In a country with more guns than people, and emerging from three years of isolation, stress and infighting amid a pandemic, Americans are beginning 2023 with a constant barrage of genocide.
Eleven people have died as they were celebrating Lunar New Year at a dance hall popular with older Asian Americans. Five generations have died after teenage mothers and babies were shot in the head. A 6-year-old boy shot his first-grade teacher in a classroom. The list goes on.
Apryl Alexander, associate professor of public health at the University of North Carolina, said: Charlotte. “When are you going to stop?”
An eight-day massacre in California Saturday night, including dance hall victims, has left 20 dead in three recent attacks, the families of last year’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. On Tuesday, with little chance of winning a Republican-controlled Congress, several Uvalde families and parents traveled more than three hours to the state capitol to enforce gun control. It called for new voices calling for the strengthening of
In 2022, the United States recorded its first deadly gun rampage of the year on January 23rd — a year ago Monday. According to the genocide database maintained by the Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University, 39 people have been killed in six mass murders so far this year on the same date.
“People die every day. Veronica Mata, who had a 10-year-old daughter, Tess, among the 19 children and two students killed at Uvalde, said. , until you see something change.”
Americans have come to endure mass shootings in churches and grocery stores, in concert and office parks, and in the homes of friends and neighbors. Family secrets, bitterness among colleagues. However, it often ends when a man with a grudge picks up a gun.
Sometimes it’s not even clear if resentment is part of the equation.
“There was no apparent conflict between the parties. Yakima Police Chief Matt Murray said the shooting of three people at a Circle K convenience store in Washington early Tuesday morning added to public grief. .
U.S. gun sales hit a record high as the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, the economy stalls and people take to the streets to protest police brutality and racism. Recorded. About 23 million firearms were sold in 2020, according to industry analysts. The surge continued the following year, with sales jumping 75% the same month the mob attacked the U.S. Capitol, but plunging to about 16 million this year.
Experts believe there will be 393 million guns in private hands across the United States, a nation of 333 million in 2022.
Some Americans say they don’t feel safe anywhere. According to the American Psychological Association, one-third avoid certain places as a result. The majority of Americans feel stressed, according to the Society’s latest survey.
But, according to Alexander, there seems little willingness to address some of the potential solutions, such as teaching conflict resolution skills in schools or revisiting societal views of masculinity.
“Social-emotional learning is all about teaching children how to identify their emotions, how to express themselves, and how to work through conflict. Why, especially at this particular moment, is it prohibited?” Is it?” she asked, referring to state and local governments seeking to ban school curricula.
“These children will grow up,” said Alexander.
The bloodshed began on January 4, when a Utah man who investigated a 2020 child abuse allegation was never charged, shot and killed his wife, mother and five children before committing suicide.
According to the database, since 2006, 2,793 people have died in genocide (including at least four victims excluding the murderer). Aggregate during that time period.
Even gun violence, with few or no lives, can shock the conscience.
Just this month, a six-year-old boy shot and injured a teacher in front of his classmates in Virginia. Mayor Philip Jones of Virginia Beach said he hardly had a headache. Two teenage students were also killed in a school shooting in Iowa on Monday.
In the Saturday night shooting in Monterey Park, a 72-year-old man opened fire at the Star Ballroom dance studio, just hours after tens of thousands of people packed nearby streets for the Lunar New Year celebrations. Eleven people were killed and nine injured. The next day, when police approached his van, the shooter took his own life.
Seven farm workers were shot dead in the picturesque coastal area of Half Moon Bay near San Francisco before the entire state could deal with its horrors. A 66-year-old colleague is in custody.
“At the end of the day, there are too many guns in this country. And there has to be a change. This is not an acceptable way for modern society to live and do its business,” San Mateo County said. Oversight Board President Dave Pyne said Monday following the shooting at the mushroom farm. “Our hearts are broken.”
For some, violence is associated with marginalized periods in U.S. history that isolated people from each other and diminished their ability to cope with life’s hardships.
“The pandemic has amplified and accelerated so many dangerous trends,” said Reverend Jonathan Lee Walton, president of Princeton Theological Seminary. Note the decrease in
“We are normalizing the diseases of despair, such as loneliness, addiction, and gun violence,” Walton said. It’s basically a substitute for human connection.”
Associated Press reporters Paul Webber and Acacia Coronado of Austin and Lindsay Whitehurst of Washington contributed to this report. Follow Associate Press journalist Maryclaire Dale on her Twitter. https://twitter.com/Maryclairedale
