Gun Control And The Problem Of Mass Shootings In The United States

Recently there was a mass shooting in Las Vegas. A gunman opened fire on a concert from his hotel room leaving 58 people dead and over 500 injured. This incident has reintroduced the issue of mass shootings to our societal conversations. The topic of mass shootings is an emotional one. It triggers the most basic human fear, fear of the unknown. Most people have an emotional bias one way or another on this subject, making it a very sensitive topic of conversation. I will do my best not to offend anyone, if I do offend you please understand that it was not my intention. I will do my best to not let any bias I may have affect examination of this topic. My intention is to examine the topic in a logical manner to better understand the issue. This is a problem that is not going to fix itself. We as a society need to come up with a solution.

Guns have been used throughout history for war, hunting, and protection. Since then, the killing capacity and speed of guns has improved dramatically. Guns have been a part of American culture from its roots. However, as times have changed and guns are no longer a necessity, gun control has become increasingly urgent to prevent unnecessary crime and killings. Guns should be banned for everyone but the law enforcement and military. Guns should be banned to prevent mass shootings and lower crime rates, while being supported by history and the constitution.

As stated before mass shootings have increased drastically throughout the decades. Just within 2017, the number of mass shootings are 293 with several deaths and injuries, (“Gun Violence Archive”). Within the last 10 years, the deadliest mass shootings have occurred in America history, (CNN). Recently in Las Vegas, Nevada held a music festival for people to enjoy and listen to music, but a shooting changed the evening for many. A man was in an hotel near the event and shot down towards the people and killed a total of 58 people and injured at least 200, (CNN). The Orlando shooting was right behind it with a total of 49 dead, (CNN). Since this has become a part of our everyday lives, we rarely hear about all the mass shootings that kill not even into the double digits.

Gun control in the U.S has been a highly talked about topic the past couple of years. Through the development of technology and social media; many people across the country have been more involved in voicing their opinions about this issue. America is known as the land of the free, many people take pride in being able to bare arms. However, this right has been abused by not only civilians, but law enforcement as well. The United States has the 31st highest rate of gun violence in the world and it is not decreasing anytime soon. The phrase “America's largest mass shooting” has been reassigned to numerous occurrences that have taken place over the past decade. It is apparent that through these tragedies it is time for a serious change, innocent lives are being lost for no reason.

Eighty-nine people depart from this earth due to gun violence in the US every day. From school children, to victims of domestic violence, to people going about their daily lives, this status quo is unacceptable. On Tuesday January 5th, 2016 President Obama announced that he would send proposals on reducing gun violence in America to Congress. His spokesman, Jay Carney, mentioned that this is “a complex problem that will require a complex solution.” The ability to own a gun is considered by some a birthright of Americans. However, with crime rates involving handguns rising each day it has become quite clear. Handgun laws must become stricter in order to reduce homicide and crime. The question is, “which solution in most effective in decreasing gun violence?” Gun control is a major conflict that is constantly reoccurring and the US is seemingly divided over it.

The occurence of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut. The gunman, was 20-year-old Adam Lana, who first shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home. He then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School where he fatally shot 20 children and 6 adult staff members. As first responders arrived, Lana committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. The shooting began at approximately 9:30 a.m. Sandy Hook was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school or grade school in U.S. history and the second-deadliest mass shooting by a single person in U.S. history, after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. This shooting yet again assured the nation that gun violence is still as big of a problem as it was back in the late 90’s when 27 teenagers got killed in another mass killing in Columbine, Colorado. We as a nation must stand up and oppose mass murdering because these actions are not only unjust but inhuman as well.  The increase in gun violence can be decreased by, identifying the regions in the country where the most gun violence occurs and restricting their access to limiting or monitoring the availability of guns and ammunition.

America is known as the land of opportunity, freedom, fast food, and raging numbers of gun violence. According to Mass Shooting Tracker there has been about 367 shootings so far since the year started (Mass Shooting Tracker). This is outrageous considering that in other countries, gun shooting numbers don 't even reach a two-digit number. Far too many people have been victims of these unregulated weapons, claiming lives and ripping families apart. There is no safe place from these assault weapons, no movie theater, night club, church, or school. American’s must deal with the fact that any unsuited person is legally allowed to purchase a weapon with the weak regulations we currently have. Assault weapons have been damaging for this country and it 's time to change the laws. Gun regulations and laws need to be stricter to make it harder for individuals to purchase guns to prevent any future tragedies from happening.

