Gun Violence in America Could Soon Get Worse

[Nevilledog]

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Mark Follman
@markfollman
NEW: A top gun-violence expert warns that America's surging gun sales and rising political extremism could spell "disaster in the months ahead"

Gun violence in America could soon get a lot worse
It's not just an unprecedented surge in gun sales that points to looming danger.
motherjones.com
8:45 AM · Nov 9, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2021/11/gun-violence-supreme-court-domestic-violent-extremism-pandemic-firearms-sales/

Over the past decade, amid rising mass shootings and fierce debate over America’s gun laws, the claim that “nothing ever changes” became a political cliché. The frustration was aimed in particular at the federal government—foremost at the failure by Congress to mandate a stronger and more comprehensive background-check system for gun buyers, a policy with long-standing bipartisan support among Americans, including gun owners. Much has changed in recent years, in fact, at the state and local levels, where governments adopted hundreds of regulations either tightening or loosening restrictions on firearms, a mix defined largely along partisan lines. From a national perspective, however, the picture has been evolving more recently in some ominous ways.

The US Supreme Court, now tilted decisively to the right with three Trump-appointed justices, will soon rule on a case widely expected to open the floodgates for many more Americans to carry loaded guns whenever and wherever they want. Broad scientific research has long since confirmed that the presence of more guns throughout society correlates with more gun injuries and deaths.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020, gun sales have boomed. “Today, we remain in an unprecedented surge in firearm purchasing that shows no sign of abating and risks becoming part of a new normal for the USA,” observes Garen Wintemute, a leading expert on gun-violence research, in an analysis published in early November in the journal of Injury Epidemiology.

FBI background checks on gun buyers during the first three quarters of 2021 were 60 percent higher than the expected level, with 12.5 million “excess” checks among 33.4 million total, according to the analysis. Even those numbers underestimate purchases, Wintemute notes, since they don’t account for purchases of multiple firearms in a single transaction, nor for the estimated 20 percent of transactions that don’t involve any background checks, such as those between private parties or at gun shows. A least 20 percent of gun purchasers during the pandemic have been first-time buyers, according to multiple surveys included in the analysis, expanding the ranks of the roughly one-third of all Americans who own firearms.

*snip*

[colsohlibgal]

1. Almost A Given

The craziest right wing Drumpf slurpers tend to be loaded up on guns.

In the end the 2nd Amendment might well do us in. We are in a far different world than when that Amendment was put in. But the Right Wing isn’t too clued in to context.

[madville]

6. Every demographic started loading up on guns when the pandemic started

“The retailers reported an estimated 52% increase in sales to white Americans during the first half of 2020, a 58% increase in sales to Black Americans, a 49% increase in sales to Hispanic Americans, and a 42% increase in sales to Asian Americans.”

https://bradyunited.medium.com/gun-sales-surged-in-2020-b2a6d993d644

[Mr.Bill]

2. I agree it could be disastrous.

Mostly for them. Those clowns at the Capitol on 1/6 couldn't take over an amusement park.

[LiberatedUSA]

3. How many of those sales are semi-automatic weapons?

Do you think any of them would be willing to hand them over for a price we set under a mandatory buyback plan like Beto is for? Or do you think these buyers will be keeping their guns regardless of what we want?

[NickB79]

4. Easily over 50%

The biggest sellers the past few years have been handguns, AR's, and pump action shotguns.

A huge percentage of guns sold lately have been to first time gun owners, for self defense over fears of social unrest. Those would be largely Democrats and Independents. They're not buying bolt action deer rifles for hunting.

The fact of the matter is that, after years of being threatened by the right, the left and ESPECIALLY minorities are arming up as well.

[Dial H For Hero]

7. There won't be a mandatory buyback of semiautomatic weapons. It's a political impossibility.

As for compliance, just to put things in perspective I would point out that years after Australia put their gun confiscation plan into effect, their compliance rate is estimated to be only 50% or so.

One can only presume it would be rather lower here, but we'll never know, given that such a law will never be passed (let alone get past the Supreme Court).

[roamer65]

10. That's why we need to have stringent ammunition control.

Eventually that supply runs out and the price on the black market will go sky high.

All illicit ammunition production should be severely punished if we go this route. Large rewards to any informers who report it.

[Dial H For Hero]

11. Making ammunition illegal (or nearly so) is also politically impossible and would never get past

the Supremes.

[Amishman]

12. Agreed

Might as well wish for a magic wand to make it all disappear.

Supply side restrictions rarely work, just look at prohibition and the war on drugs.

The real solution is to mitigate the reason why newcomers are buying guns (fear, uncertainty, etc) by fixing our unequal economy and dysfunctional society. Happy people who feel safe are rather unlikely to buy a gun.

As for those already in circulation, not much that can be done other than licensing and red flag laws to try and get them away from those who are dangerous.

[fescuerescue]

5. Haven't gun sales been surging for awhile now ?

I feel like I hear about new record sales about every 3 months since about 2008.

[Dial H For Hero]

8. Currently selling at something like 3 to 4 times the rate they did in 2000.

[USALiberal]

9. Driven by paranoid gun nuts! Nt

[Straw Man]

13. Just because they're paranoid ...

... well, you know the rest.