The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-27)

FRIDAY, MAY 27 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

Texas school shooting

BY AARON GREGG

Some of America’s largest gun
and ammunition makers have
seen their stock prices swell since
the massacre this week at a Texas
elementary school.
Smith & Wesson Brands stock
has climbed 8.4 percent in the two
days since 19 children and two
teachers were fatally shot at the
school in Uvalde, Tex., while
Sturm, Ruger & Co., has jumped
about 5.7 percent, and ammuni-
tion maker Olin 3.8 percent.
Meanwhile, Ammo Inc. has
jumped more than 12 percent in
the past week; the Arizona-based
maker of ammunition and compo-
nents also owns GunBroker.com,
which it bills as the largest online
marketplace for the firearms and
shooting sports industries.
Such upswings are not uncom-
mon after a mass shooting or any
event that puts gun control in the
political spotlight, in the view that
there will be a rush on guns, am-
munition and accessories in ad-
vance of any effort to limit access.
Smith & Wesson, for example,
spiked 20 percent after a gunman
killed 49 people at an Orlando
nightclub in 2016. The company’s
stock price also climbed sharply in
the first half of 2021, a possible
reaction to Democrats taking con-
trol of the presidency and both
houses of Congress.
President Biden, in an address
Tuesday expressing grief and out-
rage over the latest mass shooting,
criticized lawmakers for not pass-
ing stronger gun laws.
“As a nation we have to ask:

When in God’s name are we going

to stand up to the gun lobby?” he

said.

House Democrats passed two

bills in March 2021 meant to ex-

pand background checks for gun

buyers. The first would have elimi-

nated a provision known as the

“Charleston loophole,” named for

a 2015 massacre in South Carolina,

that allows a gun sale to proceed

when a background check can’t be

completed after three days. The

second would eliminate the so-

called “gun show loophole,” which

allows buyers to forgo a review

when buying from private sellers

at a gun show or online.

Neither bill has been put to a

vote in the Senate, though sweep-

ing gun-control measures have

generally failed to gain much trac-

tion in that chamber. Senate Mi-

nority Leader Mitch McConnell

(R-Ky.), in floor remarks on

Wednesday, said the Texas shoot-

ing was the work of a “deranged

young man” without mentioning

any specific legislative action.

The National Shooting Sports

Foundation, a trade association

representing the firearms indus-

try, issued a lengthy statement af-

ter Tuesday’s mass shooting,

which it attributed to “irrational

acts of a depraved individual.”

It said it would advocate solu-

tions to prevent unauthorized ac-

cess to firearms by criminals, mi-

nors, the “dangerously mentally

ill” and others who might not be

able to operate a firearm safely.

“We will continue to lead and par-

ticipate in finding and enhancing

practical solutions that protect

lives and preserve the rights of

law-abiding Americans,” the or-

ganization wrote in an unsigned

statement.

Authorities said the gunman

was a troubled 18-year-old who

legally purchased two semiauto-

matic rifles and 375 rounds of am-

munition before the attack. He

was killed by law enforcement.

Gun manufacturers have come

under legal pressure when their

products are used in mass-

casualty events. In a 2004 settle-

ment, Bushmaster Firearms

agreed to pay $2.5 million to the

families of six people slain in

the D.C. sniper attacks two years

earlier.

In February, Remington Arms,

the maker of the Bushmaster AR-

15-style rifle, reached a $73 million

settlement with the families of

nine of the victims of the 2012

massacre at Sandy Hook Elemen-

tary in Connecticut, where a gun-

man killed more than two dozen

people, 20 of them young children.

Though the settlement did not

contain any admission of liability,

it nonetheless represented a land-

mark victory for gun-control ac-

tivists. The settlement could pro-

vide a framework for future cases

against gun manufacturers, which

have enjoyed broad legal protec-

tions under a federal shield law.

The number of firearms manu-

factured annually in the United

States peaked in 2016 at just shy of

11.5 million before trailing off to

about 7 million by 2019, according

to a recent report from the Bureau

of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and

Explosives.

Gun, ammo stocks rise after school shooting

BY LENNY BERNSTEIN,

ARIANA EUNJUNG CHA

AND JOEL ACHENBACH

When the American Psycho-
logical Association surveyed
more than 2,000 people about
their stress levels just days after
back-to-back mass shootings in
El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, in
2019, the findings laid out the toll
of seemingly ceaseless, random
violence.
A third of the respondents said
they would no longer go to cer-
tain public places for fear of
becoming a casualty of a mass
shooting. Almost as many said
they could not go anywhere with-
out worrying about being shot.
Twenty-four percent said they
had made changes in their lives
due to their fear of a mass
shooting.
Sixty-two percent of parents
said they lived in fear of their
children becoming victims of a
mass shooting, and 71 percent
said the possibility of mass vio-
lence was adding stress to their
lives.
The assaults on Americans’
psyches have only intensified
since then, with a two-year-plus
pandemic that has taken 1 mil-
lion U.S. lives, street battles in the
struggle for racial justice, a war
in Ukraine that has renewed
fears of a nuclear conflict, a
roller-coaster economy, an insur-
rectionist riot at the U.S. Capitol,
visibly worsening effects of cli-
mate change and many more
mass shootings. Those culminat-
ed in the massacre Tuesday of 19
children and two adults in a
Uvalde, Tex., elementary school,
just 10 days after the slaughter of
10 Black shoppers and workers at
a Buffalo supermarket.
Experts say the unrelenting
developments are taking a toll on
our mental and physical health
and how we interact as a society.
The targeting of churches and
schools has been particularly dis-
tressing to many people who
have long regarded them as spac-
es safe from the tumult of the
world.
“People are emotionally ex-
hausted,” said Roxane Cohen Sil-
ver, a University of California at
Irvine psychologist who has stud-
ied trauma for decades. “We can-
not see any one of these events in
isolation. We are seeing a cascade
of collective traumas.... I don’t
think that many people could
have conceived of this degree of
loss.”
The impact is felt most deeply
by communities already under
stress. “It takes a toll on the
country as a whole and an even
higher toll on people of color,
who are largely the victims of
these last two incidents,” said the
Rev. Ray Hammond, pastor at
Bethel AME Church in Boston,
who has worked on anti-violence
initiatives for decades.
“Even though intellectually
you know this is a rare thing, the
sense of insecurity is cumulative,
and I think for a lot of people
extremely unsettling,” he said.
The notion that people of color
feel more vulnerable is supported

