Guns don't kill people...

There has been another mass shooting this morning – this time near the Empire State Building.  Some folks think this means we should enact stricter gun control laws, but I’m not so sure guns are the problem. 

According to a survey of inmates in state and federal corrections facilities in 1997, about 80% of incarcerated offenders who had a gun acquired it from family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source.  If criminals are not getting their guns through legal channels, making it harder to purchase a gun legally won’t really do much to solve the problem.

Perhaps we need to look past guns.

In 2006, firearms were used in 68% of all homicides in the United States.  That’s a pretty significant percentage, so I’m not at all downplaying the role played by guns.  But, I think this is a more telling statistic:  Between 1980 and 2008, 90% of all homicides in the United Stated were committed by men. 

Maybe the NRA is right.  Guns don’t kill people. 

But men sure do.

I think it’s time for us to spend less time talking about gun control and more time talking about hegemonic masculinity, the culture of violence, and patriarchy if we want to get to the root of the problem. 

If not, I’m buying guns for all the women in my life this Christmas.