2021: Gun violence, innocent victims and a legacy of tears

The end of the year is always a time for reflection; 2021 certainly deserves its measure of contemplation with respect to gun violence in the United States.   

Let’s get the statistics and data observations out of the way, but before plunging into details, we should recognize that the conclusion remains abundantly clear from the get go, namely that firearm related violence in the US dwarfs that experienced in any other developed industrial country.  About that one simply can’t argue.

So, how many shooting deaths were there in the country this year?  Business as usual, plus more tragedy.

In the absence of official central data, we have to surf the web for credible estimates, with the Gun Violence Archive (https://www.gunviolencearchive.org) reporting some 24,600 homicides, accidental killings etc., up more than 1,000 from 2020.  A similar estimate is found at  https://www.thetrace.org/2021/12/gun-violence-data-stats-2021/.   

Captured in these sober totals are the truly dangerous increases in several major cities, with Chicago perhaps generating the most headlines in this regard.  Some weekends in certain cities were, in a word, bloody. 

And, as always very sad and tragic, there were an estimated 24,000 suicides by firearms this year, more or less in line with recent years. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the devastated and grieving family members and friends who lost loved ones in this way.

Mass or multiple casualty events demand a constant and bright spotlight; the victims are innocent and random, and could be any of us on any given day.  The GVA reports some 28 such incidents, with the Boulder supermarket killings, the Oxford, Michigan High School killings, San Jose, California, Indianapolis Indiana and so many other multiple shootings involving family members and friends. 

The weapons used in such events are surely part of the problem. As someone's recent tweet emphasized, people with guns kill people.  The corollary: people with automatic or semi-automatic weapons kill more people in less time with less effort.

For me, it is very important to look at the impact of gun violence on rank and file law enforcement, those brave individuals who are called upon to protect public safety while confronting the constant unknown of “is that individual armed, and if so, is he/she armed and dangerous”. 

Official partial year data report 55 law enforcement officers died by firearms in 2021 through November, a major increase from 41 officers killed the year previous.  Nine month FBI data reports some 2,700 officers were assaulted with firearms, with at least 160 injured.   Annual totals could be notably higher (https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/dallas/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-statistics-for-law-enforcement-officers-assaulted-and-killed-in-the-line-of-duty).

At the same time, law enforcement officers used lethal force in response to threats with some 900 individuals losing their lives, according to the Washington Post’s data base of police lethal force incidents, diligently kept since 2015 (https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/dallas/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-statistics-for-law-enforcement-officers-assaulted-and-killed-in-the-line-of-duty).  Without parsing the details of individual incidents, it is clear that police work is dangerous every day and, every day, officers are making life and death decisions.

For those of you who have had that valuable opportunity to ride along with officers, you will clearly understand the pressure and tension they experience going out into society and to their assigned areas of protection.  And, given the foregoing, it is easy to understand the pain and challenges that some many officers feel, such that the U.S. Department of Justice 2018 report publicly acknowledged some 100,000 serving law enforcement officers suffer from PTSD. And now they have to add Covid among the dangers of the street. Tough work indeed.

These officers need our support and help.  But their leaders need to do much more to work toward practical and sensible measures to reduce the level of firearm violence and threats to their officers as they work with the public.  These leaders need to do much more to help to protect their officers by working to reduce gun violence through sensible and consistent public policy and measures.

One could write for hours of the sadness and mourning of the victims of gun violence, those among law enforcement and those average citizen victims innocently going about their daily lives.

The year 2021 is finally coming to an end; there are several hours left for our endemic culture of gun violence to continue its work this year.  But I so hope that the New Year will be rung in with cheers, champagne, and happiness, and not with the sound of bullets fired and mourning families the next day.

A simple wish and hope, one that I have daily and have had for years.

Happy New Year everyone, let’s regroup in 2022 and work together to start that badly needed national debate on a “Second Amendment for 21st Century America”.

Let's do this together. If we succeed, and I believe that we can and will, America will be safer and more secure as the century continues to unfold.