I opened ChatGPT on my home computer and asked it several empirical questions about lethal violence. The statistics it returned surprised me a little in light of how politically correct OpenAI can be. But facts are facts.
I begin with school shootings. Schools in high-poverty, urban, majority-minority schools, which comprise about 20 percent of schools, have an approximate rate of lethal violence per 1,000 of 5–15 students. For low/medium-poverty, suburban, predominantly white schools, which comprise around 50 percent of schools, the approximate rate of lethal violence per 1,000 is 0.5-1 students. In rural, mixed demographics schools, roughly 30 percent of the total, the rate per 1,000 is 0.5–2 per 1,000 students.
Implications: 1. Perception vs. reality: National attention emphasizes rare, high-profile attacks in wealthier communities. 2. Exposure: Most students affected by school shootings live in high-violence urban neighborhoods. 3. Policy relevance: Efforts focusing solely on guns in schools miss community-based violence associated with most incidents in disadvantaged areas. Question to ask: Why does the media ignore school shootings in impoverished inner-city neighborhoods? Is it because the people residing there are black and Hispanic?
Around 50–55 percent of cases of lethal police shootings involve white males (~93–95 percent of those shot by police are male). Question to ask: Why does the public believe most people shot by police are black? Is it because the media does not report that most people who are shot by the police are white? What is that not an important fact to report?
Among ethnic and racial groups, blacks account for most homicides in America. Moreover, most homicide victims are black. For interracial homicide, whites are far more likely to be shot by blacks than the other way around. Question to ask: Why does the media not report these facts?
We’re told that gun violence is the number one killer of children. “Children” in these statistics refer to individuals ages 0–19. Are 18 and 19-year-olds children? If children 14 years of age and younger are counted only, then accidents (car crashes, drowning, falls) are the leading cause of death among children. For 15–19, firearms (homicide ~55–60 percent + suicide ~35–40 percent) are the leading cause of death. Where do most gun deaths for those ages 15-19 occur? High-poverty, urban neighborhoods. Teens in these neighborhoods are 5–10 times more likely to be killed by guns than teens in low-poverty areas. Question to ask: Why doesn’t the media report this?
Governance and structural inequality are associated with all these patterns. Why would the media be reluctant to report this? Could it be that lethal violence occurs predominantly in cities governed by Democrats and that the structural inequality that lies at the root of these problems is maintained by corporate-friendly policies, such as offshoring production, mass immigration, and managing redundant populations, disproportionately black, these forces historically directed to socially disorganized inner-city neighborhoods?
Yes. And this, too: The media and Democrat politicians push an anti-gun rights narrative. Rather than inform the public about where and why gun violence is a problem, which means focusing on human agency and the social conditions that benefit the rich and powerful, they make it appear that the mere presence of guns explains high rates of lethal violence in America. This serves the interests of the corporate state, which seeks a disarmed population to advance the agenda of total control over the population.
The data are very clear on the question of guns and violence (see The Law and Order President and His Detractors—Who’s Right?; Lying With Statistics; Once More, for the People in the Back: It’s Not Guns; Guns and Control). In states with high rates of gun homicide and violence, those lawfully possessing guns, disproportionately whites, are underrepresented in gun violence. The solution to gun violence is not gun control. Indeed, if the presence of guns does not explain variability in homicide rates, and it doesn’t, then gun control measures are not merely unnecessary, but they make citizens less safe. And as I alluded to above, this is intentional.
freedom and reason 