You’ve all heard this take: Each school shooting in America, no matter how horrendous the carnage, eventually fades into the last one.
The 1999 Columbine High School Massacre that left 13 dead seems to be where most people’s awareness begins.
And of course, Virginia Tech (2007) with its 32 victims, and then Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012) in Connecticut–where 26 people died, which came before Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida (2018) with 17 deaths and Robb Elementary School (2022) in Texas where 21 died.
Add Covenant School in Nashville (March 27, 2023) with six more victims onto that ever-growing list.
Despite it all, the sense is that, as a nation, we simply do not have the attention span to sustain us toward better answers on gun violence. Not enough of us stay engaged long enough to insist on the type of bipartisan action necessary to disrupt the Republican genuflection before the Second Amendment.
Instead, unless we are personally involved, the details of each incident will fade with time until another act of mass carnage interrupts.
But a new report has shed light on the effect of all this bloodshed on our mindset. It’s piling up in substantial ways.
As a country, we’ve managed to become both hyper-aware of the potentially deadly consequences of firearms; and yet also befuddlingly naïve to basic facts about how guns are affecting American society.
Here are some stats from an April 11 survey conducted by KFF, a nonprofit that focuses on healthcare research:
– 1 in 5 people reported having been personally threatened by a gun.
– 1 in 5 have had a family member die by guns.
– 1 in 6 has watched someone get shot.
The study also drilled into how those instances influence how people behave. “The majority (84%) of U.S. adults say they have taken at least one precaution to protect themselves or their families from the possibility of gun violence,” the report said.
Here’s what that looks like (it follows a range):
– 35% of respondents said they have avoided large crowds at a music festival, a crowded bar, or club to stay safe from gunfire.
– Nearly 6 in 10 people (58%) said they spoke to their children or other family members about gun safety.
– 4 in 10 people purchased a knife or pepper spray for protection, and about 3 in 10 (29%) reported that they bought a gun for protection.
These types of reactions were greater among Black and Latino people, presumably because they encounter higher rates of gun violence, which tends to correlate with lower-income communities.
For instance, “one-third of Black adults (34%) have a family member who was killed by a gun, twice the share of White adults who say the same (17%).”
OK. Here is where reasonable fear takes an irrational detour.
For all the heightened awareness about guns and, in some cases, shifts in behavior, the survey also found people were quite negligent about their firearms.
It’s as if people live in fear and then dismiss or don’t realize that their own homes (if they own a gun) are the most likely location for firearm deaths, either by suicide or via domestic violence or accidents.
The same study found that an unacceptable number of those who fear gun violence also keep loaded guns unlocked. They even admitted to breaking basic gun safety laws/best practices like storing ammunition separately from the gun.
Four in 10 (41%) of adults said they have a gun in the home. But more than half of that group store the gun with the ammunition. And another 44% of this group said the gun is kept in an unlocked space, and more than one-third (36%) said the gun is kept loaded.
So we’re fearful of mass shootings to the point of altering our behavior and attitudes about crowds, but when it comes to our homes, we completely let our guard down.
The report also found that more than half of those surveyed didn’t know that suicides are the leading cause of firearm deaths. Nor did many know that for people under the age of 20, firearms are the leading cause of death.
So a good percentage of the population is arguably petrified of gun violence. We’re very focused on how it can affect our families, and yet we miss some really significant facts.
The report was released in the tailwinds of the political drama at Tennessee’s capitol. The nation tracked the ousting and then reinduction of two Black Democratic members of the state’s House who dared to upend what Republicans called decorum. The two stood up and protested in the chamber about the lack of gun reform in the wake of the Covenant School shooting. The Republicans did not want to have a substantial conversation about gun violence and what they could do to stem it.
But if you’re tempted to see the Tennessee episode as just another flashpoint in the culture wars over firearm ownership and move on, there are some reasons to pause.
We are absorbing the news of this mass shooting and the one that followed at the bank in Louisville, where five people died.
The horror we feel upon hearing the news is a rolling, cumulative national grief embedded into our national DNA.
Let’s enable fact-gathering alongside our horror and grief. It’s time to broaden our understanding of how guns affect life in America and then vow to use that information to save lives.
Readers can reach Mary Sanchez at msanchezcolumn@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter @msanchezcolumn.
©2023 Mary Sanchez. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
