Gun violence remains one of the most divisive and emotionally charged topics in America. While the conversation often spirals into partisan talking points, meaningful solutions remain elusive.
William Kirk of Washington Gun Law recently tackled this uncomfortable discussion head-on, using hard data to shed light on the complexities surrounding gun-related violence in the United States.
Table of contents
- The Data Doesn’t Lie
- Who Are the Perpetrators?
- A State-Level Case Study: Louisiana
- The Age and Gender Factor
- Honest Conversations Are the First Step
- Moving Forward
The Data Doesn’t Lie
Relying on statistics from the CDC and FBI, Kirk highlighted a stark reality: America’s gun violence problem isn’t evenly distributed across demographics.
- White Americans: 2.8 homicides per 100,000 people
- Asian Americans: 1.7 per 100,000
- Hispanic Americans: 7.1 per 100,000
- Native Americans: 13.6 per 100,000
- African Americans: 28.6 per 100,000
These numbers reveal a critical disparity. Some communities face violence levels comparable to war-torn regions, while others live with far lower risks.
Who Are the Perpetrators?
The FBI data paints an equally grim picture:
- 81% of white victims were killed by white perpetrators.
- 89% of African-American victims were killed by African-American perpetrators.
This isn’t just a “gun problem”—it’s a societal problem deeply intertwined with poverty, systemic issues, and community breakdowns.
A State-Level Case Study: Louisiana
Louisiana consistently ranks among the states with the highest gun-related homicides. In 2023:
- 89 white individuals were killed by firearms (3.4 per 100,000).
- 626 African-Americans were killed (42.4 per 100,000).
The numbers beg the question: Are loose gun laws the issue, or are there deeper social and economic factors at play?
The Age and Gender Factor
Among African-American males, the risk of gun-related homicide skyrockets during adolescence and early adulthood:
- Ages 15–24: 100 per 100,000
- Ages 25–34: 86.2 per 100,000
These aren’t just numbers—they represent lives cut short and communities in perpetual grief.
Honest Conversations Are the First Step
As Kirk rightly points out, we can’t solve a problem we’re unwilling to discuss honestly. The conversation about gun violence needs to move past surface-level debates about firearms and dive into the root causes—poverty, family structure, education, and community support.
As Kirk says:
And there is no issue in America that we do a worse job of trying to discuss and resolve than when it comes to race. And while that problem used to be blamed on many on the right for their unwillingness to have an open mind, it’s now really the blame shifts mostly to those on the left who believe that anyone who doesn’t see the world exactly according to them is obviously racist, misogynistic, or homophobic.
But like I said earlier, if the CDC suddenly had a huge press conference about an alarming rise in stomach cancer, and then yet you find out that they were doing nothing to investigate what was causing that stomach cancer, well then you’d beg the question: are we ever going to solve this problem?
And that is the exact problem that America comes to when we talk about gun violence, or more importantly, the ugly and inescapable truth about gun violence.
Moving Forward
It’s time to stop ignoring the data and start having hard conversations. Whether or not you agree with every point raised, the numbers demand attention. If we continue to sidestep these uncomfortable truths, we’ll remain stuck in a cycle of violence with no end in sight.
For those interested in diving deeper, check out the full article Kiirk references by Kostas Moros and follow him on Twitter for more sharp insights.
Find the original article on GunsAmerica.
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But does not all the governmental and media attention garnered by such horrible statistics tend to lead to rulers’ wanting to disarm the population? Would doing so alleviate the problem? As I have said a time or two, outlaw guns and only outlaws will have guns. Governmental disarming of the populace has been tried … by despotics. Repeatedly. Even murder with guns (execution), by the way by despotics, has been tried for controlling gun violence in third-world nations. Let us take vehicles. They have been used, even recently … yesterday, 1/1/2025, in New Orleans … to commit murder. Should we then outlaw vehicles? How about bananas? And billiard balls? They, too, have been used to commit murder. And how about pillows? And syringes? Kirk has it right — it is a societal problem, not a gun problem. Addressing and curing why people kill would likely “fix” the problem. But the likelihood of that happening, let alone being successful, is akin to a frozen orb of dihydrogen monoxide surviving an excursion unscathed through the subterranean realm of exceeding exothermic energy. But as long as people want to kill, they will find a way. Maybe we should outlaw thought as well … yeah … establish and arm a force of Thought Police! As the world has evolved (or maybe DEvolved), it seems that as long as there are two people on the planet, there will be some form of warfare. There will be friction of some form. Kirk addressed societal bitterness as the real problem quite pointedly … and accurately. In my opinion.
There is one factor missing from this report; How many of the perpetrators were on a psychotropic drug? I am also referring to drugs that cause thoughts of suicide, and there are about 200 or more of them.
This guy must be joking. Fentenyl killed excatly twice the number of soldiers killed in vett nam over 9 years , buy double in 2023 . Thats right 116 k from fentenyl the biowarfare weapon used by our enemies ( china and mexico) and enabled by democrats , but his concern is gun violence instead. Can you say ClownTown !!! What a fool !!! Oh wait the left is dieing to disarm Americans so that can have total control over We the People.
2 things immediately come to mind. 1) there no such thing as ‘gun violence’ since people commit the violence regardless of the tool used. Perhaps a compare/contrast article citing all other murders using other tools is in order. I’ll stipulate that a murder attempt with a firearm is more likely to be fatal. 2) As was inferred in the article until we as a (supposedly) civilized society quit dancing around the elephants (yes there are more than one, y’all can figure them out) in the room there will not be a resolution to the violence problem.