An all too familiar refrain — “It’s not the guns” —dominates the news cycles in the aftermath of mass shootings such as those in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas. Mass shootings are but one form of gun violence occurring in the US, from armed robbery, unintentional discharge and domestic violence to altercations with law enforcement. As a result, an average of 40 people a day are killed by a firearm and, by the end of this year, gun violence will have claimed the lives of more than 14,000 people — excluding nearly 22,000 suicides by firearm. To put that number into perspective, the number of gun deaths in 2019 alone is already greater than the number of US soldiers who have died in combat since the 1958 Lebanon Crisis until now. Civilians gun deaths far eclipse the number of war dead — meaning heartland America is more deadly than any warzone the US military has engaged in for over 60 years. The statistics are alarming, the stories are horrifying and the aftermath is suffocating despair. The US population is about 330 million, but there are more than 390 million civilian-owned firearms, concentrated in 42 percent of gun-owning households — which is an average of 8 guns per household. In fact, while 4 percent of the world’s population lives there, the US owns nearly half of the entire global stock of civilian firearms. It is difficult to summarize why Americans are obsessed with guns. The Revolutionary War of 1775 and the Civil War in 1861 offer a historical background, much of it rooted in distrust of government that persists to this day and the need for a deterrent to tyranny. These motivations led to the crafting of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees citizens the right to bear arms, and its incorporation into the Bill of Rights in 1791. A lot has happened since then, particularly an evolving fear of the “other” — from Native Americans to emancipated black slaves, post-First World War European immigrants, armed gangsters and crime lords in the Depression and Prohibition Era, communists after the Second World War; desegregated and enfranchised African-Americans in the 1960s; Muslims after 9/11, and now “illegal aliens.” Some of these fears are now entwined with religious and political beliefs, making it more difficult to root out the sort of polarization that has brought about an increase in firearms ownership over dialogue and reconciliation. One of the leading voices behind increased gun ownership with sufficient clout to influence legislative agendas and political campaigns is the National Rifle Association (NRA). Founded in 1871 as a governing body for shooting sports, it has evolved into a behemoth that claims to protect its 5 million members from infringements on their Second Amendment rights. In a society strained by tension and widening rifts, any talk of gun control or reform is seen as a threat to individual liberties, owing to the NRA’s highly effective lobbying and public outreach campaigns. Such influence is not cheap; in 2016, the NRA and its affiliates spent more than $50 million to secure a Republican majority in Congress and the election of Donald Trump. In return, the group can successfully lobby Congress to defund research into gun violence and prevent federal agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from advocating or promoting gun reforms. Despite the frequency of mass shootings, proponents of gun control are unable to gain any traction toward meaningful reform. This is mostly because of the NRA’s work to dilute and/or create loopholes in gun control legislation and to publicize ways to exploit those loopholes, effectively undermining the reforms. As a result, it remains possible and legal to possess dangerous military-style weapons capable of firing many rounds per second. Reclassifying civilian firearms or any attempt to increase barriers to ownership, such as raising the minimum age to own a firearm, conducting more extensive background checks or maintaining gun ownership databases are heavily opposed by the NRA and representatives it backs in Congress and in state legislatures. To the NRA, mass shootings are simply the price of freedom to own firearms guaranteed by the Constitution. Gun violence is repeatedly excused as a byproduct of violent video games while mass shooters are dismissed as mentally ill — stigmatizing yet another group in an already divided country. It is a bitter pill to swallow for families of victims and shocked communities burdened by grief, but a permanent gun culture has long since taken root in the US and is likely never to disappear, even if a nexus forms where the obsession with firearms meets white supremacist rhetoric. The former is aided by an influential gun rights lobby, while much of the media excuses, dilutes or equivocates the latter as a legitimate part of national political discourse. Despite the frequency of mass shootings, proponents of gun control are unable to gain any traction toward meaningful reform. Hafed Al-Ghwell This cultural tip-toeing around guns now has parents buying their children bulletproof school bags. It is particularly haunting watching children as young as 6 practicing active shooter drills, in lockstep with a ghoulish song reminding them to hide under desks and barricade themselves in their classrooms. Politicians, backed by the NRA’s not-so-subtle talking points, pile on with legislation to arm teachers and deploy more armed security guards in schools, shopping malls and other public spaces. In other words, their solution to gun violence and mass killings is more guns. It is a ludicrous conclusion given the preponderance of evidence across the developed world that reforms actually work, from the UK to Australia, New Zealand and even neighboring Canada. However, it does reflect just how deeply embedded the obsession with firearms has become in the US, where no amount of deaths, injuries and trauma will initiate a reckoning — only further calls to arm every civilian, including the mentally ill. Ultimately, a land awash in firearms has bred a new kind of division. Nihilists will claim nothing matters and nothing will change. Constitutionalists will rebut that guns are a primary defense against a tyrannical government as originally intended by the Founding Fathers. Optimists lean heavily toward an impossible confiscation of nearly 400 million firearms. The cynics shrug that something else will replace guns, while the conspiratorial settle on fears that repealing the Second Amendment will be a slippery slope that could lead to the federal government infringing on other constitutional rights. Meanwhile, known adversaries such as Daesh are instructing potential lone wolves to exploit America’s lax gun laws so they can amass firearms to use in attacks on civilians. There is no simple solution to this crisis other than a whole-of-society approach, which is already impossible given the tense and divisive political climate, created by a president who seems to thrive on polarization rather than unity. However, unity is exactly what America needs to cure it of this social ill, beginning with the occupant of the highest office in the country down to each and every individual, regardless of demographics, politics or religion. There may be some lessons from history, but America will always find itself imprisoned by a conflict with dangerous ideologies and those drunk on their own vitriol. It is these same individuals who find new purpose and a sense of mission from a troubled belief that the only fault with the past is that America departed from it and has no desire for a re-enactment. Guns meant to safeguard the republic from tyranny by wayward authoritarians have become lethal tools to carry out that mission. It is perhaps this frightening reality that will drive gun reform back to the top of the national discourse when Americans head to the polls next year. The story of America’s gun culture offers very powerful lessons for the rest of the world.