The Future Of Gun Culture After Texas Shooting

 

The 27th shooting in schools this year occurred at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two adults were slain. The shooter in Tuesday’s events, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, was dead.

This is the bloodiest school massacre since 2012, when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 26 children as young as six years old. And the number of people killed was more than in the 2018 attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead.

Robb Elementary educates kids in grades 2 through 4 in Uvalde, a predominantly Latino hamlet about 85 miles south of San Antonio.

This comes just ten days after ten people were killed in a shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Politicians, activists, the news media, and regular citizens frequently quote figures in the emotionally charged aftermath of school shootings, which can provide a skewed image of how many of these instances occur. These figures are used to stoke ongoing discussions about gun regulation, teacher arming, and school safety.

Inside the American Gun Culture

The United States is one of only three countries with a constitution that guarantees gun ownership. (The other two countries are Mexico and Guatemala.) The Second Amendment, which guarantees the right “of the people to keep and bear weapons,” was enacted in the 18th century to allow states to raise militias to defend themselves against federal despotism. The US Supreme Court concluded in 2008 that the amendment also protects individual gun rights. Aside from the legalities, gun culture in America has become a cultural icon in the U.S. Soldiers in the Revolutionary War and cowboys roaming the Wild West used it as a weapon.

Assault weapons, or semiautomatic rifles that shoot rounds in rapid succession, have recently acquired favour among both law-abiding gun owners and mass killers. Although less common, mass shootings in other countries have sparked debates about legislation. In early 2019, a massacre of 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand forced a change in the country’s gun regulations.

Accidents involving firearms are a common occurrence in the United States

Between 1968 and 2017, there were 1.5 million of them, which is more than the number of soldiers killed in any US combat since the American War for Independence in 1775.

More than 45,000 more Americans died at the end of a gun barrel in 2020 than in any other year on record, whether by homicide or suicide. The statistics indicate a 25% increase over the previous five years and a 43% increase over 2010.

However, the topic is a polarising one, putting proponents of gun control against others who are adamant about exercising their constitutionally protected right to keep and carry guns.

Political Aftermath

After lawmakers returned home from the 2019 legislative session, Texas was once again shocked by a racist attack at an El Paso Walmart, which killed 23 people and injured dozens more. At the time, the shooter informed authorities that he chose the spot because of its proximity to the border and that he was especially targeting Mexicans. He’s been charged with a federal hate crime, but he hasn’t been tried yet.

State leaders gathered hastily once more to consider alternative remedies.

A gunman killed seven people and injured 22 others while driving through Odessa and Midland a few weeks later before lawmakers could even offer comments.

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Aftermath Of Gun Violence: Future Of Domestic Gun Industry In U.S.

 

Following a racist shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, earlier this month, and Tuesday's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, weapons have resurfaced as a political hot topic.

Since the deadly school shooting in Texas that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers, the stock prices of a number of prominent US gun manufacturers have surged.

Smith & Wesson Brands has gained over 10% in the last five days, tracking the gains of other manufacturers such as Ammo Inc (up 12.6%), Sturm Ruger (up 5.64%), and ammunition manufacturer Olin (up 23.5 % over the past month).

FiveThirtyEight looked at polling and media data to show how support for gun laws has arisen in the wake of intensive media coverage of previous school shootings but has since reverted to the previous mean as the media emphasis has shifted to other concerns. We looked at the coverage of two school shootings in 2018 to see how it correlated with shifts in public support for stricter gun laws. We looked at data from the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018, and Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, on May 18, 2018.

Guns made in the United States.

The number of weapons manufactured in the United States has surged dramatically. In the years leading up to the recent spike in gun deaths and shooting events, domestic gun manufacturing exploded.

According to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, annual gun production ranged between 3 million and 4 million between 1988 and 1992.

Fast forward to 2009, when for the first time during President Bill Clinton's presidency, more than 5 million weapons were manufactured. Since then, the number of guns manufactured has climbed for more years than it has declined, reaching a high of 11 million in 2016.

Reasons For The Spike In Gun Sales

Any societal anxiety can result in a sales increase.

However, "turbulence" in US politics and society could result in an increase in gun purchases.

It can be applied to a wide range of insecurities and anxieties.  As we witnessed during the pandemic how Covid-19 spikes the gun sale in USA, after any significant disruption—riots, protests—there are increases,

We saw more black women buying weapons for the first time to protect themselves under the Trump administration and increased allegations of bigotry.

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Why Modularity Is the King When It Comes To The AR-15

 The AR-15 is the most popular semi-auto rifle in the country – likely the world. AR’s offer the consumer choice, balance, value, and versatility, all while championing that concept of America at its core. But the biggest reason for its popularity is that you can make it your own.

You can customize it until you run out of money or gain uncanny willpower. You can make it into something that no other AR owner has if you want to.

From the simplest AR conversion upper to the pick-every-piece custom build, made for a specific niche use case, the AR is the rifle that you look to when you want to build something special with your unique signature.

And the AR is approachable enough, without being a gunsmith, or even an armorer, that many, if not most people can build their own, safely.

Why is it so easy to build or customize? Because it’s modular and made to a specification that allows for drop-in components. Let’s dive a bit deeper – in this article the point is to uncover why the modular AR platform is so desirable and get your wheels turning.

Does the AR 15 equal Freedom? The Freedoms espoused in the concept of a modular build rifle Choice trumps everything generally speaking, in the free market system. And America is all about freedom. We wrote it in the Constitution. We take every opportunity to espouse those rights, too.

Ask any American about freedom, and regardless of their place on the political spectrum, you’ll hear about the 1st or 2nd Amendment, or the 4th, or the 10th, or some other proof that it’s part of our DNA.

When you have a platform that allows you to decide, you are championing freedom. But with freedom comes great responsibility. That’s why websites like this, and articles like this, exist. Because no one wants to mess up an expensive AR build.

Or miss out on a piece of technology or a customized accessory that just hit the market or some configuration that makes incredible sense for their situation.

You can build it as your best friend built theirs. Or you can make their build look obsolete by comparison. It’s up to you, and your wallet. But ultimately the buck stops with you.

Who doesn’t want more choice, and constant evolution until perfection is reached?

The market evolves too. Once upon a time, there were conversion kits that didn’t run reliably when you dropped them on top of an AR lower. There once was only a single aftermarket trigger for the AR, in a sea of mass-produced mil-spec drop-in replacements made by military contract producers.

Once upon a time, the .50 Beowulf and the 6.5 Creedmoor, and the .300BLK didn’t exist. And while it’s hard to imagine a world where you don’t have cinder block destroying, car door-busting power in a compact carbine platform; or 1000+ yard tack-driving performance out of a 22-inch barreled AR, or whisper-soft muzzle exits from a .30 Cal, it was once his way.

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