On February 21, Jason B. Dalton, a driver for Uber, killed six people and injured two during a shooting spree in Kalamazoo. Last year, Ann Arbor resident, Joshua Wade, filed a lawsuit against the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to permit him to openly carry his gun on campus. Gun control continues to be a prominent issue of contention. Some blame the guns, others blame individuals with mental health issues, many blame both, and a few blame neither. Solutions or measures enacted to prevent further violence are hotly debated and staunch opposition by groups like the National Rifle Association, who oppose gun control, or the Coalition To Stop Gun Violence, which supports gun control, lobby for their respective positions, and there appears to be little progress for either stricter or more liberal gun laws.

The Kalamazoo shooting in particular stirred the hearts of many and provided another unfortunate wake up call. Dr. Adriana Garriga-López, who teaches Sociology at Kalamazoo College, expressed that “Beyond these reactions to the tragedy, I offer some thoughts on the events. Jason Dalton (the shooter) is a white, 45 year old man who picked up Uber fares in between shootings, driving menacingly and dangerously while he had passengers.” Dalton still picking up passengers to make fair suggests that there was still some sort of hierarchical functioning in his brain; he did not simply become some savage, and in light of this his acts seem even more cold hearted and cunning. Garriga Lopez continued by saying, “This will not be categorized as terrorism … These murders will likely be framed as the result of Dalton’s individual mental pathology, and indeed they are that. But they are also part of a much broader pattern of random mass shootings.”

Dalton owned his guns legally but did not possess the license to conceal them.

Facebook has been a conduit for the sale of firearms between users of the site. Perhaps in response to the recent shootings, Facebook has taken proactive measures by banning gun sales on its social media platform in order to stop a portion of gun traffic falling into the hands of those who are not legally allowed to own them. Gun advocates claim, however, that a problem with this is that guns can be obtained illegally rather easily. Detroit and Chicago both highlight a deeply instilled climate of illegal gun ownership.

In January, at a White House press conference, an emotional Obama verbally set the stage for a strong precedence of swift and stricter gun control policies. So far little action has been taken to curb the violence, spelling trouble for areas with a need for some sort of reform.

According to the Metro Times, last year Detroit had their gun related homicide rates rise 25 percent from the previous year. A lack of effective action could very well prove problematic for Detroit and other urbanized areas that have illustrated a propensity for gun violence.

All of the aforementioned areas have been urban as opposed to rural. So what shape has gun violence taken in rural areas? Richard Jones, a professor of social and cultural science at Marquette University in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, expressed that there has “been a spike in gun related suicides in the more rural areas of Michigan, with the victims being primarily white.” This is a stark contrast to urbanized areas, where the natural inclination of gun violence has been to point the barrel at others.

Jones explains his viewpoint on this, conveying the core issues as “structural issues of prejudice, discrimination, and inequality rather than cultural issues. While people who experience the downside of structured inequality may develop subcultural adaptations to inequality, and some of those adaptations may encourage risky behavior, culture is not at the root of the problem, structure is.” Statistically, gun violence is more common in economically deprived areas such as Detroit, but as shown by the higher rates of suicide in rural areas that are also poor, gun violence is not just a city problem, nor is it just restricted to the lower peninsula. There are two sides to this issue, just as there are two peninsulas.

The Uber driver shootings, similar to other shootings involving possible mental health issues, are statistically less common, but they can happen virtually anywhere. Both gun rights and gun control advocates agree that there needs to be some sort of reform that provides adequate help and measures to stop the mentally ill from obtaining guns.

Currently, the concealed pistol license requirements in Michigan state that persons issued a license must, “Not have a diagnosed mental illness at the time the application is made that includes an assessment that the individual presents a danger to himself or herself or to another, regardless of whether he or she is receiving treatment for that illness.”

Structurally, Jones believes there may be a link between the economy and gun violence: “Recovery from recession provided hope and optimism that the bad times were over, and the prospects of a good life in the immediate future, this recovery has yet to reach our urban core or our rural areas.” As the issue of gun violence continues to be studied and debated locally and nationally, in Michigan, the issue has impacted both the city and the country, and the upper and the lower peninsula.