by the APA survey, which was

incorporated into the organiza-

tion’s annual Stress in America

report. Hispanics, Blacks, Asians

and Native Americans all report-

ed more stress from mass shoot-

ings than Whites.

A Quinnipiac University poll

and a Pew Research Center sur-

vey, both conducted in 2018 after

the mass shooting at Marjory

Stoneman Douglas High School

in Parkland, Fla., showed the

same results, with Blacks and

Hispanics more fearful of mass

violence than Whites, and young-

er people more worried than

older respondents.

Tuesday’s rampage brought an

extra measure of anguish to a

nation that saw the faces of

children such as 10-year-old

Amerie Jo Garza, smiling proudly

with her Honor Roll certificate

just hours before she was mur-

dered by a gunman with an

assault rifle.

The surveys, experts said, af-

firm their belief that repeated

exposure to shocking acts of vio-

lence that happen with horrific

regularity in this country, alone

among its peers, is affecting peo-

ple’s health.

“It’s clearly having a signifi-

cant negative impact, and partic-

ularly on our mental and our

physical health,” said Vaile

Wright, senior director for

health-care innovation at the

APA, who works on the Stress in

America surveys that have been

conducted each year since 2007.

When acts of mass violence

“are repeated in this way, they

start to feel more and more

overwhelming, and a sense of

hopelessness starts to set in,” she

said.

Human bodies are not meant

to be so frequently in a state of

agitation, she said. The result is

hyper-vigilance, anxiety and an

inability “to be in the moment.”

Some people may become desen-

sitized to violence as a defense,

she said.

“People feel so overwhelmed

by the stress and worry that they

have to compartmentalize it to a

certain extent,” Wright said.

Joshua Morganstein, a psychi-

atrist and chair of the American

Psychiatric Association’s Com-

mittee on Psychiatric Dimen-

sions of Disaster, noted that

schools are considered safe plac-

es, as are houses of worship —

both of which have been attacked

in mass shootings in recent years.

It is particularly distressing

when these places are struck by

violence, he said. And the deaths

of children in violent acts adds

another layer of horror: “It also

challenges our perception and

belief about the natural order of

life in the world, which is that

parents are supposed to precede

their children in death, not the

other way around,” he said.

Morganstein suggested that

people monitor their consump-

tion of news about horrific events

such as the Uvalde shooting. It is

not being callous to turn off the

news, he said — it can be neces-

sary for mental health.

“The media is such an impor-

tant source of information for us,

but we know that exposure to

disaster-related media is consis-

tently associated with feelings of

anxiety, depression, post-

traumatic stress symptoms, trou-

ble sleeping, increased use of

alcohol and tobacco,” he said.

Silver, the California psycholo-

gist, studied the health conse-

quences of exposure to news

about the 9/11 attacks and the

Iraq War, and found evidence

that suggests some people devel-

oped new cardiovascular illness-

es as a result. She is now studying

the psychological and physical

health consequences of this “on-

going onslaught” of bad news on

our sense of safety.

Previous research on collective

trauma shows that some people

can develop conditions that in-

clude short-term anxiety, depres-

sion, post-traumatic stress disor-

der and other mental health is-

sues.

And those exposed to multiple

tragedies tend to have “greater

distress, functional impairment

and lower life satisfaction,” ac-

cording to a 2020 commentary

Silver published in Nature Hu-

man Behavior, based on numer-

ous studies. The bad news is

amplified by rapid dissemination

on social media and repetition

through the 24-hour news cycle.

“We are not only seeing or

hearing the news of these trag-

edies, but we are seeing that in

graphic color,” she said.

In addition to reducing news

consumption, experts advised fo-

cusing on what can be controlled

rather than worrying about what

might happen, and to put upset-

ting information into a broader

context.

Mass shootings in which four

or more people are killed account

for fewer than 1 percent of the

roughly 20,000 firearm homi-

cides in the United States each

year, according to Jillian Peter-

son, an associate professor of

criminology and criminal justice

at Hamline University in St. Paul,

Minn. Suicides by firearms make

up about 60 percent of all gun

deaths each year.

“The most dangerous thing

you will do today is ride in a car,”

said Joel Dvoskin, a clinical assis-

tant professor of psychiatry at

the University of Arizona College

of Medicine. “And in fact we’ve

made that safer.”

But Beverly Kingston, director

of the Center for the Study and

Prevention of Violence at the

University of Colorado, said soci-

ety is only now beginning to ask

“how do we heal collective trau-

ma? How do we acknowledge our

society is built on top of layers of

trauma?”

“I worry about our collective

trauma getting in the way of what

we could be doing to create a

better society,” she said.

Violence takes toll on U.S. psyches

Shootings in schools,

churches erode sense of

safety, undermine health

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