The root cause of America’s and Tennessee’s gun violence epidemic goes much deeper than we think

Polls show a majority of Tennesseans support safe gun laws, including safe storage, but legislators are doing little to make weapon carry safer. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht/Tennessee Lookout)

“Now we’re going to talk about when you can, and when you can’t, use your firearm,” the instructor said with a grin, barely concealing his enthusiasm at the chance to take his students through a deep dive on Tennessee’s laws governing self-defense. 

My brother-in-law and I were taking a firearms class in Nashville in 2019, seeking to earn our handgun carry permits. As a lifetime gun guy, the class quickly became one of the best educational experiences I’d had regarding firearms, yet since that day, I’ve watched as Tennessee and 16 other states have passed permit-less carry legislation, removing one of the only enforcement mechanisms states have to ensure residents are educated on laws governing firearms.

Just when policymakers in Tennessee need to be doing more to make our communities safer, legislators are passing laws that make it easier for those with murderous intent to obtain and carry firearms, all while totally ignoring the underlying reasons why America suffers from a gun violence epidemic in the first place.

The emergency: Gun violence results from a society that fails to provide its residents with social safety and economic opportunity

The U.S. has the highest murder rate of developed nations, killings that are overwhelmingly driven by gun violence. Even other developed countries with large populations of gun owners, like Canada, Finland, Iceland and New Zealand, have nowhere near America’s gun violence rate. Furthermore, the U.S. is seeing more mass shootings each year, a problem that is truly singular to this nation as compared to other developed countries.

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Why is the U.S. unique in this regard? The core difference is that the citizens of other first-world democracies have made their governments provide universal healthcare, affordable housing and education, good-paying jobs and strong social safety nets. Conversely, U.S. politicians and their corporate backers increasingly put profits over people.

This nation’s failure to provide basic safety and opportunity to the American people engenders trauma within the population that is not just experienced acutely; it becomes intergenerational. 

Our system is such that tens of millions of Americans are born into terrible economic situations that lack safety and security. Those experiences shape Americans’ development from birth, including how their parents (who are themselves suffering) raise them, whether they go on to use mind-altering substances as a coping mechanism, and how poorly they do in school, at work and in social settings.

Economics and social safety mean everything to a person throughout their development because they touch every aspect of a person’s life, from the household to the school to the workplace. Americans acting out in insane, criminal, murderous ways at rates far higher than in comparable nations is the end result of a system that has denied them safety and security in some way or another for their entire lives.

Some people are born with serious psychological impairments that could lead them to commit gravely immoral acts regardless of their upbringing. Yet, for these individuals too, America in the 21st century continually fails them by not prioritizing mental health treatment for those who need it. Mental health issues are a global problem, yet only in the U.S. does a mental health crisis end in a mass shooting.

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Sadly, very few in the halls of power have supported policy prescriptions that might reverse our glacial slide into a late-stage capitalistic dystopia where our healthcare, housing, education, fair wages, basic security and social safety are sacrificed on the altar of shareholder value.

The triage: Americans support the actions that would immediately begin curbing gun violence

Despite our politicians utterly failing us, Americans, including Tennesseans, overwhelmingly support triage actions. For example, Americans support common-sense gun law reforms such as universal background checks, waiting periods, firearm safety training, permit-only handgun carry, and safe storage laws. Even red flag laws receive 71% support in Tennessee when pitched to the public as a gun safety measure that would require law enforcement, family members and intimate partners to petition a court for an emergency protection order to temporarily remove firearms from someone deemed an imminent risk to themselves or others.

These laws aim to keep guns out of the hands of individuals who pose a danger to themselves and others without infringing on the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. 

The long-term care: We also support solving the underlying problems that lead to gun violence

Triage efforts in the form of common-sense gun laws will make it more difficult for sick people with evil intentions to access firearms, but it won’t solve the core societal problems that produce such individuals. 

Thankfully, we also overwhelmingly support society-improving measures like universal healthcare, publicly subsidized higher education, reducing corporate ownership of housing stock, and increasing American worker power through minimum wage increases, stronger unions and fair labor standards. And perhaps most important of all, Americans also support getting corporate money out of politics and forcing politicians to represent people, not wealthy donors.

I wish it were as easy as, “It’s guns!” “It’s mental health!” “It’s culture!” “It’s substance abuse!” or “It’s video games!” But a problem as complex as gun violence has no easy villain. And there is a lot of work ahead. Our gun violence issue is a uniquely American disease, yet it is perhaps better described as a symptom of a much deeper illness. 

Pulling our brothers and sisters out of the mire that is 21st-century America will take more than tinkering around the edges. It will take a reshaping of our society into one that prioritizes the health and well-being of all who live here, not just the wealthiest and most influential among us.