(NewsNation) — The debate over how to prevent gun violence in the United States has raged over the past decade, with the American public divided over two central theories: the proliferation of guns and the mental health crisis.
The conversation was part of a NewsNation town hall Monday night focused on crime in America, where questions were asked about what mayors and law enforcement officers are doing to protect their communities.
Wade Kapuzkiewicz, mayor of Toledo, Ohio, criticized Republicans for arguing that gun violence is solely a mental health problem and ignoring gun oversaturation.
“Our country is the only country in the history of the world that has more guns than people,” said the Democratic mayor.
In fact, the United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world, at about 120 guns per 100 people, according to a 2018 report. Research on Small Arms. The Geneva-based organization estimates that US gun owners own 393.3 million weapons, which is more than the country’s population of 330 million.
Its gun ownership rate is more than double that of second-place Yemen (52.8 per 100 people), and total gun ownership is more than five times higher than India, which has 71.1 million guns out of a population of 1.4 billion.
“There is only one country that has fundamentally given up on doing nothing… Don’t risk trying to take AR-15s away from the mentally ill and terrorists, but the US Senate won nonetheless.” It shouldn’t, but the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t seem to mind,” Kapuzkiewicz said. “Disagreements that used to end in blackened eyes and bloody lips on the playground can now end in murder.”
“I’m all about mental health, but I don’t like it when politicians suggest it’s the only issue,” he added.
Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff Mike Lamb countered that guns are “inanimate objects” used by people who commit vicious acts.
“If the gun is in the wrong hand, it’s bad. It’s good to hold the gun in your right hand,” Lam said. “There are far more deaths[from car crashes]than gun crime.”
The tragedies at public malls, workplaces and schools, including Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have raised calls for reform.
Five years after the shooting there, the Trump administration issued a ban on “bump stocks,” and in 2022 Congress passed the broadest federal law in decades.
Gun reform advocates are also pushing for red flag legislation that would allow judges to issue orders to ban, at least temporarily, the possession of guns by people who show signs of violent intent.
Lam suggested solutions such as increasing the number of school resource personnel and limiting the number of entries in schools.
“We’re doing much better in terms of protecting airports and planes than we are about protecting kids in schools. I think that’s where we as a society deviate,” Lam said. . “All we have to do is better respond to children who are realizing they are starting to have mental health problems.”
