30/11/2017
Gun violence: As American as cherry pie?
Civilian firearms manufacturing, ownership and murder trends in context of the two deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
In the 1960’s, political activist H. Rap Brown described that violence “is as American as cherry pie”. This paper investigates the particularity of gun violence in the United States by consider-ing the prevalence of firearms laterally to an escalation in firearms murders. The preva-lence of firearms is assessed by considering trends in gun manufacturing and ownership. This examination takes place in the context of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history taking place in Las Vegas on 1 October 2017, and the deadliest church shooting in Texas on 5 November 2017, which illustrate a recent escalation in gun violence. This paper will also consider the political discussions following the shootings, which highlight political points of interests in current U.S. gun legislation. The shootings were utilized by both those opposing current legislation and those who support it, with new dimensions introduced to the debate including bipartisan concerns regarding the transformation of assault rifles into automatic weapons.
