Are Liberal Gun Laws In America A Factor In Mass Shootings?

If the president of the United States believes that his country’s overly permissive gun laws are a factor in the spate of mass shootings, there must be some truth to it. In an interview with BBC (read full transcript here) before his visit to Kenya, Obama admitted that one of his biggest frustrations in the highest position he has held is the lack of common-sense gun-safety laws in the US. This, despite the series of rampage firings that have occurred with alarming frequency in the last few years. A month earlier, he iterated the same sentiment in his speech condemning the shooting at the Emmanuel AME church in Charleston.

As his term nears its end, the president says he’ll continue to advocate for stricter gun control, even against popular opinion. But he seems to be taking on a lost cause. In 2013, Obama and the Democrat congressmen created bills aimed at strengthening gun control laws – make backgrounds checks more extensive, limit ownership of assault weapons and place a cap on the size of magazines. Not one of them passed. With Republicans now controlling the Senate and Congress, and the Supreme Court, it’s highly unlikely things will change.

Surprisingly…or not, a PEW Research Center study in 2014 found that 52% of the respondents say the right of Americans to own guns must be preserved and 57% say guns protect people from becoming victims of crimes. The findings came after the Newtown, Conn. shooting in 2012 that saw 20 schoolchildren and their seven teachers shot to death by a 20-year old boy.

Arguments regarding gun control arise whenever a shooting spree occurs and there have been many in 2015, seven months into the year . The main area of contention is the right to possess guns vs. restriction on gun ownership; personal freedom vs. personal safety.

What cannot be argued however are certain facts. Gun ownership in America is the highest worldwide, accounting for almost 42 percent of civilian-owned firearms in 2012 (source: UNODC) while the nation accounts for only 4.43% of the global population. Rampage shootings in the US from 2005 up to July 2015 number 34 incidents, as shown in a Mother Jones investigation.

Even the definition of mass shooting differs. The commonly accepted one is of a shooter firing at people in a public place which results in four or more fatalities, excluding domestic violence, gang or drug-related killings or shooting based on terrorist ideologies. Founded on that definition, the Lafayette, LA movie theater incident, where three people died including the gunman, is not a mass shooting.

Regardless, the question remains: Are America’s liberal gun laws a factor in the series of shooting rampages?

President Obama thinks so. Even as a senator of Illinois, he did not sign the amicus curiae brief related to the D.C. vs. Heller case that would affirm the Second Amendment. The National Rifle Association that lobbies for gun ownership rights and people like Rick Perry, former Texas governor vying for a Republican presidential nomination, believe otherwise. The battle isn’t going to end anytime soon and Obama may have to deal with that particular issue as one of his unaccomplished missions when he leaves in 2016.