One Nation, Under Guns

By Noah Ashe

May 25, 2022

Only 145 days into 2022, the Gun Violence Archive has recorded 213 mass shootings across 32 states and Washington D.C. Each dot represented on this map represents a single mass shooting. Credit – Gun Violence Archive

Almost a decade ago in December 2012, a 20-year old lone gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Within minutes, 26 people – including 20 children, between the ages of six and seven years old – would be dead in what became one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. In the aftermath of the shooting, we told ourselves “never again.” It seemed at last, the senseless murder of 26 students and teachers would kickstart a popular national movement to enact needed gun legislation.

So what’s changed in the last decade? Unsurprisingly almost nothing.

At the time of this writing, data from the Gun Violence Archive has recorded over 3,800 mass shootings since Sandy Hook. The Washington Post estimates that over 311,000 students have experienced acts of gun violence since the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999.

Only 145 days into 2022, there have been 213 mass shootings, 27 of which have occurred at schools.

In a span of 10 days, both Buffalo, N.Y. and now Uvalde, Texas have joined a growing list of countless communities marred by gun violence. It’s become a dark, yet predictable cycle in the United States. A mass shooting occurs. Thoughts and prayers are offered by politicians and community leaders alike. Debates begin on social media. There are calls to action among activists and the general public to enact broadly popular gun control legislation. Our elected officials fail to listen to their constituents. Eventually, the cameras and our attention drifts away from a community changed forever. Until it inevitably happens again. And again. And again.

As another community reels from what has become a staple of American life, I am not under the impression that these latest incidents in Buffalo and Uvelade will be the turning point in the fight for gun control. We have proven time and time again that no amount of lives lost and communities shattered is enough to finally enact and pass sweeping gun control legislation. The resources provided below offer ways in which visitors to this page can not only learn more about the root of America’s gun epidemic but how we can best combat it.

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