Gun Violence in America: Who Possess Guns? 

On the 3rd of October 2019, a white man carrying a WASR-10 entered a Walmart store; a famous spot amongst Mexican tourists. In just 6 minutes, this man was able to kill 22 people in the area and impose injuries to 24 more people including kids who were rushed into the closest hospitals. (Romano 2019) 

This is just one out of thousands of incidents in the United States caused by guns.  

 In an article posted by The Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization focusing on national health issues, it shows that gender has a clear effect on gun violence, on an average, males commit roughly 20 mass shootings for every 3 shootings done by females. According to Statista, an online database that has expertise in providing country and industry-based forecasts, claims that shooters in the United States mainly fall in between ages of 20 to 30. In addition, according to Every Town research, an organization dedicated to understanding and reducing gun violence in America, only about 30% of gun violence are categorized as “homicide” and 60% is “suicide”. 

When looking at the severity of gun violence in the United States, one can also assume that this epidemic can be solved by just confiscating guns from everyone. Owning gun(s) allows people to shoot at great distances without being seen, it allows people to feel secure in performing intolerable acts (robberies, illegal drug dealing and vengeance) with a high possibility of performing it successfully. Although, it is true that the more gun means more possibility of violence, gun violence has a much deeper problem than just being Americans who owns and buys guns. In reality gun violence is mainly about Americans who might feel the need to own gun(s) and their reasoning can depend mainly on their demographics, such as their age and gender which will be discussed in this paper.  

Understanding the societal issues causing gun ownership amongst us Americans, will enable us to come up with some new effective methods and ideas to make our country safer.   

Age:  Underage gun owners: 18 and below  

 Although it’s almost impossible to see how many gun owners are underaged, we are able gather data on how many underaged individuals used gun to impose violence. According to Giffords Law Center, in 2018, about 1,599 of gun related deaths in 2018 were due unintentional shooting. A vast majority of the shooter in this data were people under the age of 24 (Gun Violence Statistics, 2018) 

On October 24, 2014 in Marysville Pilchuck High School (Washington), 15–year old boy named Jaylen Fryberg shot at 5 students whom were identified as his own friends. According to a student interview, Jaylen Fryberg was very well-known kid in school; he played football and was voted as a homecoming prince. A year prior, on January 19, 2013 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a 15–year old boy named Nehemiah Griego shot and killed his parents and three siblings in their home. According to family statement it’s clear that this event was totally unexpected, “We know him as a bright, curious and incredibly talented young man.” (Eric Griego, Nehemiah’s uncle). 

In both incidents, the shooters were both underage and could not legally own a gun. In the state of Washington, the minimum age to legally own a gun is 21 years and in New Mexico it’s 19 years of age. Despite these laws being passed to “control” guns, the two shooters were still able to have access to it and use it to take people’s lives. How? Both their parents owned the guns they used. The police confiscated an AR-15 assault rifle, .22 rifle, and two shotguns which were legally purchased by Griego’s parents and .40 caliber Barretta. The guns were hidden from the shooters but they were unlocked and loaded and ready for the shooters to use, to impose harm.  

In a research study conducted by Routledge publishing, 49% of the adult sample were gun owners with children at home (Wallace 2017). This allows kids like mentioned above, to have access to guns without passing the age or test requirements by the state government.  

In such a young age, these kids questionable had such violent actions.  In order to make sense of their behavior in each incidents, we can look at Erik Erikson’s developmental stages.  

Psychologist Erik Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development Stages.  

• Individuals aged 6 to puberty go through a stage called, “elementary school”. Erikson describes this stage of youth development to deal with the issue of identifying as “Competence vs. Inferiority”, where the individual feel accomplished or they feel inferior to other people. 
• Individuals in their teen years to their 20’s are in the stage called “adolescence”. In this stage Erikson believes that people start to deal with the issue of “Identity vs. Role Confusion”, where teenagers test different roles to figure out their identity or they become confused on who they are. (Psychology 5.3) 

Since both Fryberg and Griego are 15 years of age, they would have just finished the “elementary school stage” which means that they had picked whether they we’re competent or inferior against other individuals. Griego was raised in an old school fashion where his father Greg Griego enforced his female siblings to have long hair because it’s prettier and for males; including him, to be tough. His parents were also very strict and did not allow them to date (DeathPenaltyUSA.org). This can lead Griego to be to be inferior of some other kids with less strict parents. Despite the restrictions set by his parents, Griego still decided to date and finding this pleasure in his life, he could not let his parents intervene and remove it.   

