Two major shootings have occurred within the last month: one in Atlanta, Georgia, and another in Boulder, Colorado. These shootings have brought up the same conversations around gun control that have been going on since the Columbine shooting, a shooting in an elementary school in 1999. Gun control has since become a bipartisan issue. Democrats argue for “common sense” gun control legislation, such as stricter background checks and bans on assault rifles, while Republicans argue that any more restrictions infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms. I think that gun control is a good short term solution. It can save lives. I also think it has serious issues and will not stop the root of mass shootings in the end.

A popular Republican argument against gun control is that people will find a way to get firearms anyway, whether that be illegally or from another state. They believe people are the root of shootings, and that gun control is therefore ineffective. I somewhat agree with this idea, as I don’t think gun control alone is effective. However, I think a lot of Republicans stop at this idea and use it as a reason as to why mass shootings cannot be stopped, instead of digging into the issues that create the sort of country where we see mass shootings as inevitable.

I think Democrats, who often are pro-gun control, fail to actually listen to the issues with it, whether gun control’s shortcomings be brought up by conservatives or socialists. Gun control isn’t going to end the culture of white supremacy and patriarchy that has created hundreds of mass shootings a year and thousands of deaths due to gun violence.

The argument often used by both parties that mental health plays a factor in mass shootings seem insensitive to me. It stigmatizes mental health issues unnecessarily. In reality, mentally ill people, even sociopaths, are equally as likely to commit violent crime as the mentally healthy as determined by Harvard Medical School. When they do commit crimes, the crime tends to be more violent, but it is not more common. This argument simply distracts the public from actual solutions and the fundamental problems.

 Overall, I think mass shootings and gun violence are often products of white supremacy and male entitlement. This is especially prevalent in the aforementioned Atlanta shooting. A white man attacked a salon that he knew would have specifically Asian women working. News reports said he claimed to have a sex addiction. Essentially, he saw Asian women not as humans, but a temptation that he must remove. There was speculation that he fetishized Asian women and therefore that led to his decision to kill them, as he saw them as objects he needed to remove from temptation. If this is true, it makes a very compelling argument that white supremacy causes mass shootings. Even if it is not, this was racially motivated and a white man shot members of a minority group, which also signals attitudes of white supremacy.

In cases like the recent Boulder shooting, with no clear motive, gun control would be an adequate solution. Because the man was able to purchase a gun only six days before the shooting, a waiting period that could have stopped him would have been vital. The laws in Colorado do not include a waiting period, so gun control seems to be the solution. In some cases like this one, gun control does work by itself.

 However, there are also valid concerns about how gun control laws would be implemented. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that in America, it is very possible that gun control laws would be discriminatory and could be disproportionately used to convict minorities. The statistics of a regarding Black people for drug offenses supports this claim. Today, 62.7% of drug offenders in state prison are Black despite being 13% of the population and using drugs at similar rates to white people, as found by the Human Rights Watch. When airport safety became a concern, randomized checks were disproportionately used against Muslims, and Muslims are still racially profiled in the name of “safety”(Washington Post). Gun control laws have the potential to be unevenly enforced and weaponized against People of Color. The fact that this could be used against minorities and create even more of a power imbalance must be seriously considered.

The way to stop mass shootings isn’t just gun control and it certainly isn’t just to accept that this is the way it has to be. Gun control is part of it. It can save lives quickly. But we can’t just increase regulation and ban assault weapons; we need to research the mindset behind the culture that breeds mass shootings. We need to dismantle white supremacy and patriarchy through extreme social reform to stop mass shootings.