Six months after the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six adults dead, reports are showing that Americans are still being murdered with firearms at the same rate they have been for the past few years. Despite the talk of gun control and the dozens of legislative bills passed over the last six months, gun violence in the United States isn’t diminishing.

Since the Newtown shootings on December 14, ThinkProgress reports there have been 14 mass shootings. A mass shooting is defined as a shooting in which four or more people (not including the shooter) die. In 2012, there were 16 mass shootings.

Across the nation, more than 5,000 Americans have been killed by firearms since Newtown, according to a crowd-sourced data initiative by online magazine Slate and the Twitter feed @gundeaths. That’s more than the total number of soldiers killed during the entire Iraq War. While 5,000 fatalities seems staggering, this is actually typical in the U.S. In 2011, the fbi reported, there were 8,583 people murdered with firearms. So for 5,000 people to be murdered in the first six months of the year follows the pattern that has been extant in America for the past few years.

To address the issue of gun violence, the U.S. government has worked to enact laws to stem the tide of violence. Since the Newtown shooting, 86 state gun laws have been passed, including laws that limit the magazine size of rifles and expand background checks on people attempting to buy guns. No gun laws have been created during this time period at the federal level. In April, the Senate blocked a plan to expand background checks for gun buyers.

However, President Obama has agreed to sign a controversial UN treaty on arms regulations. The treaty, meant to stop the flow of weapons to warlords, pirates and terrorists, would require nations to establish national regulations to control the buying and selling of conventional weapons, and to compile a national registry of firearms.

The treaty has received a lot of criticism in the United States as many say it violates the Second Amendment and trespasses on American privacy. The treaty requires members to “establish and maintain a national control system, including a national control list [gun registry],” which they are to turn over to the United Nations, which would make it available to other countries. The treaty also requires governments to regulate arms brokering, but it does not directly control the use of weapons in a country.

Despite the government’s best intentions, its attempts to limit access to weapons misses the bigger issue.

There is something terribly wrong in America today. There is so much murder today that “blood touches blood.” The reason: There is no knowledge of God in the land (Hosea 4:1-2). As Trumpet columnist Robert Morley wrote in March,

The real issue we need to address isn’t gun control, it is character control. The truth is that we need to fix our depraved culture—and there is only one way to do that. America needs to turn to God in deep repentance, and that repentance requires actual change!

Gun laws and UN treaties aren’t going to stop the disturbing trend we see in America today. To understand what will, read “How to Prevent Another Sandy Hook Massacre.”