There Are Over 500 Million Guns in the U.S.

"I have to start by addressing how Jezebel got wrapped up in Wednesday's events. On Monday, we published a cheeky article titled, "We Paid Some Etsy Witches to Curse Charlie Kirk," as a satirical response to Kirk's dangerous rhetoric over the years, which has included him saying that abortion is murder and women can only be happy if they get married, submit to their husbands, and have kids."

"We don't know the shooter's politics or their motives. We don't know if they have other targets, like the shooter who killed Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, and had a "hit list" of 45 other Democrats, or if they were a registered Republican, like the person who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump in July 2024. What we do know is that they, like all other Americans, had easy access to a gun."

"The exact number of guns in the U.S. is difficult to track, but as of 2024, estimates put that number around 500 million. In 2025, as of September 9, there have already been 300 mass shootings in the U.S., according to CNN. Forty-seven of those have been school shootings. The CDC reports that, in 2023-the most recent year with full data-nearly 47,000 people died from guns."

A satirical stunt paid Etsy witches to curse Charlie Kirk as a reaction to his rhetoric, which included claims that abortion is murder and that women can only be happy if they marry, submit to husbands, and have children. Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a university event in Utah; the shooter’s motives and political affiliation remain unknown. A suspect was taken into custody and released while investigators continued searching. The United States has widespread gun access—estimated around 500 million firearms—and high rates of mass shootings and firearm deaths, with nearly 47,000 gun deaths reported in 2023. Kirk previously minimized the cost of gun deaths to protect the Second Amendment, and political violence was explicitly not endorsed.

Read at Jezebel