Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
As per the provisional data, around 49,000 people lost their lives due to mass shootings in 2021. Image Source: IANS
Authorities identified the culprit as transgender individual Audrey Hale, 28. Hale was shot and killed by police while carrying three weapons, one of which was a semi-automatic rifle.
A shooting incident has once again sent a wave of shock across the United States of America. At a private Christian elementary school on Monday, a 28-year-old Nashville resident fatally shot three children and three adults, according to authorities. He also left behind writings and detailed maps of the school and its security procedures. Assailant opened fire just after 10 a.m. inside the Covenant School, in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood, where students in preschool through sixth grade had just started their final full week of classes before Easter break. This was the most recent incident of gun violence that has wreaked havoc on American families and communities. The three children killed in the shooting incident have been identified by the police as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. Police believe that that these victims were less than nine year old. The three adult victims have been identified as Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.
Authorities identified the culprit as transgender individual Audrey Hale, 28. Hale was shot and killed by police while carrying three weapons, one of which was a semi-automatic rifle. The first report of the event was made to the police on Monday at 10:13 local time (15:13 GMT). Police had been identifying the gunman as a 28-year-old woman for hours before finally naming her Audrey Hale. The police chief later revealed that Hale was transgender during a late-afternoon press conference.
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake, during one of the press conferences on March 27 expressed that, “I was literally moved to tears to see this and the kids as they were being ushered out of the building.” Drake did not provide any specific motive of the shooter to the press but gave horrifying examples of the shooter's earlier preparation for the deliberate attack. Parents gathered at a nearby church following the shooting to pick up their kids. The Tennessean newspaper reported that as school buses arrived, the children waved to their parents by hanging their heads and hands out the windows.
The overall number of firearm-related deaths in the US increased to 45,222 in 2020, the highest amount the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ever recorded since it began keeping track of such deaths in 1968. This corresponds to an average of 124 people each day dying from gun violence. Around 54 percent of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (24,292), while 43 percent were murders (19,384). The figure represents a 34 percent increase from 2019, and a 75 percent increase over the course of the previous decade. In 2017, some 39,773 died from gunshot injuries, an average of nearly 109 people each day. That year also saw country's worst mass shooting in a decade when 50 people were killed and over 500 wounded in Las Vegas.
Source: Gun Violence Archive
In United States, the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right protected by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Open carrying of firearms in public, in some form, is currently allowed in 45 states. The country also lacks measures such as a national firearm registry. According to reports, more than half of the 50 states in United States of America (USA) have now allowed their citizens to carry guns without any license and permit. Alabama joined the long list of 26 states that authorise residents to carry concealed pistols without permits on January 1, 2023.
More than 600 mass shootings were reported in the United States in 2022 alone, according to data from the Washington based Gun Violence Archive, which is more than twice as many as the 336 mass shootings that were recorded four years earlier. A mass shooting is any incident in which four or more persons are shot or killed, excluding the shooter. According to the Gun Violence Archive, around 80 incidents of mass shootings have been reported in the United States till February 20, 2023. The data from Centre for Disease Control shows that nearly 53 people are killed every day due to gun violence in the US. As per the provisional data, around 49,000 people lost their lives due to mass shootings in 2021.
Source: Small Arms Survey
A 2018 report by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey discovered that US gun owners had 393.3 million firearms, which is more than the nation's current population of 330 million. United States also has the highest firearms per 100 residents’ ratio. And the figure is increasing. According to GVA, 7.5 million US adults - just under 3 percent of the population - became first new gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021. About half of new gun owners in that time period were women while 40 percent where blacks.
After a spurt of mass shootings in recent times, Americans are forced to confront the country’s unique relationship with guns. Earlier in April 2021, months after taking charge of the country-- US President Joe Biden had called the gun violence an "epidemic and an international embarrassment. However, statistics show that the situation has gone from bad to worse. According to a survey conducted by Gallup, despite widespread calls for putting a ban on carrying of firearms became common, the support for strict gun laws decreased last year. About 57 percent of Americans surveyed said they wanted stricter gun laws, while 32 percent said they should remain the same. According to 10 percent of respondents, laws should be "made less strict." The National Rifle Association (NRA), which has a sizable budget to influence lawmakers on gun policy, continues to be the most potent gun lobby in the United States despite years of financial difficulties and internal conflict.
