legal processes.
A bizarre feature of the firearms homicide debate is that the same people who fervently believe that we need to enact gun control measures, with very little effect on the first category of shootings, tend to be hostile or indifferent to measures that unquestionably will decrease the last category of shootings.
The Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics wore shirts with the phrase “End Gun Violence” [pedindo o fim da violência armada], before the NBA Finals game the other night. This sentiment is bland and politically correct enough to be perfect for professional athletes, but slogans accomplish nothing, and the usual gun control measures will not “end” gun violence.
These same players presumably wouldn’t dare wear T-shirts calling for policies to stop youths shooting other youths in the country’s disheartening and far more routine cycle of violence – “Support more policing,” “Prosecute gun crimes,” or “Arrest repeat offenders.” “, for example. This would cause an uproar in polite circles and would be considered totally unacceptable.
The fact is that gun control is ideologically compatible with the media and the left, while arresting people is not.
It is difficult to say exactly how many firearm homicides in the country are gang-related (among other things, witnesses are reluctant to speak). But the Justice Department’s National Gang Center, in what is almost certainly an underestimate, reports that there were about 2,000 gang homicides annually from 2007 to 2012, representing about 13% of all homicides. In Chicago and Los Angeles, about half of all homicides were gang-related.
If we’re going to take these murders more seriously, that’s a good thing. Tough anti-crime policies as well as more personalized anti-gang measures such as targeted simultaneous arrests have been shown to have an effect. It makes no sense to pose against gun violence in general without tackling this particular scourge – unless the goal is to pose.
Rich Lowry is editor-in-chief of National Review.
©2022 National Review. Published with permission. original in english.
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