Why America’s Mass Shooting Crisis Needs More Than Laws

Poonam Sharma
Tragedy hit Minneapolis on August 27, 2025, when a 23-year-old shooter fired indiscriminately at the Annunciation Catholic School, killing two kids and wounding 18 others before turning the weapon on himself. The outrage had one reviving an old question: have U.S. mass shootings actually slowed since the Biden administration’s 2022 gun control law, and if so, why does the crisis yet seem so unceasing?

Following the carnage, Senator Chris Murphy, a vocal champion of more stringent gun legislation, claimed mass shootings started to decline after Congress enacted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in June last year. “When we finally had passed a gun safety bill in 2022, mass shooting began to drop. But it was an unacceptably small start. We must do more,” Murphy tweeted on X.

His words resonated, yet left a question: is the law really working? Or are we confusing statistical chatter for a cultural pivot?

The Numbers Say “Yes, But…”

If we are to strictly believe the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which monitors shootings in which four or more are shot (not counting the shooter), the numbers paint the picture of a modest drop:

642 incidents in 2022

660 in 2023

503 in 2024

286 through August 2025

That 660-to-503 dip sure seems like progress. Other trackers with more limited definitions indicate similar downward trends. Experts, however, warn against taking an early leap to credit the law. Mass shootings, though horrific, are relatively rare compared to all types of gun violence, so it is hard to attribute changes to a single policy.

Criminologists point out that causality is elusive here. Was it the 2022 law, wider trends in declining violent crime, improved local prevention efforts, or sheer chance? There is still no peer-reviewed study connecting a straight line between the bill and the decline in cases. The reasonable conclusion: the data indicate a decline, but we can’t know why.

Why Laws Alone Will Never Be Enough

Even if the 2022 law made a difference, it is excruciatingly apparent that legislation cannot cure the deeper scar. America has invested billions in policing, surveillance, and gun control, but mass shootings persist at levels unimaginable in other affluent countries.

The deeper problem lies in the culture we’ve built. A society where materialism, instant gratification, and fame—even infamy—are celebrated, has created a generation vulnerable to violence. Many shooters, often young men, don’t just want to kill; they want to be remembered. They want their faces splashed across screens, their manifestos dissected, their names etched in notoriety.

When a culture has nothing more powerful to give you than what you watch or how hard you yell, guns are the ultimate broadcaster of that emptiness.

A Cultural Cure: Sacrifice, Anger Mastery, and Peace-Building

To properly address this plague, America needs to rediscover values it has let deteriorate.

1. Educating sacrifice as strength.

For far too long, success has been measured by accumulation. Kids are growing up idolizing brands, not virtue. But societies thrive not by what they buy, but by what they are willing to sacrifice for each other. Service needs to be a rite of passage: national service initiatives, compulsory community service, and schools that applaud acts of self-sacrifice as much as report cards.

2. Anger management as a civic skill.

These perpetrators of violence typically express anger and alienation far in advance of their crimes. But schools still regard emotional management as a personal issue. That has to change. Anger management and conflict resolution have to be taught with the same rigor as math. Breathing classes in elementary schools, peer mediation in middle schools, and restorative circles in high schools can create generations of young people who view conflict as something to be managed, not weaponized.

3. Instituting peace into everyday life.

Peace is not the absence of violence—it is the presence of alternatives. After-school arts, sport, and mentorship programs provide youth with an identity based on making, not breaking. Communities need to hail peacemakers the same way they hail athletes or businesspeople. Schools need to make profiles of students who diffused altercations or intervened to get help for struggling friends.

4. Responsible gun culture.

A lot of America resists firearms restrictions because they perceive gun ownership as being connected to freedom. But even within that framework, freedom is dependent on responsibility. Safe storage laws, lockbox giveaways, and neighborhood-driven “lock it for us” campaigns can stop a lot of school shooters from even ever obtaining a weapon in the first place.

The Role of Families and Media

Parents cannot farm out prevention to legislators. They need to demonstrate sacrifice, impart discipline, and watch for warning signs. They need to build homes where children feel seen, valued, and directed—not ignored until they blow their top.

Media also has a responsibility. Copycats are fueled by sensational reporting of mass shooters. A “no notoriety” policy—avoiding mention of shooters’ names and images and focusing on victims and community recovery—can deprive shooters of the oxygen of fame. Social media platforms, in turn, need to realize that engagement-maximizing algorithms tend to radicalize isolated young men into violent subcultures.

Choosing Between Two Futures

The reduction in mass shootings from 2023 to 2024 is a glimmer of hope. Unless it is accompanied by a cultural shift, though, it will be nothing more than a statistical anomaly.

The decision for America is clear. It can keep mending wounds with legislation and policing and stay blind to the spiritual poverty that gives rise to violence. Or it can take the more difficult, longer course of reworking a culture of meaning—where sacrifice is respected, rage is conquered, and peace is learned as a discipline, not a slogan.

Laws count. But cultures determine if individuals pull the trigger.