Feel free to ask why America has hundreds of mass shootings a year. No other industrialized country is even close. And these two acts of domestic terrorism within 24 hours aren’t even unique. Last year, Nathan wrote Mass Shootings Aren’t Hard to Analyze. In honor of the new shootings, the New York Times just reprinted an article Nate used: “What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings?” Both the Times and Nate quoted extensively from Professor Adam Lankford of the University of Alabama.
In this first chart, Lankford graphs guns on the bottom against total mass shooters:
So… can anyone spot the outlier here? Anyone? Bueller?
Look, I know. America is a big country. Put things in scale. Here’s gun ownership per capita against mass shooters per capita:
Yemen is sitting up near the top, passing the US in mass-murder efficiency. Otherwise, though, there’s the United States, all alone. On top of the world, Ma! Maybe we should take solace where we can. Afghanistan has only slightly fewer mass murderers, despite not being awash in guns. Way to go, guys? They’re punching up! (Well, shooting up.) But then again, with Afghanistan in the middle of that ‘war’ thing, now it isn’t a good time.
Lankford’s chart is probably outdated, too. According to Wikipedia’s Estimated number of civilian guns per capita by country, Americans now have around four hundred million firearms. That’s roughly 120 guns per one hundred people. Any only a tiny fraction of a percent are registered, too. Think about that the next time you’re dragging your AK-47 to preschool!
So it looks like the United States achieved a new, one-for-one measure of firearm status. Each new gun makes us safer (or so the NRA literature insists). Why is it that widespread gun ownership hasn’t mollified the White Supremacists of America?
Did you know there’s a close relationship between domestic terrorists and White Supremacists? I’m not saying that all White Supremacists are mass-murderers. Not automatically. But almost every recent mass-murder was a White Supremacist or someone closely associated with them. Funny coincidence, right? But it’s not like the FBI has testified to Congress that most domestic terrorists were white supremacists.
Oh, all right. FBI Director Christopher Wray said exactly that. And under oath. Maybe he had his fingers crossed under the table?
Well, we elected President Donald Trump because of American carnage. Trump promised that only he could protect us. I’m sure Trump or his Republican party will defend the United States from the clear and present dangers of domestic terrorism.
Yeah, I know, probably not. It’s well past time to vote every Republican out of office. I want a conservative American party, but I want a real political party. I want a party that really stands for stuff, not some mobbed-up criminal enterprise.
