Unlike most countries around the world, America has a deeply rooted gun culture that has caused multiple debates about gun control and legislation over the years. Multiple mass shootings have shocked Americans since the Columbine High School massacre, and the Boulder shooting is no exception to the rule. What is truly striking about this incident is the fact that the city of Boulder, Colorado, was among the first to ban assault weapons back in 2018, after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida. The restriction was, however, blocked just 10 days before the attack.
10 people were shot and killed at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder on March 22. According to the police, one of the victims was a police officer who responded to the shooting. “We’re committed with state, local, and federal authorities for a thorough investigation and we’ll bring justice to each of these families,” Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold later said. Nevertheless, while law enforcement alone can now bring justice for the victims and their families, it remains to be seen if policymakers will find a way to prevent these types of attacks.
Are Mass Shootings on the Rise?
The data provided by the Gun Violence Archive, which records gun violence and crime incidents, including mass shooting deaths, seems to show that mass shootings are on the rise. 611 mass shootings were reported in 2020, 417 in 2019, and 336 in 2018. In fact, the number of mass shootings in the US seems to have been growing steadily since 2014, peaking in 2016. Despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has substantially reduced both mobility and social interactions, 2020 is no exception to the rule. If anything, the rise seems to have been worse than ever before.
With the US enduring more public mass shootings than in any other country in the world since 2017, according to CNN, the gun dilemma seems to be getting more and more complicated as time passes. The COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment, and multiple recent protests are also factors to consider, especially when talking about the 2020 mass shootings surge. But, even with the pandemic hopefully coming to an end in 2021, there’s no guarantee that the number of mass shootings will drop. In fact, there have already been 103 mass shootings in 2021, compared to just 67 between January and March of 2020.
What Happened in Boulder
While the increase in firearm-related incidents across the US has policymakers struggling to adapt the legislation, they are also debating the meaning of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. Just 10 days prior to the King Soopers shooting, a district court ruling prevented Boulder’s ban on assault weapons from being enforced. The ban had originally been passed in 2018, after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, but was later deemed to be no more than “a scheme preempting local governments from enacting municipal firearms and magazine possession ordinances,” according to court documents.
After the King Soopers shooting, Boulder Police went on to identify the victims as Denny Strong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Eric Talley, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65. While we can’t know whether enforcing the ban would have prevented the Boulder shooting, especially with authorities recognizing it would have been difficult to enforce, debates regarding firearm availability and gun violence continue. After all, 10 people were brutally murdered in Boulder while doing their shopping or their jobs, and justice for them and their families must include a careful analysis of the mass shooting phenomena in the US as a whole.
The Aftermath
Boulder Police has also arrested the gunman, who was later identified as 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa. He was wounded during the shooting and later taken into custody by the officers at the scene. While he has already been charged with 10 counts of murder, the motives of his violent actions are largely unknown. According to Ali Aliwi Alissa, Ahmad’s 34-year-old brother, the attacker could have suffered from mental illness. His brother told CNN that Alissa was frequently bullied in school for being Muslim and that these torments may have helped reinforce his paranoid tendencies.
Regardless of the reasons behind the attack, President Joe Biden decided to opt for action and called for stricter gun legislation to be passed soon. The White House flag was lowered to half-mast for the second time in March, after the mass shooting in Atlanta that had taken place the previous week. As America grieves for the victims, policymakers seem to prepare for one of the biggest changes in gun legislation in recent years.
