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Mark Cuban: We'll see fewer mass shootings by 'taking care of income inequality'

Mark Cuban hasn’t shied away from voicing his opinions on several mainstream issues, like wealth inequality, the 2020 presidential election, and now, the contributing factors to mass shootings in the U.S.

"There is a book I read in high school that I ended up buying a copy of, it's called 'Why Men Rebel,'” Cuban said. “And basically what he said was when your expectations for your life going forward are increasing but the reality is diverging from that — and so what you thought would happen with your life and where you are gets further and further apart, then people do things that they otherwise wouldn't do, whether it's a mass shooting, whether it's — who knows what, cheating or whatever it may be.”

He added, "I think taking care of income inequality and lifting people up from the bottom and creating more opportunities and giving them tax advantages... Whatever it may be, then I think you'll see fewer of those events.”

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban arrives to attend the third and final 2016 presidential campaign debate between Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 19, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban weighed in on mass shootings. (Photo: Reuters/Mike Blake)

The billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks shared these thoughts with Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer on an episode of “Influencers with Andy Serwer,” a weekly interview series with leaders in business, politics, and entertainment.

‘What I would do is...’

As of June 12, 2019, there have been 192 mass shootings in the U.S. since the start of the year, according to a national tracker that identifies a mass shooting as an incident with four or more people shot. While many politicians contend there needs to be change in the country’s gun laws, Republicans and Democrats haven’t agreed on a solution, or even reached a consensus over what causes the violence. President Donald Trump has also attributed gun violence to “a mental health problem at the highest level.”

“You know, other people say it's a mental health issue,” Cuban said. “I don't think we've had all those same type of issues for hundreds of years in this country. I think it's more about when people really get disappointed and they have nothing to lose, they'll do things that people with nothing to lose will do."

Politicians have proposed an array of legislation aimed at combating gun violence. In May, presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) unveiled his plan that would require licensing for all gun owners. Following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) signed into law gun regulations that included a three-day waiting period for long guns, requiring gun purchases to be age 21 or older, and banned the possession of bump stocks.

Cuban has his own solution to this growing problem in the country, something different that would make changes to the Second Amendment “in ways that people probably wouldn’t expect.”

“What I would do is change the Second Amendment so it said, one, every citizen has the right to own a gun — period, end of story, written in the amendment,” Cuban said. “Two, the federal government will never be allowed to ever confiscate that gun from an individual — period, end of story. Three, states have the right to manage the purchase, ownership, and management of guns owned and held within their borders.”

“We’re trying to take a Second Amendment that’s been analyzed up and down and backwards and forwards, and it’s created its own set of problems. Let’s update it.”

Adriana is an associate editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.

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