A sign is displayed in Lewiston, Maine, on October 27, 2023, in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a bowling alley and restaurant. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Viewpoint

POV: Again and Again. Mass Shootings Continue Unabated in the United States

The mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine is the latest example of a uniquely American tragedy, writes Dean Sandro Galea in an updated commentary.

A version of this article originally appeared in BU Today. Viewpoint articles are written by members of the SPH community from a wide diversity of perspectives. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University or the School of Public Health. We aspire to a culture where all can express views in a context of civility and respect. Our guidance on the values that guide our commitment can be found at Revisiting the Principles of Free and Inclusive Academic Speech.

On Wednesday, a gunman killed at least 18 people and injured at least 13 in a series of shootings in Lewiston, Maine. As of this writing, the gunman is still at large and the community in and around Lewiston has been urged to shelter in place, with many businesses and schools closed. The shooting is the latest in a country where such tragedies have become sadly routine. There have been over 560 mass shootings in the US so far this year. Over 35,200 people have been killed by guns, and over 30,600 have been injured by them in 2023. Mass shootings this year include a shooting in Goshen, CA, which killed six people, a shooting in Monterey Park, CA, which killed 11 people, and a shooting in Half Moon Bay, CA, which killed seven people.

Mass shootings touch the lives of those who had previously, like most of us, looked at the gun violence epidemic from the outside. And yet these mass shootings all are part of a long-term, familiar dynamic, a broken status quo we have not yet been able to fix. Over the past decade we have heard an increasing drumbeat of “thoughts and prayers” from politicians, a growing outcry on social media, and yet we continue to have more gun violence deaths and injuries than ever before, punctuated by periodic mass shootings that penetrate the public consciousness. And so, again and again, we search for words that can find meaning, that can shift our thinking. But perhaps there is little new to say, because the arguments have been made, and what is left is for us to act. I went back and looked at what I have said over the past eight years about the topic, since becoming dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. And in many ways what I have said over time still holds today, all of it. The headlines, the stories, are the same. We have been living these stories over and over.

I have long admired the writing of Nicholas Kristof on guns, finding it reflects a pragmatic, data-informed approach to this problem. In a recent piece, he wrote:

“Public health mostly is not about one big thing but about a million small things. To reduce auto deaths, seatbelts and airbags helped, and so did padded dashboards, crash testing, streetlights, highway dividers, crackdowns on drunken driving and zillions of tiny steps such as those bumps in the highway to help keep dozing drivers from drifting off the road.

Likewise, we need countless other steps to address gun violence…”

I agree. It has been a long process to shape an awareness that gun violence is a public health problem, one that is subject to public health solutions. Now that this awareness is more widely shared, it is on us to continue to apply a public health approach, focused on harm reduction, even as broader solutions, such as national gun bans, remain elusive. This incremental approach, while at times frustratingly slow, can yield small wins which add up to meaningful change. As Kristof notes, we have successfully applied such an approach to creating safer roads, doing so not by banning cars, but through a gradual process of regulation which has raised safety standards for every aspect of driving. We can do the same with guns. Indeed, in some places we already are. In Massachusetts, for example, we have one of the lowest rates of gun violence in the country. We achieved this through a process of commonsense reform, including banning military-style assault weapons, requiring universal safe storage laws for guns, and the thoughtful regulation of the gun industry. The Massachusetts model, if widely adopted, could help guide the nation in making similar reforms, building on the progress we have made towards a future without the threat of guns.      

It may seem perhaps inappropriate to talk about this progress so soon after yet another mass shooting. Yet it is at precisely such times—when we are tempted to despair, to imagine that there is nothing we can do to solve this problem—that we must recognize the progress that generates hope, that shows we can make a difference. We must push back against the feeling that would have us give up just when years of patient effort have started to bear fruit. There is much we can do, much we are doing. We are not powerless in the face of gun violence. We need to stay the course, building on the progress we have made. While our steps may be modest, they are moving us in the right direction towards a world where we no longer see headlines like the one that confronted us this week.