Comment: Concerned for U.S. murder rate? Focus on gun safety

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, November 9, 2022

By Michael R. Bloomberg / Bloomberg Opinion

The attempted kidnapping of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — in which a delusional, hammer-wielding assailant broke into her home and left her husband, Paul, severely wounded — was a heinous and despicable act that reflects an increasingly toxic U.S. political culture. But it reflects something else, too: a nation that leads the developed world in murder.

No other high-income country even approaches the U.S. murder rate, and the primary reason is simple: No other country makes it so easy for dangerous people to acquire guns; and to carry them, without any safety training requirements. Knives, of course, can kill people. So can hammers. But they are far less likely to kill their targets, to kill innocent bystanders, to kill children who stumble across them, to kill people who are gathered in schools, malls, theaters, houses of worship and other public places; or to kill people in their own homes.

The fact is: Paul Pelosi is likely alive because his assailant did not have a gun.

Republicans have been quick to blame any number of possible factors for this incident, some bordering on the delusional, and ignore the accused man’s reported descent into MAGA conspiracy land. But the fact is, the U.S. is uniquely susceptible to violent incidents of this kind; and the Pelosis are lucky that they avoided the all-too-common fate of other victims in similar circumstances.

Speaker Pelosi has been a strong champion of gun-safety legislation. But many common-sense measures — such as closing the loopholes that allow guns to be sold without background checks and requiring people to complete a safety course before buying a gun — have been blocked by members of Congress who do the bidding of the gun industry and its lobbyists, who are more interested in maximizing profits from gun sales than protecting the public from violent crime.

Unfortunately, many of those who rightly expressed outrage at the attempted attack on Speaker Pelosi are snugly in the pocket of the gun lobby. They are willing to speak out against an attack on a colleague, but what about the 67 people who are murdered every day in the U.S., 53 of them with guns? Where is their outrage? And more important: Where is their courage?

Instead of bucking the gun lobby to take on the primary problem — the lack of basic gun-safety laws — many of them instead say: Punish the perpetrators. And by all means, throw the book at them. But punishment doesn’t bring anyone back from the dead. It doesn’t spare loved ones from decades of grief. And there is no evidence whatsoever that states with the toughest sentencing laws, including the death penalty, have lower murder rates.

In fact, a recent report showed that 9 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates have Republican legislatures and the death penalty. When someone is considering murder, they don’t stop and ponder the particulars of the penal code and rationally weigh the costs and benefits of putting a bullet in someone’s head. Get real.

The fact is: Communities across the country are dealing with tragic episodes of violent crime every day, and the victims rarely make the national news. In many places, murder rates are still far higher than they were before the pandemic, and voters are understandably frustrated with politicians who aren’t doing anything about it. But promising to be tough on crime without being smart on gun safety is just bloviating; and it’s a cynical evasion of the problem for political purposes that will cost innocent people their lives and produce untold sadness and hardship.

Thank goodness Nancy Pelosi was not home, Paul Pelosi appears to be slowly recovering, and the assailant did not have a gun. But every year, tens of thousands of people are not so “fortunate.” Voters should demand that elected officials be just as alarmed and outspoken about violence directed at average Americans as they are about violence directed at themselves.

Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, and chair of the Defense Innovation Board. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion