Op-Ed: The Deadly Double Standard Between Guns and Social Media
Op-Ed: The Deadly Double Standard Between Guns and Social Media
The recent fervor shown by Senators calling out the titans of social media is in stark contrast to their complete obeisance to the gun industry
By: Kristin Song and Devin Hughes
On January 31, 2018, my son Ethan Song was visiting his long-time best friend’s house. Unbeknownst to me, Ethan’s friend had been showing off his father’s unsecured handguns to his classmates for more than six months.
This time the gun went off, shooting Ethan in the head. Ethan’s friend was charged with manslaughter. The father, who owned the gun and was responsible for its storage, faced no criminal penalties. Ethan had just turned 15.
Exactly six years later, this past Wednesday, the Senate held a hearing about a dangerous product leading to the deaths of children and teens across the country. Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Josh Hawley, among others, led the charge against the assembled executives who were testifying.
Senator Graham bluntly stated that the companies have “blood on your hands. You have a product that’s killing people.” Senator Hawley directly asked one of the executives if he wanted to apologize now to the “victims who have been harmed by your product.” Which the executive did, addressing a room full of parents who had lost loved ones.
The hearing and fiery statements though were not about the number one killer of children and teens in America — guns. Rather, they were excoriating the tech industry for the ills of social media.
It is no doubt important to hold the technology industry and social media platforms accountable for any harm they cause, even if such harm is unintentional. Properly regulating products that can cause harm to Americans is essential for a healthy society.
Yet the fervor shown by Senators calling out the titans of social media is in stark contrast to their complete obeisance to the gun industry, which is responsible for vastly more death, injury, and harm.
Data from the Gun Violence Archive highlights the crisis of gun violence among America’s youth. Over the past decade, gun deaths (not including suicides) among children under the age of 11 have increased 52%, from 196 to 297. Among teens aged 12 to 17, gun deaths have increased from 569 to 1,385, a 143% increase over the same period from 2014 to 2023. Including suicide data would make these numbers even more dire.
America’s gun violence epidemic is a multi-faceted problem demanding a comprehensive, evidence-based solution. Two key aspects of a comprehensive approach, particularly when it comes to saving the lives of children and teens, are passing strong Child Access Prevention laws and repealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).
Strong Child Access Prevention laws, such as Ethan’s Law, save lives.
Research shows that such laws — which impose criminal penalties on irresponsible gun owners whose weapons are not properly stored and are used in a shooting — reduce unintentional shootings, suicides, and homicides among children and teens. Proper firearm storage would also have the added benefit of reducing the approximately 380,000 firearms that are stolen every year.
Interview with Kristin Song, 2022
Just as lawsuits apply pressure to the technology industry to make their products as safe as possible, the same could be applied to the gun industry.
In 2005, PLCAA gave the gun industry broad immunity from liability litigation. Before PLCAA, lawsuits in cities such as Chicago and Detroit targeted bad actors that facilitated straw purchases. Studies show these suits were effective in preventing guns from reaching criminals.
After PLCAA however, no matter how negligent a gun dealer or manufacturer is in their business practices — even up to supplying a mass shooter without so much as a background check — the gun industry remains unaccountable. Such gun industry irresponsibility even extends to deliberately marketing firearms to children, often over social media platforms.
If the same lawmakers who showed such righteous fury over social media products contributing to the deaths of children mustered similar concern over the leading cause of death for children and teens — guns — lifesaving changes could be implemented. Anything less would reveal Wednesday’s tirades to be political grandstanding, not genuine concern for America’s children.
It is long past time these simple, life-saving measures are enacted and the gun industry and its allies are held to the same ethical standards demanded of everyone else.
Kristin Song is President at The Ethan Miller Song Foundation; Devin Hughes is the President and Founder of GVPedia, a non-profit that provides access to gun violence prevention research and data.
Photo of Kristin and Ethan via Kristin Song’s LinkedIn.