The United States needs a warning label before the men’s World Cup in 2026 and the Los Angeles Olympics two years later.
Something like, “Gun violence is rampant and mass shootings occur frequently, with no predictability of when or where. Anyone can be a victim, even in seemingly safe havens such as schools, churches, synagogues, temples, grocery stores, farms, libraries, medical offices, concerts, movie theaters, malls, bowling alleys, yoga studios, nightclubs and restaurants.”
Or maybe, “Country prizes weapons of war over human life.”
No doubt gun fanatics and those who have bastardized the Second Amendment – waiting for the courts to remember “well regulated” are the amendment’s first words – will howl. But if we’re going to point the finger at other countries, it’s about time we’re honest about ourselves.
Before almost every international sporting event, Americans are warned about the dangers that might befall them while they’re there. War at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. Widespread violence at both the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the Rio Olympics two years later. Harassment of LGBTQ fans at last year’s World Cup. Terrorist attacks at the Olympics in both 2014 and 2004.
How are those worse, or even more likely in most cases, than the gun violence that occurs with appalling frequency here in our country and that we refuse to do anything about?
Three students were killed and five more critically wounded Monday night at Michigan State before the gunman killed himself. Mass shootings are so endemic in this country that among the student body at Michigan State are young men and women who have already lived through the horrors of Oxford and Sandy Hook.
MORE: Three dead, five critically wounded after shooting at Michigan State
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“The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible,” Jackie Matthews, a Michigan State senior who was a sixth grader at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, said in a TikTok video.
“My heart goes out to all the families and the friends of the victims of this Michigan State shooting. But we can no longer just provide love and prayers,” she said. “It needs to be legislation. It needs to be action. It’s not OK.
“We can no longer allow this to happen. We can no longer be complacent.”
But we can and we will. Because we always do.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, Michigan State was the 67th mass shooting this year. Of those, 45 have resulted in fatalities. It is mid-February. Which means we’ve had more mass shootings than we’ve had days so far this year.
Politicians beholden to the gun lobby will blame this, and every other, mass shooting on mental illness. But the United States isn’t the only country where mental illness occurs, yet our gun homicide rate is 26 times higher than that of other high-income countries, according to a 2021 overview by Everytown for Gun Safety.
It’s the guns. It’s always been the guns.
Gun violence has made everywhere in this country unsafe for its citizens and its visitors. Much as organizers won’t want to acknowledge it, that includes those who will come for the World Cup in 2026 and the Olympics in 2028.
Many millions of dollars will be spent on security for both events, and there will be fences, metal detectors and law enforcement outside every venue. Maybe that will keep spectators safe there, but what about everywhere else? At the hotels where visitors are staying? The restaurants where they’re eating? The streets and subways on which they’re traveling?
When Amnesty International issued a travel advisory for the United States in 2019, it called our gun violence a human rights crisis.
“Under international human rights law, the United States has an obligation to enact a range of measures at the federal, state and local levels to regulate access to firearms and to protect the rights of people to live and move about freely without the threat of gun violence,” Amnesty said then. “The government has not taken sufficient steps to meet this obligation.”
Little has changed since then, and I have no confidence it will before 2026 and 2028.
Those who want to come to the United States for the World Cup or the Olympics, please do. We’ll be happy to have you and do our best to make sure you have a good time. Just know that we can’t guarantee your safety.
We can’t even be bothered to try.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
Story Credit: usatoday.com