Ban sale of semi-automatic weapons

I recently met with American students in Madrid who were discussing the causes of gun violence, and how to address the problem. In addition to the availability of guns, some of the usual suspects emerged in the discussion, such as mental health, gun violence in mass entertainment, social media.

During the discussion we consulted statistics about the numbers of gun deaths in the United States and Spain. The latest good numbers we found show about 48,000 deaths from guns in the U.S. in 2022, of which 27,000 were suicides. In Spain that year there were 50 total deaths from firearms; 15 were from suicides. Spain’s population is roughly one-seventh that of the United States. The rate of gun deaths here is less than 1% of America’s.

It’s fair to say that media violence reaches Europe in pretty much the same ways as where it is produced. Audiences in Spain see the same content you do. Social media use also appears to be similar in Europe and the United States. Perhaps there are more mental health issues in America, but that is pretty hard to pin down.

That leaves us with the availability of firearms, which is easy in the United States and very complicated in Spain, and nearly all of Europe. There was a mass shooting in Sweden a few weeks ago, where gun ownership is much higher than in most European countries. The immediate reaction has been a move to ban the sale of semi-automatic weapons.

Erik Baum

Cedar Falls native

Madrid, Spain