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Charlie Kirk says Chicago Gun Violence is Caused by Fatherlessness in America

(This post was updated on June 15, 2022.)

Fox news says that 70 people were shot over the past weekend; a dozen of these people were murdered. Local people they talked to were confused about what to do to end the gun violence in America.

Elementary School Mass Shooting Gun Violence Facts

Over the last ten years, mass shootings in the United States is at an astronomical height. Every day there are more victims of gun violence from mass shootings across the U.S., many of them in the schools. The most recent school mass shooting was in Uvalde, Texas at Robb Elementary school where 21 people were killed. 19 of these deaths were fourth-grade children and 2 were adults, teachers. The only other school shooting that took more likes was Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut where 27 people were shot and killed, 20 of the victims were children.

The most pressing complaint has been that prevention of gun violence and ending gun violence only becomes important after a major shooting incident.

What is a Mass Shooting?

The FBI has designated 40 shootings in 2020 as active shooter incidents. The FBI defines an active shooter as one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2020

Does fatherlessness lead to gun violence?

Fox News guest, Charlie Kirk, Founder of Turning Point USA, calls the gun violence and gang violence a culture problem, and says that the common theme is that “we have a lack of father problem in the black communities, especially in Chicago.” He says that the single motherhood rate in the 1960s “was about 18% in the black community, now it’s over 75%. That means that only 25% of young black youth will even have a father in the household and that has contributed to this endless cycle of gang violence and gun violence and there’s a lot of frustration amongst us Chicagoans about the lack of action from the Mayor’s office.”

Are family court policies father friendly?

What are the family court statistics on fatherlessness?

On average, statistics show that fathers receive 35% custodial time while the mothers are granted 65% parenting time. According to the most recent report published by the United States Census Bureau in 2020, based on data from 2017 to 2018, the percentage of custodial fathers in the US increased from 16% in 1994 to 17.5% in 2014, and then to 20.1% in 2018.

To put these fatherless statistics into perspective, there were 10.3 million custodial mothers, caring for almost 18 million children. Since there are approximately 22 million American children living with only one parent, this would mean that only 2.6 million men were the custodial parent to only 4 million of these children.

Since there are many studies now that have shown that fathers “actions or inactions have a sizable impact on the development and well-being” of their children, why then do “Custodial fathers represent less than 8% of all fathers living with children in the U.S., whereas custodial mothers represent about 25% . . . mothers living with children.

What do the studies show regarding father involvement?

Children’s education suffers greatly. Children are 70% of teen suicides come from single mother homes. Wade Horn, “Why There Is No Substitute For Parents,” IMPRIMIS 26, N0. 6, June 1997. Children are more likely to do better in school when both biological parents are involved.

70% of runaways, 70% of juvenile delinquents, and 70% of Child murderers, come from single mother homes. Richard E. Redding, “It’s Really About Sex”, Duke Univ. Journal of Gender Law and Policy, Jan.1, 2008.

“Father loss after divorce is associated with difficulties in children’s school-based, social and personal adjustment and diminshed self-concept. (parish 1987) 70% of all high-school drop outs come from a single-parent home. (Holstein, 2015)

The academic performance of 30% of the children with absent fathers following divorce drops. Access to both parents seemed to be the most protective factor in academic performance. (Bisnaire, Firestone and Rynard 1990)

If the people of Chicago are frustrated, what do they think these children feel? It is frustrating for children to hear how important their father is in their life and then have government policies tear their fathers away. The family court policies in Chicago are not family friendly. International Family Studies estimates from their research and compilation of the numbers that “There are more black and Hispanic men among non-custodial dads, and more whose employment and earnings prospects may not be the brightest.”

So ending shootings committed by children and young adults for children of divorce could be as simple as keeping fathers in their lives.

Are Chicago judges minimizing parenting time for fathers?

One father that I talked to said that his judge, Judge Salvi, has, for the last several years, minimized his time with his children, at times completely cut him off from his children, and at one point put him on supervised visitation just for speaking out about the unconstitutional family court policies. That father was lucky in that the judge said why he was cutting him out or putting him on supervised. Most judges don’t give any reason at all. They don’t feel they need a reason when they believe they have absolute discretion and don’t have to bother follow the constitution, which would protect these children from senseless loss.

How are Fathers Being Driven Out of their children’s lives?

What good does it do to educate fathers about the importance of being in their child’s life when the family courts and the mothers using these courts make it impossible for them to remain in the child’s life? No matter how hard a father tries to be a meaningful part of his child’s life, if the mother does not want him to be an equal part, then it is most likely that the judge only gives the father 4 days a month and perhaps a few hours one night during the week. This is hardly enough time to parent a child.

