24 Gun Violence

What do you think of when the word “security” comes to mind? Some might picture locked doors or the police. Others might think of physical size or safety in numbers. Needless to say, there are an endless number of instruments and/or organizations that evoke the feeling of security in our minds. With that being said, there is one security measure that seems to trump all others, a measure that was endowed to all United States citizens almost two-and-a-half centuries ago, the right to bear arms. This second amendment right is held near and dear to many Americans, a very obvious conclusion when you look at the fact that over 40% of privately owned guns in the world are found in the United States. It is reported that almost one in every three American households report gun ownership (Clark, et al., 2020). Although the use of guns as protection is meant as a last resort, there are the few that choose to utilize the privilege as a means to create violence.

In recent years, the issue of gun violence has been an ever-increasing problem with no real fix-all solution to yet be introduced. According to the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons, “The age-adjusted death rate due to firearm injury by all intents, after remaining stable for several years, increased by 7.8 percent in 2015” (Strong et al., 2018). With more and more gun violence occurring each year, it is easy to see how controversy and debate so immediately surround firearm violence. In many developed countries such as Canada and Australia, very strict gun laws have been implemented to squash the problem. In fact, in Australia it is illegal to even own a firearm without the proper license and certifications; an intervention method that has been introduced but heavily opposed in the United States (a country with almost 23 times more firearm homicides per year than Australia). The debate against stricter gun laws is that the right to protect oneself with a firearm is inherent and that in many situations the use of firearms as protection is likely lifesaving.

While there are many fair claims to be made for either side, there are also many different solution strategies and data to be examined before going all-in on either side of the debate. The numbers for an issue like this are confusing and sometimes misleading. An example of how data can be misconstrued is that around 17% of all injury-related deaths in 2014 were credited to firearm violence; however, of that 17% of deaths, over 60% were suicide. Not to discount that as a non-issue, but instead that is a statistic that is more representative of a mental health problem rather than a gun violence problem. While much is not yet agreed upon regarding this issue, one thing has remained relatively clear. The vast majority of gun violence is committed by males. When observing 2017 FBI data, it is apparent that men were responsible for over 88% of the homicides with 73% of those deaths by means of a firearm. In this review, the issue of gun violence amongst the male demographic will be examined and more specifically at the intersections of race and socioeconomic status.

“Firearm Violence in America” by Centers for Disease Control is in the Public Domain

Intersection of Race/Ethnicity

The first intersection to be discussed is the disparities in gun violence amongst different races and some possible causal factors that are responsible. Different people are always going to act in different ways and the issue of gun violence is no exception to that rule. When observing rates of gun violence between different races the numbers indicate some clear discrepancies. According to one cross-sectional study, “…the 2003 to 2017 age-adjusted rate was 7.4 times higher for Black individuals than for White individuals”(Cheon, et al., 2020). Many sources attribute these statistics to things like neighborhood poverty rate, income, education, etc. However, from that same study it was determined that African American males in Philadelphia were at a higher risk of being shot than those of their White counterparts at the same socioeconomic level. This goes to show how public health intervention strategies must go further than addressing only certain problems like poverty. One result from the study brings into question the residential segregation that is still quite apparent in American cities. This leads to wealth accumulation disparities between White and Black neighborhoods as higher residential values and better education systems are things that are severely lacking in African American neighborhoods.

According to the American Journal of Public Health, “In 2015, 369 people died in mass shootings in the United States; that same year, nearly 6000 Black men were murdered with guns”(Santilli, et al., 2017). This is a staggering statistic considering how African Americans comprise less than 10% of the US population but are victims to over half of the gun homicides per year. There are several factors to be examined when attempting to attribute a cause to the gun violence problem amongst the African American population. Further studies in things like: lower access to better education, underinvestment in disadvantaged neighborhoods, decreased communal efficacy stemming from less effective policing and less political responsiveness need to be completed to more accurately understand the roots of this issue. In contrast to the discrepancies in gun violence between races, it is also worthy to note that “in socio-economically depressed areas in 21 U.S. cities, high rates of crime persisted over several decades despite changes in the racial and ethnic composition of the communities” (Kennedy, et al., 1998). Needless to say, our understanding of the gun violence issue at the intersection of race/ethnicity is still in elementary stages and without higher awareness of the issue it is unlikely an effective solution will be introduced.

