People are shot dead in the United States every day. Often this is hardly worth a message. But the topic is currently causing great unrest in the country – because the numbers are dramatically high.
Washington – The shots on this hot summer evening are loud. And they fall on a popular nightlife strip in the US capital Washington. Videos show how panicked people jump up from restaurant terraces, run away and hide.
A CNN reporter happened to be there and was filming the scene on his cell phone. In the end, the police speak of two injured. The perpetrators were able to escape in a car. Helicopters are still flying over the neighborhood hours later. The sirens of police cars can be heard over and over again.
Actually, this is not an unusual occurrence in the USA. On average, dozens of people die there every day as a result of gun violence. Just a few days earlier, a six-year-old girl was shot dead from a passing car in Washington. But it is the incident on the popular nightlife district with the two injured that causes a stir. He even made it into the White House press briefing. “It’s a pretty popular part of town that many of us live in,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki when asked about it the next day.
Everyday life in poor neighborhoods
Usually the shots are not fired where many people from politics or the media live. They are part of everyday life in the poorer neighborhoods, where crime is already high. However, this and other incidents have shifted the focus to an explosive development: with a good 19,000 deaths, 2020 was the deadliest year in the United States in terms of gun violence in at least two decades – not counting suicides. That comes from data from the organization Gun Violence Archive.
And in 2021, the numbers are even more drastic so far. According to the organization, an average of 56 people per day have been killed as a result of gun violence. Also not counting the suicides, there are more than 12,000 deaths. Why is that? There are different explanations – but there is no clear answer.
Experts see the corona pandemic as a kind of burning glass for all the problems that already exist. Closed schools, job losses and general despair were again significantly exacerbated. At the same time, social institutions and projects fell by the wayside during the pandemic – institutions that absorb a lot in many neighborhoods. According to an analysis by broadcaster ABC, well over half of the incidents of armed violence occur in the poorest districts of the country, where the median household income is 40,000 US dollars (around 34,000 euros) per year or less.
Pandemic as a “sales aid”
The gun industry is using the pandemic to increase gun sales, warns Josh Sugarmann. He is the director of the Violence Policy Center, an organization that researches gun violence and advocates stricter gun laws. The traditional arms market, which consists largely of white men, is saturated. This industry used the feeling of insecurity to sell more weapons. The number of gun sales actually rose significantly in 2020, according to data from the FBI.
Another thesis is that the increase in gun violence is also related to the protests against police violence after the brutal death of the American George Floyd in May 2020. The demonstrations may have discouraged the police and further shattered trust between the people in the country and the security forces, according to the theory. “The police are in real trouble,” President Joe Biden said recently. Not all are bad people, many of them are good. “We need more cops, not fewer cops,” said Biden. But you need community policing.
The thesis that the protests caused the violence is far too simple, writes the Washington Post. But it is difficult to deny that less inspired policing – for example due to public health concerns or lower morale after the summer protests – could have played a role.
Sugarmann from the Violence Policy Center calls for a general shift in focus – and to look less at the people with the guns and more at the type of guns that are sold. “The arms industry is not static,” he warns. “What they are selling is not security, not sporting use, but deadly militarization.” President Biden’s government has already made many good first steps in this regard. “Certainly more can be done.”
Biden called the violence of arms in the past an “epidemic”. Among other things, he blames arms shops that do not comply with the law for the increasing numbers. Another problem are so-called ghost weapons. They are assembled from several parts and usually have no serial numbers.
If the president has his way, weapons of war such as assault rifles should no longer be able to be sold. “The idea that someone (…) needs 10, 12, 20, 30, 100 rounds in a rifle – that just doesn’t make sense. Zero, ”said Biden. “That has to stop.” Dpa