Even though Fryberg can be categorized as a competent youth, he was going through a break-up a couple of days before the shooting (Newsweek Magazine), this might have led to his instability causing him to shoot his ex-girlfriend and himself to death.  

A common misconception as to why shooters impose violence in America is because of the individual’s mental illness. According to Paul Appelbaum, MD a director of the Division of Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center only 3% to 5% of violent events are due to mental illness. Therefore the 95% to 97% of gun violence is something due to other factors leading individuals to shoot.  

 In “adolescence” stage, every individual experiments with whatever roles they are aware of. They are most likely to copy roles shown by their parents or some roles that they see in the movies. In this case, the two young boys mentioned knew that guns existed through their parents’ ownership of one. In their “experimental” stage, not only that they will take on roles that they are not familiar of, but they would also have the option to use a gun as an accessory to their picked-out roles.  

Possible Solutions:  

• To prevent kids from accessing guns, for some emotional times, parents should keep their guns unloaded and locked at all times.  
• In this crucial age, individuals are exposed to challenges which might cause them to be emotionally unstable due to their lack of experience compared to older individuals. To prevent irrational decisions parents should keep constant communication to their children and discuss some issues they might be having and give helpful feedbacks.  
• Show love and support 

Who’s responsible? 

• Anyone that can influence an individual at this stage.  
• Family 
• School Faculty 
• Friends 

Young adulthood: 25 years old – 29 years old 

In 2017, according to Routledge Taylor and Francis group, the world’s leading academic publisher in the Humanities and Social Sciences, a vast majority of the gun owners in America is made of individuals aged 25-29. Moreover, in a research study Russell Sage Foundation; an operating foundation directly involved in the conduct and dissemination of social science research, provides a data indicating that roughly about 60% of the population of young adult gun owners, claims that they own them for “protection” from other people.  

On June 17, 2015 during a prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a 21-year old man named Dylann Roof, allegedly shot and killed nine African Americans, including senior pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney, and injured one other person using .45-caliber pistol. On December 7, 2017, a 21- year old man named William Atchison while disguised as a student fired shots in Aztec High School, NM imposing 3 deaths including himself using an automatic rifle.  

The Bureau of Justice stated that there is a significant demographic divergence in their findings in 2016 indicating that gun offenders are more likely to be in the age range of 18 – 29. Both Ator and Roof fall in this range, which can make these incidents less shocking. But what is it about this age range that is critical, which leads individuals to possess guns and sometimes shoot at other people, sometimes including themselves?  

Psychologist Erik Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development Stages 

• Individuals in their 20’s to 40’s goes through a phase called, “adulthood”. In this stage young adults had just finished “adolescence” stage and had just figured out who they are and their roles in the society. This idea of “self” allows them to build relationships with other people who might be similar to them from these ideas, they are in the stage to figure out if they’re “Intimate vs Isolated”. If a problem was not resolved in prior stages, an individual might have problems socializing with others, causing loneliness or social isolation. (Psychology 5.3) 

After going through the “Adolescence” stage both Roof and Atchison can be assumed to have figured out their identity and roles and are now in the process of identifying themselves as “intimate” or “isolated” individuals.  

According to Farmington Daily Times, a daily newspaper in New Mexico, USA, Atchison is a former student in the High School where the shooting was located. In his high school career, Atchison was “known as the quiet boy with a stutter who wore a trench coat and played video games. Some teased or ignored him”. In addition, according to FBI investigations, “Years before he opened fire at his old school, he was in contact online with other school shooters, including a young man who committed a mass shooting in Germany. He also practiced “dry runs” of the shooting in a video game” (Kellogg, 2018). Being exposed to an individual who was a mass shooter, can be safely assumed to have influenced Atchison in identifying his role as a shooter as well. The lack of social interaction and relationships in high school can also be assumed to have contributed to Atchison’s “isolation” in his “adulthood” stage identified by Erikson. These factors can explain the reason why he felt the need to possess a gun and fulfill his self-identified role. A person’s isolation, puts that person at risk of doing emotionally driven actions in order to deal with their powerlessness; they do this in order to have satisfaction gain power and control.  