“Firearm-Related Death Rates are Highest For Black Youth” by KFF is in the Public Domain, CC0

Intersection of Socioeconomic Status

The next intersection to be reviewed is that of gun violence and socioeconomic status. One distinctive trend that is clear when observing the gun violence issue is that there is a much higher rate of crime involving a firearm in lower income areas/neighborhoods. In a study done by the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement at Yale School of Public Health, six low income neighborhoods in New Haven, CT were interviewed to find that over 70% of residents reported hearing gun shots with 20%-30% having friends/relatives who were hurt or killed by the violence (Santilli, et al., 2017). A few factors stand out as clear determinants for the effect of socioeconomic status on gun violence such as income inequality and social capital. The Robin Hood Index (RHI), which is a measure of income inequality, found that after adjusting for poverty, income inequality was strongly associated with 52% of the variance in homicide rates between states. Furthermore, a multivariate analysis of RHI and gun violence showed that “a one unit change in the RHI, which is the equivalent to transferring a one percent share of total income from the wealthy to the less wealthy, was associated with a change in the age-adjusted firearm homicide rate of 1.55 per 100,000” (Kennedy, et al., 1998). From that same study, the social capital of each state was graphed to show that among states where data extrapolation was valid, Mississippi and Louisiana ranked highest in feelings that most people would take advantage of you if given the opportunity. Consequently, those two states also ranked highest in age adjusted firearm homicide. This goes to show how social mistrust in the community as a whole plays a direct role in rates of not just crime in general but more specifically gun violence. This is confirmed by the statistic that a one unit change in social trust correlates to roughly a 5% change in firearm violence rates. The finding of this relationship between social trust/social capital and gun violence is a step in the right direction to formulating an effective solution. It reinforces the fact that the gun violence issue has roots much deeper than just economic status by itself and that relief efforts should include community wide intervention methods.

Call to Action

With gun violence being one of America’s most pressing public health issues today, intervention efforts should be just as significant if not more so. The call to action has been ineffective and it is imperative that new strategies be implemented to combat the problem. In the present, most regulatory efforts are left up to each state which, just like all other aspects of opinions on the issue, have pros and cons. As stated earlier, states like Mississippi and Louisiana rank much higher in firearm homicide than places like Maine and Iowa. The delegation of addressing this issue to the states is effective when looking from the perspective that some states are much worse than others. However, it is impossible to ignore the overall numbers of gun ownership in America and the role that plays in keeping the United States at the top of the list for firearm deaths throughout the world. “Although some argue that the research on the association between guns and violence is inconclusive, in 2009, the World Health Organization identified ‘reducing access to lethal means’ as one of its key violence prevention strategies” (Cukier & Eagen, 2017). With so much uncertainty surrounding the pursuit of an effective solution, one thing is clear. Prevention efforts need to be aimed towards the male population. Some possible remedies are stricter purchasing laws against those with violent criminal history, a population that is dominated by males. Community-wide education programs directed towards men would also be an effective way to raise awareness. While the argument that guns are necessary to protect oneself in certain circumstances, it is naïve to ignore the fact that having the largest stockpile of privately owned firearms in the world is directly related to having the most significant and apparent problem when it comes to gun violence.

References

Cheon, C., Lin, Y., Harding, D. J., Wang, W., & Small, D. S. (2020). Neighborhood racial

    composition and gun homicides. JAMA Network Open, 3(11). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.27591

Cukier, W., & Eagen, S. A. (2018). Gun violence. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, 109–112.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.04.008

Kennedy, B. P., Kawachi, I., Prothrow-Stith, D., Lochner, K., & Gupta, V. (1998). Social

Capital, income inequality, and firearm violent crime. Social Science & Medicine, 47(1), 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00097-5

Rood, C. (2020, September 22). Addressing gun violence by reimagining masculinity and protection. Gender Policy Report. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://genderpolicyreport.umn.edu/addressing-gun-violence-by-reimagining-masculinity-and-protection/

Strong, B., Tracy, B. M., Sangji, N. F., & Barrera, K. (2018, September 6). Gun violence

    and firearm policy in the U.S.: A brief history and the current status. The Bulletin. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://bulletin.facs.org/2018/07/gun-violence-and-firearm-policy-in-the-u-s-a-brief-history-and-the-current-status/

Williams, D. R., Priest, N., & Anderson, N. B. (2016). Understanding associations among race,  socioeconomic status, and Health: Patterns and prospects. Health Psychology, 35(4), 407–411. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000242