The Kaiser Household Basis (KFF) Tuesday launched a report detailing Individuals’ experiences with gun violence. The report demonstrated a disproportionate impact of gun violence on folks of shade.
The report surveyed 1,271 U.S. adults about their private expertise with weapons. Of these surveyed, 21 % reported being personally threatened with a gun and 19 % reported having a member of the family killed by a gun (together with suicide). Moreover, 84 % reported taking some measure to guard themselves or their households from gun violence. Whereas solely 17 % of these surveyed reported having witnessed another person being shot, this quantity was considerably greater amongst folks of shade, with 31 % of Black adults and 22 % of Hispanic adults.
The KFF additionally reported statistics on information of gun violence within the US. Most notably, solely 49 % of these surveyed have been conscious that weapons are the main reason for dying for kids and teenagers below 20 within the US.
Whereas it’s arduous for a volunteer-based survey to be utterly consultant of a inhabitants, the outcomes present a rise on the affect of gun violence within the US. Different latest experiences, such because the 2022 report from the Pew Analysis Middle, help these findings, noting the big enhance in gun violence and gun associated deaths during the last decade.
With this enhance in gun violence has come a rise in debate over gun management insurance policies within the US. On a federal stage, a bill at present up for debate in Congress proposes a ban on assault-style weapons. The invoice handed within the Home in July 2022 and is up for consideration within the Senate later this yr.
These against this invoice take into account it’s an infringement on the rights protected by the US Structure’s Second Amendment. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noted that whereas the best to bear arms is included within the US Structure and weapons can’t be banned utterly, this proper is just not absolute. They stated:
The American Civil Liberties Union firmly believes that legislatures can, in line with the Structure, impose cheap limits on firearms sale, possession, and use, with out elevating civil liberties considerations. We acknowledge, because the Supreme Court docket has said, that the Structure doesn’t confer a “proper to maintain and carry any weapon in anyway in any method in anyway and for no matter goal.” However some proposed reforms encroach unnecessarily on civil liberties.
The National Rifle Association (NRA), a US-based group that promotes gun rights, claims the passage of the invoice would “infringe on the rights of the law-abiding.” However, these in help of the invoice, similar to March For Our Lives, believes that this invoice is a step in the best course in direction of the tip of gun violence.
On the state stage, latest laws has pushed for extra relaxed gun management measures. Final week, laws in Florida allowed for hid carry and not using a allow, and a Minnesota court docket struck down the 21-year-old age minimal on handgun permits. Moreover, within the wake of a Nashville, Tennessee taking pictures, the Tennessee legislature expelled two lawmakers for protesting gun violence.
