Protecting all Americans must be the top priority

In the aftermath of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, Democratic candidates running for the party’s presidential nomination quickly turned the tragedies into political talking points, attacking gun ownership and voicing their hatred for the president.

By politicizing the shootings, liberal candidates avoided dealing with the root causes of such mass shootings. Whenever a gunman terrorizes or leaves a trail of death and suffering, many on the left target gun ownership or, in the latest cases, blame the president.

America’s history is stained with gun violence. Every day, hundreds of Americans are killed with guns and hundreds more are shot and injured. Fifty-eight percent of American adults or someone they care for have experienced gun violence in their lifetime, and about 3 million American children witness gun violence every year. The same weekend of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, there were 7 killed and 46 wounded in shootings in Chicago. Where is the Democratic outrage over that killing zone in America’s third most populated city?

In the wake of the Florida school shooting in 2018, politicians raised concern over the influence that violent video games and films have on young people. President Trump also claimed that violent videos are “shaping young people’s thoughts.”

After the El Paso and Dayton shootings, the president urged the nation to condemn bigotry and white supremacy. He also voiced support strengthening background checks and “red flag” laws that would keep weapons out of the wrong hands.

Most liberal Democrats, their political blinders on, are not about to concede or agree with the president on anything, let alone the gun violence issue which will be a prime Democratic issue in the 2020 election. There is disagreement among scientists and many elected officials about how constant exposure to media violence affects aggressive thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

Trump and other politicians’ conservative lawmakers, including Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have suggested that video games were to blame for real-world violence. But there are just as many who deny any linkage between mass shootings and brutal video games. Andrew Przybylski, a researcher at Oxford University who has been studying the psychological effects of video games for more than a decade, sees no evidence that violent video game play leads to aggression in the real world. There’s more of a consensus on mental illness as a contributing factor. Many of the mass shooters had complex psychiatric histories. Some were considered to be social loners.

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, which seeks to improve our understanding of the causes of gun violence and the means to reduce it, lists some revealing data on gun homicides on its website.

• One of the main reasons that U.S. homicide rates are so much higher than in most Western democracies is our easy access to guns. One-third of gun deaths are homicides, and the U.S. rate is 25 times that of other high-income countries.

• Nearly two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides, and the nation’s gun suicide rate is 10 times that of other high-income countries. Access to a gun increases the risk of death by suicide by three times, and gun suicides are concentrated in states with high rates of gun ownership.

• Black Americans represent the majority of gun homicide victims. In fact, black Americans are 10 times more likely than white Americans to die by gun homicide.

There are many components to gun violence, including gun control, mental health and social media. These are complicated issues for federal and state officials to sort out and address. Protecting the children and our communities, however, is indisputable and should always be priority number 1 for elected officials.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com