Donald
Trump has recently announced that there is no need for any strengthening of background checks, certainly no need for any further gun regulation, in the
United States. In doing so, he was following orders from the NRA, whose advice
he admitted was very, very important to him.
Therefore, it appears, everything is exactly as it should be. We have exactly
the right amount of gun safety, and the mass shootings that we have had and
continue to have—I haven’t checked the news yet today—is a small price to pay
for the freedom of crazy people to carry guns around and be ready to use them
at a moment’s notice. From the Trump-NRA viewpoint, there should be no legal
restrictions on firearms, until the moment the first shot is fired, and then
the gunman should be neutralized.
I
would like to present here a list of the deadliest mass shootings since 1949,
according to an article published August 19, 2019, on CNN.
|
Number
killed
|
Year
|
Place
|
Shooter/s
|
|
58
|
2017
|
Las
Vegas
|
White
man
|
|
49
|
2016
|
Orlando
|
Arab
man
|
|
32
|
2007
|
Virginia
Tech
|
Asian
man
|
|
27
|
2012
|
Sandy
Hook CT
|
White
man
|
|
26*
|
2017
|
Sutherland
Springs TX
|
White
man
|
|
23
|
1991
|
Killeen
TX
|
White
man
|
|
22
|
2019
|
El
Paso
|
White
man
|
|
21
|
1984
|
San
Ysidro CA
|
White
man
|
|
18
|
1966
|
University
of Texas
|
White
man
|
|
17
|
2018
|
High
school in Florida
|
White
youth
|
|
14*
|
2015
|
San
Bernardino CA
|
Arab
couple
|
|
13
|
2009
|
Binghamton
NY
|
Asian
man
|
|
13
|
1999
|
Columbine
CO
|
White
youths
|
|
13
|
1983
|
Seattle
WA
|
Asian
men
|
|
13
|
1982
|
Wilkes-Barre
PA
|
Black
man
|
|
13
|
1949
|
Camden
NJ
|
White
man
|
|
12
|
2019
|
Virginia
Beach
|
Black
man
|
|
12
|
2018
|
Thousand
Oaks CA
|
White
man
|
|
12
|
2013
|
Washington
Navy Yard
|
Black
man
|
|
12
|
2012
|
Aurora
CO
|
White
man
|
|
12
|
1999
|
Atlanta
|
White
man
|
|
11
|
2018
|
Pittsburgh
synagogue
|
White
man
|
|
10
|
2018
|
Santa
Fe TX
|
White
youth
|
|
10
|
2009
|
Alabama
|
White
man
|
|
491
|
Total
|
|
|
*includes
unborn child
This,
apparently, is an acceptable situation. Let us consider these data a little
further:
Ethnicity Incidents Deaths
White
man 15 279
Arabs 3 77
Asian
man/men 3 58
White
youth/s 3 40
Black
man 3 37
Total 27 491
From
this tabulation, we can see that all ethnicities are capable of mass violence,
but it is overwhelmingly a phenomenon of white males.
These
incidents have become much much much much more common in recent years. Consider
this tabulation:
Year Incidents Deaths
1949 1 13
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966 1 18
1697
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982 1 13
1983 1 13
1984 1 21
1985
1986 1 14
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991 1 23
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999 2 25
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007 1 32
2008
2009 3 37
2010
2011
2012 2 39
2013 1 12
2014
2015 1 14
2016 1 49
2017 2 84
2018 4 50
2019 2 34
There
has been a huge acceleration of mass shootings. This is also, apparently, a
situation that is acceptable to Trump and the NRA. And 2019 isn’t even over
yet. I am not predicting that this acceleration
will continue, but the rate will
certainly not decline. Other countries such as France think we are freaking
crazy.
Their conclusion is understandable.
What
does this have to do with evolution? Quite a lot. Evolution has given the human
brain instincts for altruism, as well as instincts for killing. We have a
choice as to which ones we will use. We have the freedom to choose peace over
racism, yet the vast majority of the killings were inspired by racial hatred.
Our instincts of altruism toward members of our tribe and hostility toward
outsiders may have served us well in prehistoric times, but we Americans, led
by Trump and the NRA, are taking us boldly back to caveman days.
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