Though the perpetrators of the mass shooting in California appear to have acquired their guns legally, the vast majority used in violent crimes are obtained illegally.
America’s gun violence problem actually is producing policy reform. It’s just that most of this activity is happening on the state level and has received little attention in the national media.
If we want to develop truly effective policies to reduce gun violence and its impacts on individuals, families and communities, we need to start basing Australian debate on Australian facts.
We should not downplay the significant contribution to early mortality posed by previously law-abiding gun owners who, in the heat of the moment, decide to kill.
Researchers explain why gun violence is a public health emergency, why parent often underestimate how easily their kids could access a gun – and why we know so little about how to solve this problem.
Barack Obama has challenged the US media on gun laws, but despite the First Amendment, journalists are too scared to speak against abuse of the Second Amendment.
The lobbying tactics developed by the US tobacco industry no longer just targeted government, but expanded to include the voting public. These tactics still exist in lobbying today.
What interventions might be most useful for reducing the incidence of mass shootings? What lessons should other countries really learn from Australia’s experience?
Other ‘advanced nations’ make it far harder for someone like the Charleston killer to get his hands on a Glock semiautomatic handgun or any other kind of firearm.
Ethan Zuckerman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
So long as we treat each mass shooting, each black death as an isolated tragedy, there’s nothing we can do. Things can change if we look for the patterns.
One sprawling region stands apart for having largely avoided, and at times even reversed, the steady global proliferation of illegal firearms and death by gunshot.
The recent multiple homicide in a small Victorian township, coming barely a month after a mass shooting in rural New South Wales, may give the impression that firearm-related murders in rural Australia…
This week brought news of yet another gun massacre in the United States at Washington Navy Yard. It is the latest in a string of 146 mass shootings, with more than 900 victims since 2006. The tragedy gives…