According to a New York Times article, the motive to Charleston Church mass shooting is mainly to impose white supremacy in South Carolina where there is a high rate of black population. Interestingly, Roof was not raised in a racist household or was actually enrolled to a school with a representation of minority students. So, what happened? According to a journal found in his car, Roof “changed” after hearing about the Trayvon Martin case where a white man was convicted of shooting a 17-year old African–American teenager. Roof, as a young white male at this age might feel the need to gain authority. Seeing events where his fellow white men gets prosecuted for targeting a person of color could have spurred the rage he has against people of color. He kept this belief to himself because he knows that “[his friends and family] probably won’t agree with me — you know what I’m saying?” (Roof, 2015). 

Just like these gun offenders, almost every person in “adolescence” stage have already figured out their identity and role in the society. Showing love, acceptance or support in this stage to change their beliefs about themselves or the world might not be as effective as it could have been in the previous stages.  

Possible Solution: 

• Stricter Gun Control Laws! 

• “While the research did not conclusively prove that restrictions, or relaxation of laws, reduce gun deaths, the results indicate that gun violence tended to decline after countries passed new restrictions on gun purchasing and ownership,” says co-author Sandro Galea, PhD, in an interview at Columbia University.  
• Both Roof and Atchison had previous records that should have prevented them from purchasing a gun. Records such as mental records, criminal records and drug use record can prevent gun from falling into the possession of the dangerous people. Despite these “restrictions” that the government placed in order to “protect” the citizens, there are still people like Roof and Atchison, bypassing the system 

• Longer waiting period to avoid mistakes in the process of allowing an individual to possess a gun. 

• In The Washington Post, FBI Director James Comey said that Roof “was able to purchase the gun used in the attack only because of lapses in the FBI’s background-check system” 

•  A large majority of people arrested for a homicide or nonfatal shooting in Chicago have a prior criminal history. Nine out of 10 of those arrested in 2017 had at least one prior arrest.  (Reducing Gun Violence 2019) 

Who’s Responsible:  

• Government Officials 
• Gun sellers  

Gender: Male 

According to Pew Research Center, a non-partisan fact tank which collects data from public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research, about six-in-ten gun owners in the United States are male (62%). Still, about one-in-five women (22%) report that they own a gun. In addition, according to the so here ussc.gov, 97.1% of firearms offenders are male. 

The gun offenders: Dylan Roof, William Atchison, Jaylen Fryberg and Nehemiah Griego, are all male. They all have gone through a rough time in each of their lives that triggered their need to possess a gun and/or use it to impose violence.  

According to psychological studies there is a correlation between a person’s gender and their aggression. Males are more likely to impose physical aggression while females are more likely to impose relational aggression. This cannot only be on account of an individual’s “nature” or genetic make-up but according to psychologists, it is also be because of their “nurture” or environment. In a lot of places such as the United States, males are expected to be masculine and less emotional. This is the case in the life of Nehemiah Griego, 15. The pressure of the society in imposing gender norms on people can “nurture” them to act on it. Male are more likely participate in shootings or hunting (Horowitz 2017).  

It has been established that gun can help a person gain power and authority. When individuals lack any of these, they will be tempted to find a way to regain it. In this society women tend to release anger and gain power by imposing emotional harm to others while men tend to release anger and gain power using physical actions. This pattern is aided by societal demands from birth. Since men usually associate themselves with men and women with women, the fact that males are more likely to own a gun and are more likely to impose violence using a gun, explains the fact that 85% of victims are males.  

Possible Solutions:  

• Stop pushing gender stereotypes on people 

• This pressure can trigger emotional instability on individuals, specially males and pushes them to do immoral actions to (re)gain authority and respect. 

Who’s Responsible: 

• Most Americans.. 

Conclusion: 100 Americans are killed by guns everyday 

Not only that America makes many guns to sell to its citizens, or that America has mentally ill individuals, America also has deeper societal problem explaining why gun ownership and violence is so frequent.  

There are actions that can be made by every individual living in America to help decrease the number of gun offenders, there are actions that can be done mainly by government officials to help decrease gun ownership by “dangerous” people. But none of these are as effective as not owning a gun in the first place. Everyday, 100 Americans are killed by guns (Giffords Law Center). Some of these incidents are done by the gun owners themselves, some are by family members, strangers, etc., using a gun of a legal gun owner.  

The solution to decreasing gun violence is the decrease in gun ownership. The solution to decrease gun ownership is by fixing societal issues leading individuals to possess guns and use them to impose violence.