Gun deaths in the US have reached the highest rates in 50 years
There are several students who have been shot
Something has to change
It’s a pressing issue that needs careful consideration
We need guns because to be quite frank...
...it’s scary living in my neighbourhood
At The Economist’s Open Future Festival...
...gun-control activists joined Idrees Kahloon...
...The Economist’s policy correspondent...
...on stage in Chicago to talk about what gun violence looks like in America
We’re coming to you with the worst kind of breaking news imaginable
There were nearly 40,000 fatal shootings in America in 2017
And while the news coverage mainly focuses on mass shootings...
...the data tell a different story
Peter Ambler, executive director of Giffords...
...a gun-safety advocacy group...
...wants the facts to be central to the debate
These mass shootings that happen that terrify the country...
...are very important to be concerned about...
...actually only represent a relatively small number...
...of the overall, nearly 40,000, gun deaths
A mass shooting of catastrophic proportions...
...happens every day in this country
That is as tragic, as troubling and as challenging to our moral compass...
...as a nation as these mass shootings
Mass shootings have been getting worse
But these tragedies only account for a small proportion...
...of America’s gun fatalities
Of the total number of gun deaths in 2017...
...less than 0.3% occurred in mass shootings...
...where three or more people were killed with a gun
Other homicides were 36%
The majority of gun deaths are actually suicides
They made up 60% of the total in 2017
An issue that Maj Toure...
...who runs an organisation fighting to stop gun regulation...
...says is often overlooked
Maj, I want to talk to you
I wanted to get a sense of what you think...
...goes wrong with the way that people analyse...
...the problem of gun violence, particularly in American cities
One of the major ways that it’s wrong...
...is we keep calling it gun violence
And then it’s a bunch of faulty stats behind it
So, for example, the 30,000-40,000 deaths annually...
...conveniently, 60% of those being suicides...
...keep getting left out of that conversation
That speaks to the mental-health component
Mental health is a major consideration...
...in the conversation around gun control
And there is a correlation between...
...the number of people who died by suicide...
...and the number of gun-control laws a state has
These represent all of America’s 50 states
The stricter a state’s gun regulation...
...the fewer suicides occur
With 107 laws...
...California had the most restrictions on gun use in 2017
The state also had one of the lowest suicide rates in the country
Montana had the highest suicide rate...
...and only four laws restricting gun use
The data also reveal another clear trend...
...a big racial disparity in gun deaths
While white men account for the majority of gun-related suicides...
...black Americans are ten times more likely to die...
...from gun-related homicide than white Americans
Bria Smith campaigns for policy to focus more on...
...gun violence in inner cities...
...especially in black communities
Bria you’ve consistently made the point that...
...the gun-violence-prevention movement...
...should not be a whitewashed one
Guns are still the leading cause of death for black children and teenagers...
...14 times the rate of white children
Here in Chicago, 400 people roughly...
...have died this year because of guns
And of them, close to 300 were black
Tell us how you channel the energy that exists within the movement...
...into fully reckoning with those sober statistics
And into making a movement that is not whitewashed
I think channelling that energy has always been hard for me
Because if you’re living in an inner city...
...and you’re seeing pictures or videos of kids from Parkland...
...who are white and they’re getting all the coverage...
...they’re getting all the national attention...
...and they’re leading the conversation on gun violence
When you’re saying to yourself...
...I’ve been doing this work for years before people even thought to say...
...I’m scared to go to school
I was scared to walk to the corner...
...to go to the bus, to get, you know to take me to school
How are we going to have our allies with the power...
...and the privilege and the platform...
...to speak for people who can’t be invited to the table?
67% of Americans think gun laws should be stricter...
Only 10% would like to see gun laws relaxed
The rest think that they should stay the same
But there is vigorous debate about the best way...
...to satisfy the wishes of the majority of Americans
Maj Toure thinks regulation that exists today...
...unfairly targets black communities
In Illinois around 60% of homicides occur in Chicago
Most of the gun restrictions are in Chicago
It is a contradiction...
...adding more legislation to this scenario...
...that does not solve it
And telling black people that they shouldn’t have firearms...
...while respecting their Second Amendment rights...
...to defend themselves from the bad guy...
...is the fundamental flaw
Bria, I saw you nodding along...
...and that’s interesting
You might think that the two of you would disagree
March for Our Lives, we’re a bipartisan organisation
People have this big stigma that...
...anybody in the gun-violence movement...
...we want to take away guns, right?
We need guns because to be quite frank...
...it’s scary living in my neighbourhood...
...and we need to protect ourselves
In essence what you’re saying is...
...you can’t legislate evil
One potential solution...
...for getting guns off the streets is gun buybacks
When the government makes it compulsory...
...for people to hand in certain types of guns...
...and compensates the owners for doing so
I think that the discussion that you’re seeing right now...
...around mandatory buybacks is symptomatic...
...of this sort of political shift...
...and the political power that we now have...
...in the gun-safety side
But I don’t think it is...
...sort of as significant a fissure in the gun-safety space...
...as, say, Medicare for all or Green New Deal...
...would be in the health-care and energy spaces respectively
Today the vast majority of Americans...
...both Democrats and Republicans...
...support stricter gun laws
Democratic presidential candidates are proposing sweeping changes...
...from gun buybacks and assault-weapon bans...
...to universal background checks
But Congress continues...
...to be resistant to gun control
This will be a key issue...
...ahead of the 2020 presidential election