Gun Violence: A Case Study

As the production of firearms has grown to become a multibillion dollar industry, the exposure the public has had to firearms has also increased accordingly. Because more and more individuals have chosen to own guns, the amount of innocents that have been killed has consequently climbed. In the United States, since 1.69 million kids age 18 and under are living in households

In the United States, the average number of gun shot victims is through the roof. A good amount of these victims are even child. This cite shows statistics of gun violence broken down into days and years. These gun violence statistics include assault, murder, suicide, police investigations, and accidents. The amounts and reasons behind the gun violence are presented in the statistics.

Gun violence is very prominent in the United States. It has been for quite some time. There are several problems with how people are accessing firearms, and the type of firearms they are buying. People are accessing firearms way to easy nowadays. Some of these firearms are stolen or illegal. We need to somehow crack down on firearms and how these men and women are accessing them so easily. According to BBC, “Some 13,286 people were killed in the US by firearms in 2015, and 26,819 people were injured. These figure exclude suicides.” They also stated “There were 372 mass shootings in the US in 2015, killing 475 people and wounding 1,870, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker, which catalogues such incidents. A mass shooting is defined as a single shooting incident which kills or injures four or more people, including the assailant.” These numbers are outrageous and something needs to be done.

There are those people that think that if there were no firearms then there wouldn't be any violent crimes. In 2011 there were close to 33,000 Americans that were victims of gun-related deaths. According Brady campaign an average of 268 people are shot every day; in America that is 97,820 people a year. An average household with a gun is 22 times more likely to be used to kill someone or severely injure a person in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional

The amount of gun violence in the united states has risen to epidemic proportions. The U.S has allowed guns to become so easily accessible, that violence and gun related violence have become a daily occurrence. In the United States, there is a mass shooting that kills four or more people every twenty-three hours. The united states also manufactures and imports a huge surplus, Approximately 30 guns are produced and imported for every one exported from the U.S.. There are more than enough guns being circulated in the U.S. The number of gun murders per capita in the US in 2012, the most recent year for comparable statistics, showed that nearly 60% of homicides were gun related.

Gun violence continues to dominate national headlines. On average, the gun violence epidemic leaves a child or teen wounded or dead every hour in the United States, resulting in 47 American children and teens shot every day, and culminating to ___ shot every year. Deaths related to gun violence are now the third leading cause of death for American children. And these statistics are based solely on the actual deaths, but does not account for those exposed to this brutality—friends, family members, and other children who are psychologically damaged and struck with fear in their hearts.

The Orlando nightclub shooting in Florida on June 12, 2016 was the single largest massacre in U.S history, taking the lives of 50 individuals, including the shooter himself, and injuring 53 others. This is one extreme example of the gun violence that has been occurring in this country, but mass shootings like this and the one at Newton in 2012 are only a small part of our gun violence issue. The everyday gun violence that takes place in cities all across the United States claims the lives of thousands every single year. According to The Guardian, 33,500 civilians die each year because of gun brutality- “that’s about 1 life every 15 minutes” (Beckett). Between the years of 1999 and 2013, there were 464,003 gun deaths in the U.S, about 58% of them were suicides 37% were homicides. (ProCon.org) Gun violence and the consequences of that violence, have become a real and dangerous problem in the U.S , why else would the CDC list the United States as having the highest rate of gun violence out of all developed countries today? (Gale Opposing Viewpoints) This issue is not just attributable to a single factor, there are several that play an important part in why gun violence is such an issue in the U.S, namely laws and poverty; and in these causes we can also find solutions.

As of 2016 there have been a total of 46,074 incidents total with guns, 11,828 of them ending in death. Gun violence has steadily increased whether it be with suicide, children, teens, gang violence, or mass shootings. It has come into question as to what or who is to blame and America cannot seem to come to a consensus and it has driven a wedge between its people. Gun violence is nothing new but it is taking more lives each and every day; If we do not make more of an effort to lessen gun violence then it will become more of a problem then it already is and continue to put people in danger.

More than 30,000 people nationwide die from guns every year, and there is evidence that gun-related violent crime rates have increased since 2008,

It is widely agreed that the United States has a very large number of guns compared to other countries. If guns really keep Americans safe, the United States would be the safest place in the world since it is estimated that 270 million firearms are owned. Compared to the world richest nations, the United States has the highest gun accidents, murders, and suicides among them all. An investigative report conducted in 2012 by Mother Jones Magazine found that between 1995 and 2012, the number of guns has increased by 50% while the population has increased only by 20% (Doeden). Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of injury death in the United States. In 2010, the percentage of homicides committed by firearms was 67.5 percent. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence estimated 97,820 people are shot and killed in the United States yearly, averaging 268 people per day, since 1972 (Newhard pp13). Unfortunately, with some many Americans killed by guns every day, shootings in the United States have become so common, many citizens have grown immune to the news.

As of December 2015, there have been at least 12,942 people killed by violence, including 64 school shootings (thetrace). When examining gun violence, you cannot just look at the violence caused by criminals, but you have to look at the violence as a whole. Orlando, Florida this year were victims of a mass shooting. A church in South Carolina last year was attacked by a lone shooter. Gun violence is not only an issued with civilians, there is also an issue or the Police disproportionally killing minorities when pursing them for traffic violations or petty

Every living being has its own sense to instinctively protect its life from dangers. In nature, every living creature individually struggles to sustain its life or comes together with other fellow creatures to defend the colony and live for many years away from dangers. Just like in this example, each human being has the same instinct as well. People who have same purpose come together and establish a state to collectively protect themselves and the community from the interior and exterior dangers. In parallel with this purpose, each individual of this organization is responsible for paying taxes to a government of the state in order to sustain the society’s existence. In exchange for the payment, a government is responsible for making sure of citizen’s security, but

There has been a great surge of discussion about the threat of gun violence here in the United States, a topic that has been expanded into a national and even international debate. Gun violence today affects many, and has been highly scrutinized by lawmakers, lobbyists, which has coined pro/anti gun activists. But what are the numbers telling us? Is this really a public health crisis? The American Psychological Association defines firearm violence as taking a number of different forms, including, but not limited to, suicide and suicide attempts, violent conflicts and disputes, intimate partner violence, unintentional deaths and injuries, violent criminal activity, and violent acts while intensely distressed, intoxicated,

Gun control supporters believe that the number of guns available to the American public is much greater than it should be. There is estimated to be over two hundred million guns among the three hundred million citizens in our nation. The advocated of gun control believe that more guns lead to more crime. The number of gun related deaths in the United States is about thirty times that in the United Kingdom. This means that per every 100,000 deaths 2.9 are gun related in the United States, where as it is 0.1 in the United Kingdom. Additionally, half of the deadliest shootings in the world have occurred in the United States. Gun related crimes in the United States did decline in the 90’s but since 2005 they have been on the rise again with about 30,000 people a year dying as a result of a firearm. In 2015 there were 5 mass shootings in the United States, killing 40 people and injuring 42. This number is up from 2014, with two mass shootings.

Gun control can decrease the amount of gun-related injuries and deaths. In fact, states with more firm gun control laws have shown lower gun-related deaths (Ehrenfreund &Goldfarb, 2015). On an average day, 93 people are killed due to gunshots. Of these 93 people, 7 are reported to be children and teens under age 19 (Gun Violence by the Numbers, 2017). Unfortunately, statistics also show that children and teens ages 15 and under are about 19 times more likely to die of gun-related injuries (Con, 2017).