Gun control has been the center of controversy in the United States. While the right to own a firearm is constitutionally protected in the U.S., the continued occurrence of mass shootings continues to fuel the debate.

BACKGROUND
Tragically, there have been many shootings in the US, but the Charleston shooting added an additional thread to the gun control debate – racism.

On June 17, 2015, a young white man entered the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina where he joined a Bible study group for an hour before shooting ten of the 12 people present.

The next morning, the shooter, Dylann Roof, was captured. Initial investigations of Roof connected him with a white nationalist group, the Council of Conservative Citizens, and a website called “The Last Rhodesian,” on which he had entered a manifesto expressing frustration with black people in America and his intention to do something about it. That combined with reports of racial slurs during the shooting and the historical significance of Roof’s target prompted authorities to label the shooting a hate crime.

See this list of mass shootings in the U.S. in the last 30+ years.

Citizens and politicians on the left argue that with reduced access to guns, such crimes would be simply more difficult to commit.

– They point to the drastically lower rate of gun deaths in many European countries as examples, where guns are much more difficult to acquire.
– Furthermore, those on the left often connect things like mental illness, racism and other social problems as contributing factors to instances of mass violence.
– This, in turn, leads to a call for more affordable health care, a reformation of society’s views toward mental illness, attention to poverty and the lack of or low quality of education in America.

Those on the right are more likely to defend one’s rights to own firearms. They point to the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which explicitly protects U.S. citizens’ rights to own guns.

– Conservatives often argue that without guns, citizens would be powerless against gun-wielding criminals, thus the right to own firearms is a matter of self-protection.
– Also, those on the right are more likely to display a distrust in government in general. This finds its extreme in organizations like The Tea Party.
– These individuals and groups often argue that society becomes more dangerous and unbalanced when governments, with their potential for corruption and tyranny, are the only institutions or people allowed to use weapons.

See country-to-country comparisons of gun ownership and violence.

Read the 2nd Amendment for yourself.

See a discussion of mental illness in mass shootings.

Mass shootings like the Charleston Church shooting continually re-ignite the debate on gun control. While the ownership of firearms is a longstanding protected right in the U.S., many feel that without access to weapons, mass shootings wouldn’t be nearly as common.

Is the problem of gun violence in America boil down to easy access to guns? Or are there deeper cultural and social problems at play?

WANT MORE?
What other cultural factors are at play in America’s gun violence problem? Aeon explores this multi-faceted issue.

If you missed it – interesting country-to-country comparisons of gun ownership and violence.