A good question to ask these judges is why? “Given that children who live with custodial fathers seem better off, at least financially, why aren’t more fathers given joint custody of their children following a divorce or non-marital birth?” “A great deal of statistical evidence indicates that the best thing for children’s physical, emotional and intellectual well-being is being raised by both married biological parents. In the absence of this ideal, taking steps to increase the participation and involvement of both biological parents in the care and rearing of their joint offspring still seems desirable.” (IFS)

How do mother and father roles have a different impact on a child?

It is well known that both parents play different roles in a child’s life. Even if a mother is playing both roles, their parenting styles are different than the father. Studies have shown that fathers reading to their children benefit the children in very significant ways.

Language development of the child has been tied to a father reading to his child. Of course, mothers are very important as well. The point is that both genders serve significantly different roles. A child loses a significant part of their support system when their father is pushed out of their life.

Children seek the acknowledgment and approval from each of their parents. They go to each parent for different advice, and they receive tools to cope with life as an adult uniquely from each parent. When a child does not have this dual support system, they seek this approval and security from another. This person just might be a gang.

Anti-gun violence advocates like former politician, Gabby Giffords, think the prevention of these violent crimes is more gun control. Congress woman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head at an Arizona grocery store parking lot in 2011 Gabby’s gun shot injury caused severe brain injury and forced her to retire. She has since become an ardent advocate for gun control and became an advocate for anti-gun-violence causes.

They think guns are the problem and that taking away the guns will end gun violence. Real violence prevention is right under their noses. Nobody wants to admit that government has created this problem through the biased and prejudiced family court rulings driving fathers out of children’s lives. Family courts are hurting children and making them and their parents angry. Nobody is saying that all mass shooting are children of divorced parents, but a large number of them are. In fact, some gun facts show that almost all of the school shooters had an absent father.

It is a proven fact that children who have involved fit and loving fathers are not only better off financially, but also better off emotionally. So it would make sense to say that with all the benefits of keeping fathers in children’s lives, that many of the shooters that did come from divorced parents, who clearly weren’t getting the benefit of having an involved father in their lives, might have had much better outcomes. Their father at the very least might have provided the support for getting through the bullying, might have noticed and addressed mental health issues, or the mental health issues might have been prevented completely. To save lives, put fathers back in their lives.

Broken families don’t have to lead to gun violence and gang violence. These are a symptoms of a broken family court system.

Charlie Kirk thinks fatherlessness in America is the problem. Others might think the solution is more gun control. They think guns are the problem. They think that the symptom to gun violence in America is mental illness. Nobody wants to admit that government has created the problem. Family courts are directly injuring children and creating a seething anger and resentment in children from the unjust loss of a father, and that mental illness could also be a byproduct of this loss of support, stability, and development at critical stages in a child’s life.

One of the absolute most important things to teach male children is how to effectively deal with anger and males and females relate to this differently, so it is imperative that boys especially get input and guidance from their father on this essential issue.

Boys who do not learn from their father how to manage their anger end up taking that anger out on others whether through domestic abuse or shooting up schools. Either way, the child custody courts and their massive failed social experiment of removing fathers from families is a primary source of the rage that is truly the root cause of most violence.

Notions of mental illness that emerge in relation to mass shootings frequently reflect larger cultural issues that become obscured when mass shootings come to stand in for all gun crime and when “mentally ill” ceases to be a medical designation and becomes a sign of violent threat.

Broken families don’t have to lead to gun violence and gang violence. The societal violence epidemic we are experiencing can be directly traced to failed child custody courts and the profoundly unjust best interest of the child public policy. Depriving a child of a fit father is an irreparable injury to that child that can never be in that child’s best interests. Depriving a child of a fit father based on nothing more than the mere viewpoint of a sole government official and is not only a crime against our constitution, but a crime against our children, that the constitution is designed to protect them from. [Become a Gold Member and learn more about your rights and how to protect your parental rights.]

A Broken Culture or Fucked Up Government?

Are the Family Courts Driving Fit and Loving Fathers Out of These Children’s Lives? The family courts encourage mothers to drive fathers out of their child’s life. The court rewards them for doing so.

One father shared his story and insight with me. He said that mothers in his neighborhood in Chicago are raised by mothers who live off the system, they live on welfare. He said that the daughters are learning to game the system rather than work for a living and appreciate the father’s who work hard to support their children. He worked several jobs and he happily brought home diapers and formula and food to care for his baby.

