The situation will be even worse. [World Report] Nearly 42 million people in the United States live within a 1-mile radius of the mass shooting site. US media: Gun laws if "everything remains the same"

According to an article published on the website of Scientific American magazine on August 28th, the large-scale shootings that have occurred in campuses, nightclubs, religious venues, and other places where shooting incidents were never expected to occur in the past decade have shocked the entire United States. Although such shooting incidents do not account for a high proportion of gun deaths in the United States, they seem to be moving towards a terrifying upward trend.

Screenshots of articles on the website of Scientific American magazine

According to the database of Northeastern University in the United States, 2023 is the year with the most severe large-scale shooting incidents in the United States. While large-scale shooting incidents are growing exponentially, other gun related deaths, including homicide, suicide, and accidents, are three orders of magnitude higher.

The article points out that the "business as usual" gun laws in the United States must make significant breakthroughs to curb the exponential growth of large-scale shooting incidents. If large-scale measures are not taken, it is necessary to prepare for exponential growth. Large scale shootings are likely to evolve into more threatening social issues like suicide or other homicide incidents, leading to an exponential increase in the number of deaths. At that time, American society may take stricter measures, but it has already paid a high price for it.

According to a report by CNN on the 30th, severe gun violence is a unique problem in the United States. Other countries have made significant progress in reducing gun related deaths by introducing laws, but in the United States, national legislation is in a stagnant state.

In June 2022, US President Biden signed the Two Party Safer Communities Act, marking the first time in 30 years that a major federal gun reform bill has been passed. But since then, the United States has taken almost no new action, and congressional leaders have not made gun legislation a priority. Even though some states and cities attempt to regulate gun ownership or enforce the storage of firearms in safe places, the Supreme Court of the United States still vetoed these measures in the name of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

The report points out that without new policy measures, millions of Americans will personally experience what it means to have a large-scale shooting incident happen at their doorstep every year. Dr. Shawn Taghavi, Associate Professor at Durham University School of Medicine, said, "As a trauma surgeon, I realize every day that anyone can be affected by large-scale shooting incidents. They are not just random incidents, but happen every day. We need to find solutions."

The CNN report also mentioned that for millions of Americans, large-scale shooting incidents occur less than a mile from home.

Screenshot of CNN report

According to CNN's analysis of gun violence records and data from the US Census Bureau, it is estimated that nearly 42 million Americans have lived within a 1-mile radius of the site of large-scale shooting incidents since 2014, accounting for more than 1/8 of the total US population.

CNN's analysis indicates that in the past decade, large-scale shooting incidents in the United States have become increasingly common, with an average annual increase of about 4 million people affected by such incidents, and many community residents have even experienced multiple shootings. No place in the United States can be spared, whether in urban or rural areas, regardless of time or season, every state has records of large-scale shooting incidents.

So far, 2023 has been a record breaking year for gun violence in the United States. According to data from gun violence records, as of August 30th, there have been over 470 large-scale shootings in the United States, higher than the same period in the past decade. The definition of a large-scale shooting incident by the organization and CNN is that, excluding the gunman, at least four people have been shot dead.

It is reported that in order to determine the number of people living near the location of the large-scale shooting incident, CNN conducted an investigation into gun violence records and data from the Census Bureau. The survey shows that for people living near the incident site, the impact of gun violence can be significant and long-lasting.

The report also pointed out that an increasing number of studies have focused on the impact of gun violence on communities and found that its negative effects on health are extremely widespread. Experts say that large-scale shooting incidents have increased the fear and insecurity of the entire community. A 2017 study showed that witnessing violence in cities is a risk factor for adverse consequences such as drug abuse, aggressive behavior, psychological anxiety, depression, and antisocial behavior among children in the United States.

In addition, social and economic inequality factors exacerbate the risk of gun violence in a certain region, but many large-scale shooting incidents that disproportionately affect marginalized communities have not received widespread attention.

A study published in the Journal of Surgery of the American Medical Association in July investigating large-scale shooting incidents in 51 major cities in the United States showed that the African American community is particularly vulnerable. Researchers from Durham University have found that compared to areas with a higher white population, areas with a higher black population are more prone to large-scale shooting incidents, and black people are at greater risk of being directly affected. During the shooting incident, the number of casualties among black people was higher.

According to CNN's analysis, the cities with the highest rates of gun violence in the United States are St. Louis, New Orleans, and Baltimore. Among them, New Orleans and Baltimore are both predominantly black areas, while St. Louis, although predominantly white, has only a few percentage points difference in the proportion of black population.

Dr. Tagharvey believes that one reason for the high proportion of black communities being victimized in large-scale shooting incidents is the legacy of structural racism in the United States, including racial segregation and discriminatory housing policies.

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