By Niara Hancock
It has been 108 days since the year 2023 started, and many things happened during that time. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl, Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven awards, sweeping the competition, and Bud Light began its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Among all the exciting things that have happened so far this year, something else has been happening, and it’s a problem that has been going around since the 1990s. As of right now in America, we have had 131 mass shootings and it is only April. That amounts to 1 mass shooting a day, many American youths ask themselves, “How did we get here?”
For starters, you have to go as far back as the civil war, where for about four years from April 12th, 1861 to April 9th, 1865 where The Northern Union and The Southern Confederacy fought over whether to keep the institution of slavery. So what does this have to do with guns? To answer that because of the sheer amount of slaves in America at the time (which at the time of the census was 3.9 million however is most likely more because of the 3/5th compromise) having the extra help of African American slaves meant a lot for either side’s victory even if they didn’t care about them. However, after the emancipation proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, and slaves slowly started to gain some form of autonomy; it was not well received by White Americans, especially former slave owners. Now, what exactly does this have to do with gun violence?
After the civil war, America went into a period called the Reconstruction Era, lasting from 1863 to 1877. It was a period of America having to find where its footing lay as a nation, with enslaved African Americans now free it raised a lot of questions politically, economically, and ethically. This led to a lot of disapproval about African Americans holding office, owning land or businesses, and most of all having the same rights as their white acquaintances. Among these rights were the Second Amendment, which was the right to own a gun. To make the “threat” of armed African Americans seem like an epidemic, political fearmongering through propaganda instilled fear of African Americans being armed, voting, and or running for office. Also during this time, the Ku Klux Klan had its propaganda, at the time the KKK was seen as a beacon of hope to the White race.
As time went on guns became ingrained in American culture western and war movies, toy guns and more propagandist media were on the rise, especially during America’s involvement during WWII. This was even reflected in media geared toward families and henceforth children. Such as Warner Brothers’ 1943 Daffy The Commando, where the first opening shot is a dark sky with a Nazi German flag and an abandoned sniper on the left. Even some of the most popular and recognizable toys at the time had themes of guns and warfare (Army men and King BB Rifle). Guns becoming a sign of protection and American patriotism is nothing new, which also answers why guns are so valued even to the point over human lives.
We see people try to take every avenue to not tackle the issue of guns in our nations. From comic books to violent movies to video games; anything that shows violence or has a gun in it will be demonized by the masses. Deliberately refusing to admit that no amount of media can turn someone violent is the fact that it’s unacceptably easy to buy a gun and fall into the wrong hands. Until America changes its attitude toward guns, we will need a lot more little caskets.
