We The People Have A Gun Problem
Why the US will never have an effective, common-sense policy on gun control.
Author’s Note: two days ago, three nine-year-old children and three adults were murdered at a school in Nashville, Tennessee. According to the Gun Violence Archive, this was the 130th mass shooting of 2023. So far, since January 1, there have been 10,137 fatalities due to gun violence in the US.
The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or its components.
As a military officer with 15 years of experience carrying weapons, I am fed up with the lack of progress on gun control in this country. It’s pretty clear at this point that the United States may never actually have an effective gun control policy, and the statistics bear this out.
First, let’s talk about the high rate of gun ownership in this country. With an estimated 393 million civilian-owned firearms in circulation as of 2021, it is nearly impossible to enforce any type of comprehensive gun control policy. Even if we were to ban the sale of certain types of firearms or implement background checks for all gun purchases, there are still hundreds of millions of guns in the hands of private citizens. The idea that we could ever completely eradicate gun violence…
