The shooting that killed three people and injured at least five on February 13, 2022, on a university campus west of Detroit, Michigan, is only the latest in a tragic series.
By Chloe Marino
Published update
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Another day marked by fear and violence in the United States, the nation with the highest number of “mass shootings” in the world. Among the Americans, every day, 130 people are killed by bullets and the individual weapons in circulation are more numerous than the inhabitants.
It was a complete loss that Joe Biden announced last December, on the tenth anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shootings, that the United States had “a moral obligation » to toughen the regulation of firearms. Nothing works. According to figures from the NGO Gun Violence Archive647 killings took place in 2022 compared to 348 in 2017.
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Will 2023 be the year of change? This already seems compromised, 60 killings having been recorded since the beginning of the year. Those of the end of January which, in less than 48 hours in California, had caused 11 and 7 deaths respectively, had not failed to relaunch the eternal and divisive debate on the carrying of weapons in the United States.
Shy answers
While the number of gunshot victims is growing, supporters of free access to firearms brandish the right guaranteed by the second amendment of the constitution and oppose a tightening of regulations. In June 2022, a 1913 New York state law that placed strict limits on carrying guns outside the home was even struck down by conservative Supreme Court justices.
On June 25, after signing the law aimed at implementing firearms regulations in order to toughen criminal and psychological background checks for buyers aged 18 to 21, Joe Biden confided that “ although this law does not include everything I want, it does include measures that I have been calling for for a long time and that will save lives “. Funds had thus been released to finance programs devoted to mental health. The most important law on the subject in nearly 30 years had, for the first time, achieved consensus among Republicans and Democrats. The two parties are struggling, however, to agree on the measures to be taken as the macabre scenarios accumulate.
Who are these killers?
There is a proven mimicry and repetition in the logic of the killings. The perpetrators are being emulated and trends are emerging regarding the profit of the killers. According to the figures, 98% of those responsible for these killings are men, and 61% of them are non-Hispanic whites. Psychiatric disorders are not systematic, but the social marginality of killers seeking to exist through violence often imposes itself. Another highlight is a study of New York Times of 2019 shows that the perpetrators of the killings targeting schools are mostly young white people. The places are often public and schools are at the top of the list. Nevada, Florida and Texas are among the hardest hit states.
Free access to weapons, however, gives rise to irrational situations. On January 6, a 6-year-old boy opened fire on his mistress in Virginia. 1 year ago, the JR-15, a semi-automatic rifle designed on the model of assault rifles especially for children, was put on the market. For American toddlers, guns are both a familiar object and a real threat.
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« Michigan students grow up with school shootings », displays on the front page the New York times, on February 14th. And to weapons we always respond with more weapons! Texas teachers are now armed to defend schools, the attackers’ favorite target. And since 2022, in the United States, a young person is more likely to die from a bullet in the skull than on the road.
