A couple of hours before a young man shot an AR-15 rifle at former U.S. President Donald Trump, killing one bystander and wounding others, I had been finishing a column about gun violence as a public health threat. It was an eerie coincidence but not an unlikely one: More than 100 people die from gunshots on an average day in the United States.
In June, the surgeon general declared gun violence a public health crisis. Data show it’s now the leading cause of death for American kids 17 and under. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2022, there were 48,000 deaths from firearms, about 40% of which are homicides. Many more people were disabled or maimed. And yet many Americans believe owning a gun makes them safer. In fact, self-defense is the number one reason people give for owning a gun.
Like other public health crises, gun violence has been studied and scientists have data pointing to ways the carnage can be reduced. But Congress has been slow to pass any laws that would meaningfully restrict gun violence. Although there are more gun safety laws at the state level, the Supreme Court and lower courts have rolled some of them back, sometimes pointing to data allegedly showing guns make people safer. Those data are being grossly misinterpreted.