The mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this week threw a community into shock and mourning, leading families of the victims to question, “Why the children?”
Less that two weeks earlier, mourners in Buffalo and elsewhere struggled to understand why elderly Black grocery store shoppers were gunned down while buying strawberries. Fellow Americans – and people around the world – have also looked on with stunned disbelief.
So far, there are no satisfactory answers for why mass shootings continue in America – and how they can be stopped.
The whys, hows and what-ifs of these and many more tragedies followed me – and I am sure many others parents across the country – while dropping off my 3-year-old daughter at school this morning.
But the surge in public support for gun regulations following previous shootings has not led Congress to pass new laws. Most of the changes happen, if at all, at the state level, writes Christopher Poliquin, an assistant professor of strategy at UCLA, who reviewed legislative activity in the wake of mass shootings between 1990 and 2014.
“Republican state legislatures pass significantly more gun laws that loosen restrictions on firearms after mass shootings," Poloquin explains. "Our research shows … that Democrats don’t tighten gun laws more than usual following mass shootings.”
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