The article, “The Truth About Mass Shootings and Gun Control: Crime and killings have fallen as gun ownership has increased”, was written in a manner to target a specific audience by using a current hot topic amongst politicians in the United States on gun control. By discussing recent mass shooting, the author is able to appeal to his audience with Ethos appeal allowing him to maintain the attention of the audience, which, otherwise would be overlooked by people outside his target audience.

Gun Control in the United States has gone out of control. The United States should enforce laws to not allow any guns in a house hold in order to reduce violence and crime in the country. Reducing the rate of crime in the United States, controlling big weapons, taxing ammunition, and gun collection can help make this happen. Gun Control can make this country a safer environment to live in.

Mass shootings in the United States is a huge problem that has seemed to become a norm, faced rarely by other developed country. On October 1st, 2017 the most deadliest mass shooting in US history took place, suppressing the Orlando nightclub shooting just over one year earlier. This just like every other mass shooting has gun owners and opposers scrambling on what we should do next to fix this terrible problem.

Mass shootings are a huge epidemic in the United States right now. Many people live in fear of another mass shooting. Two important facts to know about mass shootings is what exactly a mass shooting is and how often they occur. CNN’s authors used the Gun Violence Archive to define a mass shooting in his article “A Visual Guide; Mass Shootings in America” as “any incident where four or more people are wounded or killed”(Willingham). The frequency of mass shootings depends on which source you look at; using the definition given by CNN as well statistics, the United States has seen “136 mass shootings in the first 164 days of this year”(Willingham). However, author Sam Harris has a staggeringly different statistic in his blog article “The Riddle of the Gun”. Harris claims that “seventy mass shootings have occurred in the U.S. since 1982, leaving 543 dead” (Harris). Harris’s article is three years older than CNN’s article, yet the facts are staggeringly different by an amount that is nearly impossible to reach in three years. The definitions the two articles used for defining mass shootings are obviously different, but are both capable of informing the reader on the statistics of mass shootings frequency.

Mass shootings are defined as an incident during which an active shooter shoots three or more people in a single event (Bridges and Leigh). Sadly, these incidents have been on a steady rise in America and little is being done. In the first 164 days of 2016, there was 136 mass killings (Willingham). The main political argument has been dealing with gun control in the United States, but with both sides in disagreement, little has been done. All the victims of mass shooting, like Sandy Hook, Orlando nightclub, or the Colorado movie theater incident did not plan to lose their life; even though mass shootings are a rare act of violence, they have become common in the U.S. Mass shootings are an issue in American society because the disregarding

In the United States mass shootings have been a big topic of discussion. The main question is how can we as a nation help to prevent these tragedies from happening? Many people want the radical solution of banning guns in the United States all together. This can’t legally happen because of the Constitution which states in the Second Amendment that citizens have the right to bear arms. Where is the middle ground to this issue? How can the United States prevent mass shootings while making all citizens happy with the decision? The sad truth is that it is impossible to make everyone happy there will always be opposition no matter the question. There are ways to find a general consensus amongst the people where the majority of people agree with the decision and their rights are not infringed upon. This is not an easy task and will take a large amount of negotiation but, it can happen with enough will and perseverance. We are all one nation and nobody can predict where these tragedies might occur. So this means we have to come together and bring all ideas into consideration that do not take away any rights, but instead solve the issue all over the country.

On October 1, 2017 America was, yet again, devastated when Las Vegas suffered the United States worst mass shooting. One man killed over 50 people and injured 527. After he was finished firing from the 39th floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort, he committed suicide. His name was Stephan Paddock (Yan and Park). When most people think of a mass shooting, they think of a terroristic act or someone shooting at a large group of innocent citizens, like Columbine High School or Sandy Hook Elementary School. In actuality, most people do not realize that whenever two or more people are injured or killed by a gun, it is considered a mass shooting. These “mass shootings” happen every day in America and they are one of the leading causes of death in

Currently in the United States, there is a large debate going on about what we should do about gun control. This issue played a large role in the recent election of our president Donald Trump. In this issue, there are two sides as well as a middle section that agrees slightly with both sides. On the extreme sides of the issue, some people believe that guns should be completely not allowed in the United States, while some believe there should be no regulation whatsoever due to the second amendment rights given to us by our forefathers. Then there are the people in the middle who believe there should be some regulation, such as background checks when you purchase