"All At Gunpoint"
"All At Gunpoint"
Assassination attempts & anniversaries
I began writing Epi Matters on February 18, 2021 (3 years, 4 months, and 24 days ago) right after we began talking about the variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
This is my 252nd post.
This past Sunday (July 14) was the second anniversary of my weekly Three Things Thursday series, where I highlight three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week. I have written 104 weekly public health news updates on Thursdays during these two years. I had an anniversary post drafted, but the shootings at the Trump rally in Butler, PA on Saturday have been in the forefront of my mind. An anniversary post felt irrelevant and off-topic following the attempted assassination of former President Trump and the additional deaths/injuries that occurred.
Butler, PA is only 70 miles south of my home in Meadville.
Saturday’s violence hit a little too close to home, literally and figuratively.
I wrote my first Epi Matters post about gun violence in May of 2022 following the mass shooting at the Uvalde School in Texas. In that post, I wrote —
As a parent, knowing that it is not a question of if there will be another school shooting but when will it happen (and where) just sucks. Parenting my kids in a country where school shootings are all too common is challenging. And talking with my kids about what happened in Texas this week, Buffalo last week, Miami in 2018, and Sandy Hook in 2012 (I could go on…) was difficult. If you are a parent and need a resource to help you through these difficult times and conversations, I recommend this for youth/teenagers and this for younger kids.
As I watched the news coverage from Texas, I was reminded of a senior thesis one of my exceptional students completed years ago.1 In the thesis, he included this quote —
“The regularity of mass killings breeds familiarity. The rhythms of grief and outrage that accompany them become—for those not directly affected by tragedy—ritualised and then blend into the background noise. That normalisation makes it ever less likely that America's political system will groan into action to take steps to reduce their frequency or deadliness.” ~ The Latest American Mass Killing (2015)
As a parent, I feel it important that we demand policy & change.
Since that first post, I have written four full posts about the epidemic of gun violence in the United States (this makes post #5) and Three Things Thursday has touched on gun violence six additional times. ~4.5% of my posts here have touched on the epidemic of gun violence in the United States.
This time around, I have been struggling with what to say.
Nothing has changed. We do not have laws or policies to prevent this type of violence. In fact, just this week vending machines with ammunition were rolled out in grocery stores across the country.
As the news unfolded over the weekend, I was reminded of a memorable scene from The West Wing. The scene takes place in the Press Room of the White House following the attempted assassination of President Bartlet (Season 2, Episode 2 — In the Shadow of Two Gunman, part 2). At the press conference, CJ Cregg stated —
“I wanted to mention this is our fifth press briefing since midnight. And obviously, there is one story that is going to be dominating the news around the world for the next few days. It would be easy to think that President Bartlet, Joshua Lyman, and Stephanie Abbott were the only people who were victims of a gun crime last night.
They weren’t…
…there were 36 homicides last night, 48- sexual assaults, 3411 robberies, 3685 aggravated assaults.
All at gunpoint.
If anyone thinks those crimes could have been prevented if the victims themselves had been carrying guns, I only remind you that the President of the United States was shot last night while surrounded by the best-trained armed guards in the history of the world.”
While the headlines around the world continue to focus on the attempted assassination of former President Trump, I want to remind you that he was NOT the only victim of a gun crime over the weekend.
Corry Compertone, who was at the event in Butler, was also killed. He was a volunteer fire chief, husband, and father. Two other individuals at the rally — David Dutch & James Coperhaven — were seriously injured.
In the past 72 hours (Saturday through Monday) —
82 Americans were killed by a gun.
208 Americans were injured by a gun.
9 suspects of gun violence have been killed and another 8 have been injured.
These acts of gun violence took place across 39 states + the District of Columbia.
We need —
PREVENTION.
“Time and time again, a public health approach to solving health threats is a proven, evidencebased approach to improving health and preventing injury… Health epidemics don’t end unless we intervene taking the best science about what does and does not work and using it. The epidemic of intentional gun violence can be reversed with a science-based approach. It happened with Ebola, it worked for automobile crashes and it can absolutely reduce gun violence.”
~Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association
We need to rethink — how easily one can buy a gun, practice using a gun, or access ammunition. We also need to put strict laws in place to ensure the safe storage of guns that were purchased legally.
Truth be told…
I have been struggling since I first heard about the gun violence in Butler. I have felt anger, frustration, sadness, and a lot more anger (which is tied to questions about gun ownership, gun storage, gun access, ammunition vending machines, and taking/attempting to take the life of another human with a gun).
Thankfully, a colleague reminded me that —
“…we must never give up our goodness.”
His new book — I Hate It Here, Please Vote for Me — will be out on August 1.
In light of the gun violence on Saturday, he and his publisher released online one of the chapters, entitled “Violence.” You should read it now.
And then (pre)order the book!
“We must never give up our goodness.”
And I would add that we must use our goodness to enact new policies and demand change. The time for thoughts & prayers has long passed.
Action is needed.
Gun reform is needed. Gun violence must be prevented.
The project was titled Indirect Community Repercussions of Gun Violence: A Retrospective Cohort Study to Determine the Effect of Mass Shootings in the United States between 1982 and 2002 on the Birth Weight of Newborns. It was written by G. Devenney.