Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) seemed more concerned about embryos and fetuses than children’s lives Wednesday as he downplayed gun violence in the wake of a mass shooting that left six people dead at a Tennessee school.
“There is no gun violence. There is only human violence. It is intellectually dishonest to say otherwise,” he said during a House Oversight Committee hearing. “And the number one cause of death for children in America remains abortion.”
Many Americans, including Democratic politicians, have renewed calls for better gun control laws in the wake of Friday’s shooting, but faced resistance from Republicans, many of whom receive major financial backing from the gun lobby.
Higgins criticized Democrats for repeatedly citing statistics that gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in the US.
However, the statistics are true. By 2020, firearms will surpass automobile accidents as the number one cause of death for children and adults ages 1-18.
Firearms will account for nearly 19% of child deaths in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s WONDER database. No other large or wealthy country has firearm deaths among the top four causes of death for children, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Motor vehicle accidents and cancer are the two most common causes of death for people aged 1-18 in all of the same countries, KFF found. The US has the most lax gun laws and the highest number of civilian firearms among our fellow nations.
This year alone, there have been 130 mass shootings in the US, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Higgins cited CDC data from 2020 to say there were more than 620,000 legal abortions performed that year, comparing that number to the number of children — 4,357 — killed by guns.
Most abortion procedures take place during the first trimester of pregnancy (before or at 13 weeks of pregnancy for an embryo or fetus). Fetal viability, defined as the point at which the fetus can survive outside the womb, is reported to be approximately 23 to 24 weeks of gestation in the US.
Social media users pointed out the flaws in Higgins’ “human violence” argument:
Other commentators noted that Higgins’ “pro-life” stance does not seem to apply to living children:
Higgins is staunchly anti-abortion and pro-Second Amendment, and argued on the House webpage that life “undoubtedly begins at conception.”
He previously made headlines for other inflammatory comments. In 2020, he threatened to shoot armed protesters before a Black Lives Matter rally, even though people are allowed to carry firearms in Louisiana. And in September, he was criticized as a racist and misogynist after he yelled and made offensive comments at a black climate expert testifying before Congress.
Three 9-year-old children and three adults were killed at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday after a 28-year-old gunman, who police said had legally purchased two rifles and an assault-style handgun associated with him, opened fire. .