Gun Laws And Gun Violence In The United States

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.

Gun control has been a continued issue amongst politicians and civilians in the United States. The U.S. has a homicide rate twenty-five times the average of any other developed country in the world. Specifically, mass shootings have been in the limelight as of late due to the deadliest Las Vegas, Nevada shooting, along with Orlando, Florida, and Newtown, Connecticut being in the recent past. Aim has been set on the mentally ill for these mass shooting, and our gun control laws because of this. America agrees gun laws need to be strengthened, but how to do so is the problem ahead. The target should not be on the mentally ill due to their miniscule effect on gun violence.

From January 1, 2015 to December 23 of that same year a total of 12,942 people had been killed in America due to gun violence. These numbers include murders, accidental shootings, and murder suicides. According to a nonprofit website that records gun deaths in America called “Gun Violence Archive”, there were more than 50,000 gun violence incidents in 2015 alone. This includes homicides, gang incidents, and accidental and self-defense shootings, but it does not, however, include the near 20,000 American deaths due to gun suicides that occur each year.

Mass shootings have been at the top of the headlines recently in the United States. These shootings are causing a major impact on those who reside in America. Something must be done immediately to bring down the frequency of these shootings so that one can be safe anywhere. There are many ways to stop this devastation that is bringing America to tears, but the most effective is to have stricter gun laws in the country. Control laws must be more harsh in order for there to be a decrease in mass shootings across the country.

About 12,000 people are killed by firearms a year in the united states. 62% of firearm deaths are suicide. on an average day somewhere around 88 people are killed. There are a lot of surveys that compare state gun laws to state gun deaths, however they do not tell you everything. Gun deaths includes suicides, police shootings, and defence shootings not just murders. From 2009 to 2013

It is clear that mental illness is the overwhelming cause of death from firearms, just not in the way you think. The one thing that seems to get glossed over whenever the infamous gun debate comes up is suicide. While suicide is a taboo subject especially when it comes to the gun debate, it's something people need to stop ignoring. People seem to have this idea that those who own a firearm and have a mental illness are a danger to the people around them when in fact they pose a far bigger threat to their own safety. While it is understandable that communities fear the dangers of mass killings it is suicides that are tearing them apart. According to Metzl, people make four assumptions when it comes to mental illness and firearms: “ that mental illness causes gun violence, that psychiatric diagnosis can predict gun crime, that shootings represent the deranged acts of mentally ill loners, and that gun control “won’t prevent” another Newtown”(Metzl, & MacLeish, 2015). These assumptions are based off what people believe rather than actual facts however and so are not entirely true.

In 1993, there were more than 18,000 firearm homicides in America. That number has been decreasing for the past two decades. In 2011, the reported number of firearm homicides was a little more than 11,000. In another part of the world, Germany was reported to have less than 200 firearm homicides, France less than 50. It is also estimated that there are around 270 million guns in America. This paper examines the possibility that if the American government put into place gun regulation laws, and made penalties more harsh for gun related crimes, the national murder rates would go down.

Every year, thousands of people, innocent or guilty die from gun violence in the United States. Gun violence is despicable while guns are still lawful with a permit. The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution states "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (Cornell). This statement means that the government were to ever become corrupt the people have the rights to guns in order to protect themselves. This amendment was written because of the Revolutionary War. The founding fathers didn 't want the people to be defenseless like they were against the British so they guaranteed that right. However, our founding fathers failed to think about the disadvantages of giving access to guns in our country so easily. Many people debate that there should be more limits on gun control considering the many deaths and mass shootings that have occurred in the United States. Our country leads all nations in gun violence yet some still debate that it 's in the constitution for a reason, for the protection of the people.

In light of the mass shooting in Umpqua, Oregon earlier this month, President Obama 's sobering remarks made a crucial point about the nature of Gun Violence in the United States. He remarked, "Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it ... We have become numb to this." As of this day, the United States has a little over one mass shooting every day. It occurs so frequently that people go back to their regular lives after the heavy media coverage is over, only to be outraged once it happens again a week or a month later. Consequently, this problem and the general public sentiment about it has become a stain on the face of this

Isenstein writing for the National Journal proposes that there is a distinct correlation between states with strict gun laws and gun violence. “The states that im¬pose the most re¬stric¬tions on gun users also have the low¬est rates of gun-re¬lated deaths, while states with few¬er reg¬u¬la¬tions typ¬ic-ally have a much high¬er death rate from guns.” (Isenstein) The charts that are presented in the article support the claim, but again bring up the question about the variables used to define death rates from guns. Annotations to the article imply that some outside influence caused a revision to update some charts to only display gun-related homicides and exclude suicides and accidental deaths. Sullum critiques the study and points out a different perspective from the same data. He underscores that the rankings can be drastically altered by focusing on homicides and not including suicides. Wyoming is ranked for having a high suicide rate but a low homicide rate whereas the District of Columbia has a low suicide rate but high homicide rate. (Sullum) The National Journal shows that the six states with the lowest rates of gun-related deaths in 2013 also have relatively strict gun policies when considering the laws for purchasing and carrying handguns. Additionally, these states do not have a ‘stand your ground’ law. (Isenstein) Sullum contends that these states alone have a correlation between gun deaths and strict gun control laws. His example of a contradiction is New

Over the last decade, we have seen gun violence in the United States hit astronomical figures. Over 275,000 American lives have been lost due to gun violence alone, and as of December 2015, there has been more mass shootings in the United States than days in the year. President Obama has expressed his desire to create some sort of effective legislation to reduce the gun violence in the United States. The lackadaisical attempt by congressional lawmakers to pass any sort of significant gun control legislation has allowed the gun violence to reach epidemic levels. In December of 2012, one of the worst mass shootings in United States history occurred, bringing the prospect of legitimate gun reform on to the table.

Mental health and mass shootings seem to go hand in hand, especially when the talk of gun laws comes up.The debate about gun laws getting stricter due to the mass shootings across the country has been stewing for about 18 years now. What sparked the debate was back in 1999, Columbine High School was involved in a mass shooting killing 12. This is one of the many examples that could define the gun violence and mass shootings in our country. As there seems to be a direct correlation between gun violence and mental illness.Now rather than enforcing stricter gun laws in the wake of recent gun violence events, the federal government should fund mental health programs.

This paper will explore the history of guns, myths and realities of gun violence. Gun violence is a hot topic in America today and some may believe that America was built on gun violence. This country was colonized by the use of violence with guns. We’ve had wars since the invasion of this country. The violence has been around also with the well-known 1775 speech from Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death” (Jr.). Give me death is a very strong statement that to me means this is of a violent nature. Since then violence with guns would only escalate from taking land to taking lives whether it be homicides, suicides or threats of violence against one another. With the violent history of gun violence in America and so many different opinions, who or what is responsible for the destruction on self and society and what are the some of the ways to discourage these behaviors.

“The United States has the highest rates of firearm-related deaths (including homicide, suicide, and unintentional deaths) among high-income countries. For youth 15 to 24 years of age, fire- arm homicide rates, as documented by Richardson and Hemenway, were 35.7 times higher than in other countries. For children 5 to 14 years of age, firearm suicide rates were 8 times higher, and death rates from un- intentional firearm injuries were 10 times higher in the United States than other high-income countries.” (American academy of pediatrics,

Gun laws are a subject many people feel strongly about, and as with any subject people feel strongly about there are no shortage of data and statistics that seem to support either side. I decided to look into any correlation I could find between gun laws and deaths in the US. Just like with political parties and deficit spending I didn't really have any expectations, but would probably guess that there wasn't much correlation.