Among the many tragedies of the Minneapolis school shooting is how commonplace a story like this has become. The details are horrific — what was supposed to be a celebration of God and the start of the school year ended with an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old dead and at least 17 others injured. We have seen similar disasters before, with very little change afterward. If the shooting of 20 children, all 6 or 7 years old, didn’t move the country to act in 2012, it’s hard to know what would get the country to do so. This is what makes covering gun violence more depressing than any other topic I know of.
But it bears repeating: The prevalence of this problem is not normal, no other country has to deal with it to this extent, and we are not powerless to act.
The basic facts are shocking. From 1998 to 2023, the United States had 126 mass shootings in which four or more people were killed, according to Jason Silva at William Paterson University. That’s five times the total across all of Britain, Canada, Germany, France and Italy, which have a combined population similar to ours. It’s not just mass shootings, either. The U.S. gun homicide rate, accounting for population, is 450 times as high as Britain’s.
The cause is no great mystery. America has more guns than any other country — in fact, it has more firearms than people — and that means more gun deaths. Researchers have found the link between the number of guns and deaths to be true for homicides, suicides, mass shootings and even killings by police officers.
Think about this practically. In every country, people get into arguments, suffer from mental health issues and have extreme views — all common explanations for shootings. But in America, these people can much more easily pick up a firearm and shoot someone. When a country makes something easy to do, people are more likely to do it.
The good news, demonstrated by other countries’ experiences, is that policy changes could make a real difference. If the problem is that people can too easily pick up a gun and carry out violence, we can make it harder for people, especially those at the highest risk of violence, to do so. Studies have repeatedly found that stricter gun laws, including background checks and waiting periods, can help prevent violence and suicide. A promising approach is requiring a permit to purchase a gun, one of the key measures that makes Massachusetts the state with the lowest rate of gun deaths.
Crucially, these restrictions don’t make it impossible for most people to get a gun. If you don’t have a criminal record, a documented history of violence or a serious mental health issue, you can still get a firearm under these laws. You can even buy dozens. Despite its relatively tight laws, individuals in Massachusetts still keep big collections. (I know; I’ve seen some of them.)
The laws aren’t perfect and won’t stop every shooting. But they would help. America’s leaders can do something to reduce the number of these horrific stories. We should push them to do so, no matter how hopeless it might feel.
German Lopez is a writer for the Editorial Board.
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German Lopez is a writer for the editorial board. @germanrlopez
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