OPINION: Gun violence is eroding public safety, spiking our collective anxiety, and threatening democracy

By Marc H. Morial

National Urban League President, CEO

I want to start this week’s column by validating your anxiety about the state of our country. The violence we see in the morning, noon, and night is not normal.

To date, America has seen 357 mass shootings in 2025 alone; a rate exceeding one per day.

In the past few weeks alone, we witnessed a mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis that claimed the lives of two children and injured 21 others, and the violent murder of an influencer. Both incidents have spread like wildfire on social media platforms that have repeatedly failed to curb hate speech and violent rhetoric.

Some users have called for organizing and bringing retribution to their perceived enemies. This content has generated millions of views and likes within days. And rather than quelling anger and anxiety and uniting our nation, political leaders have taken mainstream misinformation and divisive ideals, at times racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, and homophobic.

This has resulted in threats of gun violence, bombings, and hate speech, forcing historically Black colleges across the country to close their doors for the safety of their students and staff.

One of the most significant risks of allowing this targeted hatred is the dismantling of our Constitution and Democracy.

In the wake of the mass shooting in Minneapolis, outrage quickly shifted from the act of violence itself to the identity of the shooter. This has led to dangerous recommendations to limit Second Amendment rights to one group of Americans, opening the door to legalized discrimination at the federal level.

That, combined with the defunding of gun safety programs, background checks, and federal mental health programs, including shuddering of national suicide hotlines, will no doubt lead to more gun violence and public fears.

Let’s call these attacks what they are: domestic terrorism.

Students should be able to walk their hallways without being gunned down at any moment. Parents should be able to drop off their children at schools, malls, and movie theaters without wondering if it is the last time they’ll see them. Church parishioners should be able to attend houses of worship without the threat of a mass shooter bursting through the doors and taking their lives. People should be able to shop for groceries and leave with food for their dinner table and their lives.

Gun violence and terror are ripping our communities apart. It’s tearing families apart, separating parents from their children. And without the proper leadership and legal measures in place to ensure these crimes never happen again, our country is being torn apart by misplaced anger, unjustified blame, and extremist rhetoric.

No one should lose their life in a senseless act of violence, and our country should not lose its soul to the damage done.

Solving this issue is not a game of football where one side wins and the other loses. If we don’t get this right, if we don’t invest the tools to get to the root of the mentality causing this violence, and put in the safeguards to ensure this never happens again, we all lose.

Now is the time to demand our leaders replace platitudes with policy and sow unity, not division.