Recent mass shootings remind us of the continued widespread harm firearms inflict on modern life
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD — opinon@theaggie.org
As many families gathered and enjoyed the Thanksgiving weekend, too many across the nation were forced to face the consequences of gun violence.
In Washington D.C., a shooting against two members of the National Guard on Thanksgiving Eve left 20-year-old Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom dead and Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolf in serious condition.
In California, a shooting on Black Friday at the Valley Fair Mall in San Jose injured three. A 17-year-old suspect has been identified by police, who have said the shooting during the busiest shopping day of the year was “gang-motivated.”
And, on Saturday, a shooting at a 2-year-old’s birthday party in Stockton left 11 injured and four dead, including three minors; the victims were aged 8, 9, 14 and 21.
The individual circumstances in each incident are different, and the Editorial Board is by no means trying to conflate these unique scenarios and tragedies into one nondistinct event. What we do recognize is that gun violence — and the culture around it — remains pernicious in American society.
As of Dec. 1, there have been 13,501 shooting fatalities in the United States in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA). The U.S. gun homicide rate is 26 times that of similar high-income countries, and the GVA counts 380 mass shootings in the country so far this year. As of 2022, the U.S. had 121 firearms for every 100 residents.
The role of the Second Amendment of the Constitution — the right to bear arms — remains complicated. Most Americans agree that there should be stricter gun control laws, with 61% of those surveyed saying that it is too easy to legally obtain a firearm, according to a 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center. Around half said that they view gun violence as a major problem.
Instead of taking decisive action against the leading cause of death of children in America, President Donald Trump has instead decided to take retribution on the millions of migrants seeking entry into the U.S. and shift focus away from firearm regulation. His argument stems from the fact that the National Guard shooter is an Afghan national, granted asylum to the U.S. after the country’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The latest changes to immigration policy have been sweeping and swift. They include bars on issuing visas to Afghan nationals, a pause on new asylum claims and a revised green card vetting process. The Trump administration had previously made plans to reassess the asylum claims of refugees made under President Joe Biden.
These policy changes may just be the beginning. In a statement on social media on Monday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem called for a “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
It is clear that the administration’s actions are misguided and opportunistic. Rather than whole-heartedly addressing gun control through new policies or executive orders, the President has instead chosen to further the anti-migrant, xenophobic rhetoric which has become synonymous with his time in office.
The Editorial Board condemns the federal government’s blatant attempts to manipulate the narrative and wrongfully place blame on vulnerable communities in the U.S. Instead of addressing the root causes of gun violence and the system that perpetuates it, the administration has prioritized scapegoating entire demographics and upholding white supremacist ideologies that are becoming far too common.
“The annual chance of being injured by a foreign-born mass shooter was about 1 in 94.7 million, and the chance of being injured by a native-born shooter was about 1 in 6.9 million per year,” a Cato Institute study reads. “About 14.4 percent of mass shooters were foreign-born, and they were responsible for 13.3 percent of murders, roughly in line with their share of the population, and 6.8 percent of injuries in mass shootings, roughly half their share of the population.”
The answer to curtailing gun violence resides within our borders — not outside them. Stricter gun legislation, background checks and safer gun policies have proven effective; in states where stricter gun safety laws have been passed, fewer individuals fall victim to gun violence, according to analysis by Everytown Research. In countries with stricter gun ownership laws, gun homicides are extremely rare — in Japan, a country which boasts highly restrictive firearm regulations, the rate of gun violence is the lowest in the world.
In the U.S., there is still much work to be done. Even one of the states leading in gun violence prevention laws, California, saw two of the mass shootings that occurred over the weekend. As we move into the holiday season, let us remember that — if we really care about our neighbors, children and friends — we should work to protect them. Be cautious of racist and transphobic propaganda spread by the administration, stay engaged in local and state politics and continue to advocate for improved safety measures.
Written by: The Editorial Board — opinon@theaggie.org
