Gun Violence in America

 Rumi Arif Wein 

 

What began as a gun use and safety training association has now become a large corporate factor in American politics. The National Rifle Association establishes propaganda in America through fear-mongering, media, and lobbying.

As mentioned in Kurt Andersen's "FantasyLand, How America Went Haywire",

 The NRA tricks Americans into thinking that they are under a danger they can only liberate themselves from through militarization. They are particularly constantly fighting against gun laws and pushing the narrative that they won’t work to discourage mass shootings. The organization's corporatism has caused a new, uniquely American perspective on legislation: that other laws work, but laws against guns just can’t.

 

The NRA are known to meet gun violence protesters with confrontation and often baseless counter-arguments. Their firm belief is that gun control will create greater unsafety for the people of the United States, and they have backed these beliefs with a powerful propaganda campaign. While they have many ways to combat anti-gun opinions, a particularly influential method was to create false narratives around media coverage of school shootings. “Our freedom is under attack like never before,” said Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. “When a deranged criminal murders innocent children, they blame us.” The bill that Cox is referencing was an Obama administration body of legislature created to establish stronger background checks. The bill eventually was shot down.

The NRA has also publicly conspired that shootings were only covered so much because they secure high ratings for the media outlets, but if Americans should believe that gun legislature is taking their guns away from them, what is the solution to mass killings? During a press conference after the Sandy Hook massacre, the organization's Vice-president, Wayne LaPierre, doubled down on the NRA's solution: Armed laborers, and armed teachers in schools across America. This is an opinion some Americans now align themselves with, even though the idea has clear dangers and drawbacks.

Another and more prominent form of propaganda dissemination the organization uses is the lobbying of politicians and public servants at the congressional level. Pictured below is an eye-opening graph of the top recipients of NRA contributions in just the U.S. Senate.

The NRA has spent over 2 million dollars currently in 2022 on lobbying alone, and in 2018 spent over 5 million dollars in buying out politicians in the name of their business. Some benefitting from corporate donations by the NRA include Mitt Romney (Utah senator) who has been paid over $13 million, and Marsha Blackburn (TN senator) who earned $1.3 million in donations. Here is a source where you can find these senators, and others, listed alongside how much they've earned in NRA donations.

NRA corporatism is greatly affecting America. Other countries don’t allow the NRA to purchase their ads in politicians campaigns, and they have regulations that limit how much corporations can donate to politicians. The responsibility that comes with having platforms so large that they can sway public opinion is understood in many places. The American public is a part of why America is so unique in its mass shooting problem, they have been misled to believe gun legislature might make things worse.

 

Gun control works, heres how we know it works

 

In countries where there are stricter gun laws, much fewer people die.

In his paper with Eric Grinshteyn, Dr. David Hemenway, professor of Health Policy at Harvard, put American gun violence in comparison to other high income OECD countries. What they found was America with its more relaxed gun laws, has a gun homicide rate over 25 times higher than other countries. For children 15-24, the rate was 49 times higher. They also noted that 82% of all people killed by firearms were from the United States. These are truly horrifying statistics and can be correlated with the gun laws in these countries. The study also states that since 2003, other developed countries have decreased their gun death rate with stricter laws around guns, while the U.S.’s rate remains steady.

 

Another way we know gun control works is through state legislation around guns. California, for example, has heavy legislation around guns, and has a firearm death rate 37% lower than the national average- a score of 8.5 for gun deaths per 100,000 people. In contrast, Mississippi has extremely weak gun laws, and because of this it sports a death rate of 28.6. When more guns are present, more gun related deaths occur.

 

To conclude, America needs stricter gun laws because it will protect our people.

Gun control laws work because we have seen them lower death rates in other countries, and in our own states. And, we must recognize that the influence of corporations in America is greatly affecting our safety, as well as contributing to gun violence. This form of gun-cult narrative is being promoted by the outsized power of the NRA. Who in the service of increasing their profit margin, will spend copious amounts of money on politicians and media outlets to fear-monger, and promote anti-gun restriction laws. The problem of gun deaths in this country is influenced by criminal corporatism that stands not for the people, but for profit incentive.

 

Do you think that corporations like the NRA should be able to donate to politicians and media outlets?

Do you think that they have the public’s best interest in mind?