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How do Vance and Walz feel about gun control? During the debate, points of view emerge.

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How do Vance and Walz feel about gun control? During the debate, points of view emerge.

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Ohio Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz faced off during Tuesday's vice presidential debate, which also focused on gun violence in American schools.

Both candidates acknowledged the impact of gun violence as parents of young children.

Vance suggested as a policy solution to empower law enforcement to crack down on illegal gun ownership and increase security in schools.

“We have to ensure that the doors are locked better. We need to make the doors stronger,” Vance said. “And of course we need to increase the number of school resource officers because the idea that we can magically wave a magic wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys just doesn’t fit with recent experience.”

In response, Walz emphasized that Minnesota's adoption of stricter warning laws and background checks are proactive steps to reduce gun violence.

Walz also pointed to successful approaches in other countries such as Finland, where gun ownership is associated with significantly lower rates of gun violence.

“There are no mass shootings, even though gun ownership rates in the country are high,” Walz said. “There are common sense things we can do to make a difference. It is not a violation of your Second Amendment rights.”

Fact check: What Tim Walz and JD Vance got right (and wrong) in the VP debate

How often do mass shootings occur in the United States compared to other Western countries?

Together with 36 other Western countries, the USA accounts for 33% of the population. But it is responsible for 76% of public mass shootings and 70% of deaths from those shootings between 2000 and 2022, according to a February report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

According to the report, there have been 109 mass shootings in the United States, compared to three in Finland, which has not had a mass shooting since 2010.

Mass murder database: Reveals trends, details and fears of every event in the US since 2006

How common are unregistered firearms?

Traditional firearms are manufactured by licensed companies and sold through licensed dealers. All legal guns in the US must have serial numbers.

The lack of serial numbers or background checks for ghost guns or weapons that cannot be traced makes it impossible to determine the exact number of unregistered firearms in circulation.

More: Hawaii Rep. Jill Tokuda is targeting a loophole in the “zombie gun,” creating undetectable firearms

Jeremy Yurow is a Hawaii-based political reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter @JeremyYurow

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