He said that the mother knows she only qualifies for welfare if the father is no longer in the home, so fathers trying to do the right thing and raise their child are driven out so that the mother can get paid. He said his own baby mama actually wanted him around still but that she couldn’t let anyone know that he was around or else she couldn’t move out from her mother’s place. If the father is out of the picture, she gets a check from the government to move out of her mother’s place and buy furniture for her own place. Then she gets a check every month to support her and the child. So this father had to sneak in and out through the back so that the mother could appear as if the father had bailed and was a deadbeat dad.

Fathers who try to stay in their child’s life, after the mother no longer wants them, find themselves dragged into court, and orders are issued that require them to pay child support, while they get demoted to mere visitor with their child. And if the mother does not want the father to have that visitation, she can make it very stressful and frustrating for the father and the child to be together. After a while it becomes too stressful for the father to continue to see his child. Most fathers I’ve talked to don’t want their child to have to go through this so they step away. One of the fathers that I spoke to is the founder of “Pissed off Fathers.”

Our government is literally paying mothers to drive the fathers away from the family and then blaming fathers for being absent.

What is the Solution to the Chicago Violence?

The solution is to reform family law. Family courts have been lying to the public and telling you that they are protecting the best interest of the child when what they have really been doing is using the child to extort the parents out of money. In order to do this, the courts have to deprive the child. The federal system requires the state courts to award child support and enforce the child support if they want a portion of the four billion dollar Title IV-D prize money, otherwise called Title IV-D incentive funds. These child support orders can only be justified if the father is driven out and branded a deadbeat by default.

No father can be permitted to care for their child directly like a normal parent because if there is no child support order, there is no fat check from the federal government.

One father who has been in the forefront of the news lately because he is running for Illinois Governor is Kash Jackson. Kash says his children have been torn from him for several years while the courts use him as an income source for the judges and attorneys, and to pad the state’s coffers. Many of these family law courts wouldn’t be needed if parental rights were respected. If the courts aren’t needed then the judges aren’t needed. Consequently, state judges have a personal financial interest in refusing to protect parental rights.

These courts use their positions to make the public think that these fathers are deadbeat dads so that you won’t bother to find out what the courts are really doing. This straight from the Tips for Tyrants Playbook; first you must demonize and dehumanize your target so that the public will reward you for punishing this state disfavored person.

Rampant gun violence all over our county is not caused by the guns that have always been there since the minute men used their own guns to fire the first shots of the Revolutionary War that founded this country. We did NOT have this level of children killing children until Title IV-D was established and state courts went all out to demonize fathers. Guns are not the problem, the federal government is the problem. But the federal government creates the problem so it can blame guns and undermine our capacity for self-defense.

A society without fathers and without arms, is a society that can be easily subjugated and we are seeing the results of that plan every day in the news.

How do Family Courts Harm Children?

So if you think you are frustrated, think about how this must effect the children. They lose the direct support and association of one of their parents. Losing a parent is a traumatic injury. Divorce courts are imposing traumatic injury on our children for money. Divorce courts are telling us that causing a child traumatic injury is in the child’s best interest, when really, it is only in the state’s financial best interests that these judges really care about.

Try giving up an animal you love or have to put that animal down. Do you hurt for a long time from this, are there things that remind you of your beloved animal for years to come, does this always affect you in some way even years later? The loss of a parent is even worse than this and I know many people who will feed their animal before they even feed themselves. The problem here is that the fathers who were trying to do the right thing and support their child directly, must get pushed and must be driven out of their child’s life so that the state can get its fat check from the federal government.

It is always the innocent defenseless child that these child custody courts traumatically injure for money because the children cannot fight back against a corrupt government. Our children are simply pawns to these judges to be used for cash. These poor children suffer as children and they suffer their entire lives as adults; all for want of a fit father that some divorce court judge drove out of their lives. These children and these adults often turn to alcohol, drugs, or violence in their futile attempt to fill the void that was created “in their best interest” by a child custody judge.

And as an animal lover, you know that you can never fill the void created by the loss.

Without a father, children turn to peers for advice. Without a father, children are susceptible to the allure of a gang family. Without a father, the rage of youth, destroys lives through gun violence and many other types of violence that removing the guns can never solve. The void must be filled and the rage must have an outlet. If guns are unavailable, the traumatic injury does not go away, and the rage will find other tools of violence to release itself.

How has family court led to a broken culture?

The culture is responding to the family court’s failed social experiments and the federal government’s cash for fatherlessness in America Title IV-D scheme.

To get the federal incentive money, state laws must prevent good fathers and good mothers from raising their child independently according to their own moral beliefs regarding what is best for their children. Chicago violence and our nation’s epidemic of violence is a direct response to the frustration that the community has had with the injustices in the family courts, the excessive stress and pressure that the courts have placed on men in these communities, and the absurdity of ripping good fathers from their children’s lives for profit.

