It's the guns
In less than a week and we’ve witnessed three separate tragedies related to gun violence: a mass shooting at a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, a mass shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and the shooting of an MIT professor in his Massachusetts home. These events underscore the terrifying truth about how we live and die under the relentless threat of gun violence.
On December 13th a gunman opened fire at Brown University during an academic review session, killing two students and injuring several others. Classes were suspended as students sheltered in place, and the campus joined a growing list of American educational institutions forced to reckon with lethal violence as part of ordinary life.
On December 14, two gunmen opened fire on a crowded Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia. Australian authorities described the attack as ideologically motivated and targeted at a Jewish community gathering, resulting in 15 civilian deaths. This was the deadliest mass shooting in Australia in nearly three decades, reviving national debate about gun access in a country long cited as a model for firearm regulation.
Today, December 16, MIT physicist Nuno F. G. Loureiro, was shot and killed at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. His death is under active investigation and has shaken both local residents and colleagues across the scientific community.
These incidents land differently depending on geography. In Australia, where mass shootings have been exceedingly rare since sweeping gun reforms enacted after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, the Bondi Beach attack is treated as a national emergency and a policy failure demanding immediate response. In the United States, where mass shootings now occur with mindnumbing regularity, the response is ritualized grief followed by political stalemate.
These events underscore the terrifying truth about how we live and die under the relentless threat of gun violence.
The United States has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world, with more firearms than people. Firearm-related deaths in the U.S. far exceed those of other high-income countries, including Australia, Canada, and nations in Western Europe. While Australia’s firearm death rate typically remains below one per 100,000 people, the United States experiences gun deaths at several times that rate.
After Port Arthur in Australia, the country implemented mandatory buybacks, strict licensing, and bans on certain classes of firearms. In the decades that followed, firearm homicides and suicides declined significantly, and mass shooting events nearly vanished. Even with the Bondi Beach attack, annual gun deaths in Australia remain comparatively rare.
In contrast, the United States records tens of thousands of firearm deaths each year. Guns are now among the leading causes of death for children and adolescents. And it is a direct reflection of access.
The United States has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world, with more firearms than people.
Major professional organizations have been unequivocal in framing firearm violence as a public health emergency. The American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association have repeatedly emphasized that gun violence is preventable and that evidence-based policy interventions save lives. Both organizations explicitly reject the narrative that mental illness is the primary driver of gun violence, noting that people with psychiatric diagnoses are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.
The empirical literature consistently shows that firearm availability is a key predictor of firearm deaths, including homicide and suicide. Policies like universal background checks, waiting periods, safe storage laws, and extreme risk protection orders are associated with reductions in gun-related mortality.
From a clinical standpoint, it’s impossible to ignore the downstream effects. Survivors of shootings, witnesses, first responders, and entire communities experience elevated rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, anxiety, and moral injury. Schools and universities absorb these losses and experience enduring fear and hypervigilance.
The American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association have repeatedly emphasized that gun violence is preventable and that evidence-based policy interventions save lives.
Despite decades of research, federal gun policy in the United States remains largely paralyzed. Studies suggest that even high-profile mass shootings rarely produce durable legislative change. Research funding for firearm violence prevention has been historically suppressed, leaving clinicians and communities to manage the aftermath rather than prevent the harm.
This stagnation stands in stark contrast to countries like Australia, where political consensus following mass casualty events produced swift, structural reform. The difference comes down to political will.
Gun violence in America persists because it is tolerated.
The shootings at Brown and MIT represent a system that normalizes lethal risk as the cost of individual freedom. The tragedy in Australia, precisely because it is rare, exposes how distorted the American baseline has become.
Gun violence in America persists because it is tolerated. Treating it as a public health crisis means funding research, enacting evidence-based policy, and rejecting narratives that deflect responsibility onto mental illness or individual pathology. It means acknowledging that safety and freedom are not opposing values.
As clinicians, researchers, educators, and citizens, the question is not whether we know what works. The data are clear. The question is whether we are willing to act on what we already know, or whether we will continue to accept preventable death as the background noise of American life.
References
American Psychological Association. (2023). Gun violence prevention. https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/gun-violence-prevention
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Statement on firearm violence.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (2022). Firearm deaths by country.
Kalesan, B., et al. (2016). Firearm legislation and firearm-related fatalities in the United States. The Lancet, 387(10030), 1847–1855. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01026-0