{"id":13878,"date":"2018-02-16T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878///wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//www.yesmagazine.org/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//article/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//people-power-gun-violence-has-dropped-dramatically-in-3-states-with-very-different-gun-laws-20180216/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//"},"modified":"2019-11-26T00:59:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T08:59:21","slug":"gun-violence-has-dropped-dramatically-in-3-states-with-very-different-gun-laws","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878///wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//www.yesmagazine.org/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//democracy/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//2018/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//02/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//16/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878//gun-violence-has-dropped-dramatically-in-3-states-with-very-different-gun-laws","title":{"rendered":"Gun Violence Has Dropped Dramatically in 3 States With Very Different Gun Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"/wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878/n
This week, 17 teachers, students, and visitors died in a Florida high school, in a country where mass shootings have been devastatingly routine. This was followed by another day of despairing, angry furor over guns, schools, and shootings that replayed the same reactions from dozens of past shootings. Once the warring factions settle into their talking points and scapegoats, the debate rages on for decades with little sign of progress. America’s gun debate is like a Greek tragedy, with predetermined lines plodding to inevitable doom. The Right, represented by the National Rifle Association and Republicans, shows no interest in reducing the gun killing epidemic beyond prayers that the “good guy with a gun” (who never seems to be around) will save the day when a “bad guy” opens fire. Liberals’ dishonesty is more nuanced. Background checks and gun control have proven effective at reducing gun suicides and domestic shootings (both very worthwhile goals), but not the gun homicides or mass shootings such remedies are invoked to redress. /wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878/n /wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878/n On both sides, destructive scapegoating of young people, whether they are suburban school shooters or immigrant gangsters, present blatant falsehoods. FBI tabulations show half of active mass shooters are 35 and older, a large majority are white, and nearly all are men. One middle-aged white shooter murdered more people in Las Vegas in 10 minutes than the best available count of documented murders over the last 15 years that have been attributed to the Latino MS-13 gang, a favorite target of President Donald Trump. We can keep on quarreling over myths and prejudices, or we can start looking for new approaches, as many communities are doing in the face of national default. The hopeful thing is there is plenty new to say—if anyone is willing to say it. Let’s begin with one of the most hopeful and obvious: the massive decline in gun homicides in the nation’s three biggest states, concentrated among young people and urban residents all sides claim to be concerned about—so long as the discussion doesn’t challenge pet positions. Over the last 25 years—though other time periods show similar results—New York, California, and Texas show massive declines in gun homicides, ones that far exceed those of any other state. These three states also show the country’s largest decreases in gun suicide and gun accident death rates. /wp-json/wp/v2/article/13878/n