The family courts put any parent they order to pay child support in an impossible situation. If the father cannot pay what the court orders, a father who has committed no violent crimes and never had a record, all of a sudden finds themselves in contempt of court, thrown in jail sometimes repeatedly, and labeled a deadbeat dad, and now has a record with misdemeanors and felonies; and many lose their jobs and careers. They find themselves attacked from every angle and unable to recover or climb out. Their licenses are suspended and other fees, fines, and interest piles up. Many of these parents cannot even pay for their own roof over their heads or afford to feed themselves. These orders drive the fathers into poverty and have stolen the financial stability the child would have had if not for the family court driving the father into bankruptcy.

Make no mistake, being ordered to pay child support subjects you to state and federal penalties for being poor and the enforcers of this scheme are the same people who made you subject to these crimes in the first place. If you think you are going to get a fair trial before a neutral and independent judge, think again. Your judge already agreed to work for the state against your rights when the judge stopped applying the law that protects your rights and conconmitant rights of the child, and instead agreed to use the best interest of the child policy, against the constitutional rights of litigants. The state bought your judge and paid for him. He isn’t giving you a fair trial that protects your rights. That judge already agreed to act as the state’s agent to strip those rights from you.

What good is the Fatherhood Initiative when the government has created more fatherlessness in America than could have ever existed without government help. Charlie Kirk said it used to be 18% and is now 75% in Chicago alone! This is a classic example of the universal axiom, “put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert and within a decade there will be a shortage on sand.” “Why is all the sand gone” you ask, “its those damn deadbeat fathers who took away your sand,” the government replies.

Ron Palmer says that “even conservative states with long histories of responsible gun ownership are falling prey to this. Why? Perhaps conservatives need to ask why they are anti-father when the father is divorced or unmarried. Conservatives swear that fathers are essential. Then aren’t fathers essential to children of divorce who already face too many challenges in life? What possible conservative agenda can be achieved by punishing children for the sins you think their parents committed?

Liberals are just as guilty, its just that we already know they don’t think fathers are important, just as we know they will gladly watch children suffer and die needlessly in divorce courts, if it will get them closer to their anti-gun agenda. There are some who believe that liberals are intentionally making gun violence the popular thing for the crazy people to do just so they can further their hatred of tools.

People who care about children and who want to be safe in their daily lives should take a hard look at their political agendas to see if they might just be getting some pretty nasty unintended consequences. We need to stop torturing children and we need to stop creating rage filled sociopaths.

This is the problem afflicting not just Chicago but the entire United States.

Conclusion: Is Mental Illness the Cause of Mass Shootings

Leading researchers Dr. and Dr. say that the assumption that mental illness causes gun violence is false.

Our brief review suggests that connections between mental illness and gun violence are less causal and more complex than current US public opinion and legislative action allow. US gun rights advocates are fond of the phrase “guns don’t kill people, people do.”Thefindings cited earlier in this article suggest that neither guns nor people exist in isolation from social or historical influences. A growing body of data reveals that US gun crime happens when guns and people come together in particular, destructive ways. That is to say, gun violence in all its forms has a social context, andthat context is not something that“mental illness” can describe nor that mental health practitioners can be expected to address in isolation.

This is the problem afflicting not just Chicago but the entire United States. Preventing gun violence in the United States, requires a willingness to look seriously at applying protections in the family courts for parental rights so that both biological parents can protect their children from the injuries that the courts inflict when they separate children from on of their parents and subject them to confusing and conflicting invasive and unconstitutional practices of involving investigators and other burdensome evaluators into the child’s life. These practies are messing with our children’s heads, are removing half of a child’s support system and protection of one of their parents, and causing the child to take on burdens they are not prepared for.

By forcing the family courts to protect parental rights, you are protecting children’s rights to be protected from intrusive and damaging government practices. You will be restoring the child’s security, financial and emotional stability, and continuity to their parents, both individually, even if separately, as equally as possible, and allowing the children to receive the benefits the children are entitled to.

If you want to learn more about the solutions that Ron and Sherry provide to protect children you are invited to get a membership. These memberships contribute to our continuing work to protect families and their children from government corruption. Protecting families protects your community from the increased violence that this broken family court system has created.

Resources:

You can read more from the National Library of Medicine abstract and article on Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms

Jonathan M. Metzl, MD, PhDcorresponding author and Kenneth T. MacLeish, PhD

Read the IFS research article here on Facts about Custodial and Non-Custodial Fathers in the U.S.
Read more about what Charlie Kirk writes here,

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