Gun Related Shootings

The United States is one of the few countries were the right to bear arms is protected by the constitution. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most violent with incidents involving guns this year reaching an estimated 36,212 and an approximate 9,050 deaths (“Gun Violence Archive”). There are an estimated 310 million firearms in households across American, these are only estimates because current gun laws do not require them to be registered or tracked. A more staggering estimate is that most of the guns owned by private citizens are semi-automatic guns, the same type of gun used in almost all mass shootings. While these privately owned guns are legally purchased, many times, they land in the hands of criminals, and owners never report them stolen. Mass shootings and gun crimes are not the only issues with gun violence the one never talked about is suicide, more guns available equals more suicides. The United States is one of the easiest countries to own a gun legally or illegally, stricter gun control laws are necessary.

Tougher gun control laws will most certainly lead to less people owning guns. It is argued that if less people own guns, then those who choose to commit suicide using a gun will be saved. However, there is no direct correlation between those who choose to commit suicide and the amount of people who choose to own a gun (Thompson, 2001). Although gun

Guns have been used for homicide and suicide at a disappointingly high rate over the years. Each life lost is a life that matters. Do we really want to let our children grow up in a world where everyone has extremely simple access to purchase firearms that could harm you? There are always new cases of homicide and suicide making headlines in America but gun control is nonexistent yet to help prevent these cases. As Americans, we shouldn’t have to worry about risking our lives while going into public with our families. If the ability to acquire a firearm was stricter, there would be no worry about any of these horrible things happening to ourselves. America is a free country; we are supposed to be able to live without worry and

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.

Too many Americans die due to firearms. “New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof this past summer wrote an impassioned call for gun control that included a recounting of horrific gun-related statistics. Since 1968, he noted, more people have died from guns in the U.S. than on the battlefields of all the wars in American history combined” (“Technology” -Gralla 6). This country is supposed to

This means more than half of the suicide in America was done using a firearm. Perhaps the use of firearms use in suicides are high is because it is also reported by GunPolicy that, “The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in the United States is 270,000,000.” Also it is important to take in an account that this number possibly can be much greater because illegal guns and unregistered guns might not be included. With this amount of guns in America, someone with the passion to kill someone or themselves, the most convenient way to commit suicide or kill someone would be to obtain one of the million guns across America. The number of suicides from firearms are so high because the availability to obtain the potentially greater 270,000,000 guns in America. Gun control laws can potential decrease passion crimes and suicides. In Australia, they have passed guns laws that have reduced homicides and suicides. The law that made it possible for the decrease in firearm suicides and homicide for civilians is that

One morning in Newtown, Connecticut, many children and staff of Sandy Hook Elementary were ready to begin their daily routine of attending school, or work. Unfortunately, they were not aware that this would be the last time they do so. The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary ended the lives of several staff and young children. This devastating tragedy added fuel to the controversial gun argument. Parents of the children lobbied to pass gun reform laws which would help provide safety for citizens and prevent awful events similar to this from occurring in the future.

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting which occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut is an atrocity that rattled the entire nation. 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and six adult staff members with a gun that he obtained because his mother did not lock it up properly. Adam Lanza, without a doubt, is/was a sick and evil human being that preyed on young, helpless children. Their school was a gun free zone and those teachers and young students were defenseless. No other person in the school was armed besides Adam Lanza (CNN.com). Another awful and tragic mass shooting occurred on July 20, 2012, injuring 70 and killing 12 people. The murderer, James Eagan Holmes, had many options to

Have you ever wondered why someone would pick up a gun and point it at a classmate, a family member, or yet, a child's innocent face. These questions haunted me after I got a message from a friend saying there might be a school shooting tomorrow . I have always known my school to be a safe place, and such news frightened me. A few hours later I got a message from the same friend. This time, she said “the news was a rumor". Even though I was comforted by knowing it was a rumor, I wanted to have a wider understanding of such incidents. After reading a few article I saw a trend, Every Time a school shooting or any mass shooting happens in general, guns become the main topic throughout the nation, and the country gets divided into pro-guns and anti-guns. This event of polarization would continue until the next shooting where people get and more polarized rather than focusing on the issue. But we have to recognize this, what we need to solve is not just what method the shooter used, but the events leading to that decision.

Gun law advocates argue that gun control laws diminish the amount of weaponry in the streets, and, by extension, in the hands of criminals. Likewise, gun control will diminish suicide. There were 464,033 total gun deaths between 1999 and 2013: 270,237 suicides (58.2% of total deaths); 174,773 homicides (37.7%); and 9,983 unintentional deaths (2.2%) (CDC, 2014). If perhaps, one of these families had a surviving brother or sister, mother or father, due to the current policies, it is worth enacting change. It is inhuman to allow people to die by firearms when they could simply be banned. In light of the recent mass shootings, families are left with the lingering wonder as to whether these national tragedies could be prevented. Criminals can easily

Imagine more school shootings because someone had access to automatic weapons and big mags. With gun control there would be less shootings in general, due to the inaccessibility to automatic weapons.

You walk through the door, after a long day and you see your six year old son holding a gun that you thought you stored , and your toddler is on the floor with blood gushing out of his body. Your son now scarred, and precious daughter now dying, it’s too late too late to think ‘What could I have done to prevent this’. 48 children and teens are killed either accidentally, in a suicide, or in a homicide every day in America (one person every 30 minutes.) Unintentional gun deaths and suicide are among the top ten of the leading causes of teenage deaths in America (CDC, 2015). Any incident of gun violence involving an underage shooter, is an accident.

The authors of this report state what would happen if Gun Control was implemented, especially the impact on the suicide rate in the U.S. Through the author's studies they have found there is a correlation between how many suicides and suicide attempts and the access the person has to a gun. For many people, especially males, the preferred way of killing oneself is by gun. Men are to make sure the killing is fast and less personal, so they prefer a weapon of choice to make the decision “easy”. From the research the research actually made a correlation between the suicide rates and access that the authors were successful in making several equations that fit their information such as to prove their point there is a correlation and if the government

While research into the subject is crucial for the development of programs to help protect the mentally afflicted from themselves as well as others, technologies such as Trigger-Smart firearms can help protect potential victims of suicide. According to the New York Times, in this state of Wyoming, the unfortunate record for most suicides committed per capita is held at a rate of 30 out of 100 thousand as opposed to national average of 12.6 in 2012. The issue is heavily prevalent among teenagers, and the state of their mental health is a largely determining factor in their likelihood to commit suicide. As a matter of fact, according to Child Trends, more than 90 percent of children and adolescents who committed suicide had some type of mental disorder. Many would argue that those suffering from mental disorders should not have access to a firearm in the first place; however, this does not mean that the family of a depressed individual should sacrifice their right to bear arms and protect themselves from threats foreign and domestic. In acquiring a Trigger-Smart firearm, suicidal teenagers will not be enabled to inflict damage via gun violence on themselves nearly as easily, which would be a dramatic decrease in the use of home acquired firearms used in suicides. The numbers on such a subject are worrisome, in fact, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun

Firearms contribute to high suicide rates. Fire arms are different than other suicide methods in one key aspect: attempts are much more likely to be fatal. Other means of attempting suicide are take time, less reliable, and more likely to survive and get counseling. Harvard Injury Control Research Center find that the fatality rate of suicide attempts with a firearm exceed 90%, compared with a fatality rate of less than 5% for other common suicide methods (117). The suicide with gun is biggest concern in teenagers and young adulthood. When many people experiencing, pronounced emotional and social difficulties without having the life experience or maturity to put them into