When do we decide as a nation that gun violence should not be as prevalent as it is? How young or how many children need to die while in a learning environment for people to finally consider gun laws and control?
According to Gun Violence Archive, there were 503 mass shootings in 2024. According to Mass Shooting Tracker there has been 384 in 2025 so far. According to CNN, there have been 53 school shootings with 19 fatalities across all of them.
But what about other developed nations? How do they fare under a seemingly more violent world? Canada has had three mass shootings while the UK has also had three. But focus on the UK, in 1996 they had their own school shooting in Dunblane Primary School, the gunman killed 16 children, a teacher and then himself. The UK responded quite vigorously and citizens made the snowdrop campaign. This called for all handguns over .22 caliber and eventually all private hand gun ownership. There has not been a single school shooting since and mass shootings are at a low.
The United States is very obviously not the same as the UK. The US has the right to bear arms in its constitution. However, a country cannot have a well regulated civilian militia if civilians cannot responsibly bear arms.
The state that is heavily considered to have the strictest gun laws is California, the state requires background checks, conceal carry permits, extreme risk laws, secure storage required, no assault weapons and no accessories for guns to shoot faster. As well as all gun dealers in the state being required to be licensed. The state has a gun violence rate of 8/100,000 which falls below the national average of 13.7.
A state considered to have both a very heavy gun violence rate and little regulation is Mississippi. The state does not require background checks nor a permit, however it does have a law prohibiting one from owning a gun after a hate crime charge.As well as required mental health reporting. However their gun violence rate is 29.4 which is well above the national average.
What about at home? Iowa, is #28 in the country for gun law strength. The state requires secure storage, bans auto sears, a device that turns semi automatic firearms into automatics, does not require conceal carry to be allowed on college campuses, prohibits felons from owning guns and requires mental health reporting. Our gun violence rate is 10.5 per 100,000 falling below the national average.
While gun violence is not a simple problem that one law could solve, two provisions that could help are not allowing people with misdemeanor violent crime charges to hold a gun and background checks would be a significant improvement.
