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Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval speaks during an event in June. P H O T O : C I T Y O F C I N C I N N AT I
Cincinnati Mayor on Gun Massacres: State Leaders Stand in the Way of Action “There is a fundamental disconnect between the problem on our streets and the solutions being advocated at the federal and state level.” BY A L L I S O N BA B K A
M
ayors of big cities across the United States – including Cincinnati – are pleading with state and federal officials to finally address the onslaught of gun violence throughout the country. Just days after yet another violent
shooting, officials met at the annual United States Conference of Mayors in Reno to determine what, if anything, could be done about the massacres. But one of the big problems, they say, is that state legislators – particularly in Republican-controlled states like Ohio
– prevent even modest gun-control or violence-reduction proposals from going to a vote or even getting discussion, or they actively pass measures that block local governments from passing their own safety laws. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval was in Reno for the conference, which ran June 3-6. “We’re doing everything we can at the local level, partnering with the Department of Justice, ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) with our local law enforcement to prevent the importation of illegal guns,” Pureval tells Steve Inskeep, host of NPR’s Morning Edition, in an interview released June 7. “But the fact of the matter is there are now more guns than people in our country, and it’s creating an arms race where people don’t feel safe unless they have a gun. So guns beget more guns, which unfortunately makes us all unsafe.”
A rise in gun ownership and violence In 2000, there were three activeshooter, multiple-victim incidents in the United States; in 2020, there were 40, data shows. And in 2020, firearms were the leading cause of death for children throughout the nation. Small Arms Survey, a research project in Switzerland, estimates that there are 390 million guns circulating around the globe. It also estimates that the United States has about 120.5 firearms per 100 residents. The country next on the list is conflict-ridden Yemen, which has “just” 52.8 firearms per 100 people. Gun murders continue to climb throughout the United States. “The 19,384 gun murders that took place in 2020 were the most since at least 1968, exceeding the previous peak of 18,253 recorded by the CDC in 1993. The 2020 total represented a 34% increase from the year before, a 49% increase over five years and a 75% increase over 10 years,” Pew Research Center says. And research from the Centers for Disease
JUNE 15, 2022 - JUNE 28, 2022
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