Toxic masculinity, gun availability are most dangerous combination in US: ABC News

BEIJING -- Men are behind most gun violence incidents in the United States, and the toxic masculinity and gun availability are America's most dangerous combination, according to ABC News.

Toxic masculinity, a cultural idea that manhood is defined by violence and aggression to maintain power or strength, is at the root of both domestic violence and mass shootings in the country, ABC News said in a recent report, citing Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action.

Easy access to guns is one reason that gun violence is a "uniquely American issue," Watts said.

"Every country has racism, xenophobia, hatred. Only America gives those same people" access to guns, Watts said.

Watts' views were shared by Michael Kimmel, a professor of sociology and gender studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, according to the ABC News report, which is a part of "Rethinking Gun Violence," an ABC News series examining the level of gun violence in the United States.

The phenomenon of grave gun violence in the United States has to do with "a specific version of American masculinity," Kimmel said.

Kimmel said American men are responsible for such a staggering sum of shootings because of that ideological masculinity, American culture, which he said gives a "constant presentation of enemies," real or imagined, and the most significant contributor is easy access to guns.

Men are responsible for 98 percent of mass shootings, according to nonprofit research center The Violence Project. In 40 active-shooter incidents in the United States last year, 35 shooters were male, according to FBI data.