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GUN VIOLENCE - The chamber of commerce photo of Lewiston, Maine, is a lovely image of a tidy American city of 37,000 beneath a canopy of resplendent autumn colors. It looks much like many of our own cities here in Wisconsin.
Sadly, the tragedy that unfolded in Lewiston last week could well have happened here. In fact, it has, and it will again. The victims were slaughtered in a bowling alley and a bar, businesses well-known in Wisconsin cities.
Eighteen dead in Lewiston. Many others injured. Thousands forever stained by the violent act of one man with an assault rifle. Predictably, some politicians rushed to tell us to pray. As though whatever God they want us to petition will forgive them on judgment day for failing to do something about this uniquely American carnage. So from this old bleeding-heart liberal I feel nothing but pity for those who could have made a difference but did not. If there is a hell, they’re going to be roasting for a long time.
For the rest of us, there are cold, hard facts:
- Polls consistently show that about 65% of Americans favor stricter gun control laws. If it’s true that majorities rule in democracies, then we’re apparently not a democracy. One is also left to wonder why the other 35% of our citizens don’t want to end this slaughter.
- This year, with two months left to unfold, has produced 565 mass shootings, defined as four or more shot excluding the shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that provides information on gun violence but is not an advocacy group. For perspective, there are 3,164 counties or the equivalent in the U.S., so the mass shootings amount to one for every 5 1/2 counties.
- Overall deaths by firearms in general in 2022 were more than 35,000.
- The death toll for 2023 as of late last week was 246 children aged 0-11 and 1,157 teens aged 12-17, according to the group. Last year, 995 children 0-11 died by gunfire, and 5,157 teens died.
- That leads to perhaps the saddest statistic of all: Firearms have been the leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens since 2020, representing 19% of all deaths for children 18 years and younger in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Talk about slaughter of the innocents.
It’s telling that the last statistic comes from the CDC. Yes, gun violence is a disease in America.
Most Americans, including those who don’t own a firearm, are opposed to eliminating guns. And it’s never going to happen. I own one, though I haven’t dusted it off since my hunting buddy died a decade ago. Hunting is as sacrosanct in Maine as it is in Wisconsin. A buddy who moved here from Portland, Maine, 47 miles from Lewiston, texted me last week about a pal of his in lockdown back home:
Just talked to my friend Bob… He is sitting in his house 20 minutes away from where it happened with his hunting rifles loaded, just hoping the guy sticks his head up.
Fair enough, but we know by now that more guns are not the answer.
Look, nothing is going to change much of the violence in a nation that embraces it. Remove assault rifles, and people will still kill each other. Suicides and accidental shootings by handguns will continue at high numbers. But for God’s sake, to do nothing is to admit we have failed our most innocent, be they school children, congregants in places of worship, shoppers in malls and grocery stores, or people in any number of other venues.
Hope seems hard to come by, but I’m placing mine with the young people who have grown up amid this carnage. The Lewiston shootings led to outcry from young activists, including David Hogg and Trevon Bosley, co-founder and board chair, respectively, of the March for Our Lives organization. They are members of the youth-led gun control movement born out of the country’s deadliest high school mass shooting: the 2018 slaughter of 17 humans in Parkland, Florida, and they represent thousands of young Americans demanding change.
They go after politicians of both stripes for the hypocrisy they spin. They dispel false claims and push for meaningful change. Want to make a difference? Support them with a donation. I just did.
(Bill Berry of Stevens Point writes a semimonthly column for The Capital Times. This was featured in CommonDreams.org.)
