*Edit: (Clarification) I encourage those to seek help that have mental health problems like military vets with PTSD. There are MILLIONS of people with mental health issues that function just fine in society-people who take medications or seek therapy to help manage it for years/decades without any issues; it’s wrong to demonize that. I’m saying our corrupt healthcare system is so expensive and overburdened that this shouldn’t be happening in one of the richest countries in the world.
With the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk-this is an important reminder that guns aren’t the problem; culture, poverty and mental health is to blame. See more in post for accredited data. Actual source links are at the bottom of the page.
Why Gun Bans Don’t Work
The U.S. has 393 million privately owned firearms, more guns than people (Small Arms Survey). The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban showed no measurable impact on homicide rates, proving bans don’t solve violence (RAND).
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Homicide and Mass Shooting Risk
Black Americans are 13.7% of the population but made up 53.8% of homicide victims in 2023 (VPC). Their homicide rate was 26.6 per 100,000, compared to 3.2 for White Americans.
According to the FBI’s “Expanded Homicide Data, Table 6” (2019), of single-victim/single-offender murders where both victim and offender race are known, 2,574 out of 2,906 Black victims were killed by Black offenders. That’s around 88.5% of those homicides. (FBI CRIME REPORT 2019).
Mass shootings are extremely rare. The odds of being killed in one are about 1 in 9.1 million per year, and the odds of being injured are about 1 in 6.4 million per year (Cato Institute).
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Root Causes of Violence
Violence stems from poverty, untreated mental illness, broken families, and social isolation.
1 in 4 U.S. children grow up without a father, strongly linked to higher delinquency (National Fatherhood Initiative).
Children from single parent homes are twice as likely to commit crimes (NCBI Study).
Mental health treatment can reduce recidivism by 36% (arxiv.org).
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Repeat Offenders
Over 60% of violent federal offenders are rearrested, showing the justice system’s failure to contain repeat violent criminals (USSC).
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The Solution
To reduce violence, society must focus on addressing root causes:
1. Strengthen families and communities
2. Expand mental health care
3. Reduce poverty and inequality
4. Hold repeat violent offenders accountable
Blaming guns and punishing lawful owners will never solve the problem.
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Sources
1. Small Arms Survey – U.S. Civilian Firearms Data: https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/
2. RAND – 1994 Assault Weapons Ban Analysis: https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/assault-weapons-bans.html
3. Violence Policy Center – Black Homicide Victimization 2023: https://vpc.org/black-homicide-victimization-in-the-united-states-national/
4. Bureau of Justice Statistics – Homicide Victimization Data: https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/hvus23.pdf
5. Cato Institute – Mass Shooting Risk Analysis: https://www.cato.org/briefing-paper/risk-analysis-mass-shootings-committed-immigrants-native-born-americans
6. University of Colorado Boulder – Mass Shooting Study: https://www.colorado.edu/today/2025/03/07/1-15-us-adults-have-been-scene-mass-shooting
7. National Fatherhood Initiative – Father Absence Statistics: https://www.fatherhood.org/father-absence-statistic
8. NCBI – Single Parent Household Effects: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4231530/
9. U.S. Sentencing Commission – Recidivism of Federal Violent Offenders: https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/recidivism-among-federal-violent-offenders
10. Mental Health v Study: https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.06736?utm_source