Gun Violence Research Paper

Everyday 93 Americans are killed by guns. Whether it is due to homicide or suicide, it does not matter. At the end of the day gun violence is increasing exponentially. In numerous states, gun laws have been placed in the hopes of reducing gun violence. But now many people believe that gun violence should be treated as a public health problem. I for one feel that gun violence should be put in the category of public health. Every year more than 30,000 people are victims to gun related incidents. It has become such an issue that gun violence is causing more deaths than some life threatening diseases.

The right as an American to own a firearm has always been apart of our history. However, recent events have put into the question the second amendment and whether or not it still holds any real purpose in our society. Gun violence has constantly occurred throughout our history and has always been a problem to end. It wasn’t until recent that activists became so passionate about enforcing stricter gun laws or abolishing the second amendment all together. What would cause such a drastic upheaval? The answer to that is, constant reoccurrence of mass shootings all over the country, including ones involving young children. Once children started becoming casualties of these horrific events, society really felt obligated to try and do something

Over the last years gun control has become a very widely debated topic. The city, county and state lawmakers seem to be having different stands about the public having easy access to guns. Adam Small states, “After centuries of relative obscurity, the Second Amendment has become the center of an intense academic and legal battle during the last twenty years” (1213). The supporters of gun control and its opponents both claim to have the best interest of this country’s citizens .However, there are private citizens who believe that there should be laws to limit the number of people who own a gun. Even though the United States has enacted laws for regulating firearms, the recent shootings at Aurora movie theatre and Sandy

Every year 30,000 americans die from guns while others have the privilege to end up with a disability rather than dieing. The men and women who are diagnosed with a mental illness and obtain guns often commit suicide and crimes such as mass shootings, and murders. Because healthcare providers don't report the mental illness’ of many people to the FBI these people are able to pass a background check when they attempt to purchase a gun. Although the second amendment allows people the right to bear arms, it has become easy for the mentally ill to acquire guns and gun control should be strengthened for this very reason.

My overall reflection of this passion project has taught me an immense amount. I felt very passionate about the topic of Gun Violence in Washington because in the world, there are many disasters that take innocent lives. Each day parents send you to school to learn, not to be shot and killed. I've felt every emotion researching in this topic. Learning about the laws and lives taught me to appreciate everyday of my life and live it to the fullest because I might be the next one. Learning and hearing the news that kids are my age will never graduate because someone decided that it is okay to bring a gun into school. For example, on May 18,2018 there was a shooting that took place at Santa Fe High School took the lives of 10 students. Hearing a notification on my phone, seeing another shooting in school shocks me every time. Everyday we

Therefore, this caused Dylan Roof to buy a gun which he used to kill nine people at a historically black church in South Carolina. In addition, Roof had previously faced drug charges which should refuse his attempt to gun purchase. However, the information was unavailable at the background check system (2015, para. 1). Ressler (2015, para. 4) also states that the current three days’ standard background check time is not enough to process a cross check information between federal databases and states. Furthermore, the author Ferris (2014, para. 3) indicates in his article “Gun Purchase Background Checks: Casting a Wide Net with Many Holes” that NICS has not the complete records, and states have not incentive to report records of people who have prior criminal records and should not own guns. In addition, according to the research in 2012, there is a big part of mental health records from the last two decades can not be found in the NICS. Therefore, the system loophole results in people with criminal records escape the background checks and have access to guns is a significant cause of gun violence (2014, para. 14).

Even though anyone can buy a gun from a private vendor, some mentally ill people can slip through the federal mental health system and purchase a gun from a federally approved vendor. The current administration is pointing their fingers at the mentally ill and not focusing on the corruption of the actual mental health system. Under the federal law, a mentally ill person does not have the right to possess or purchase a gun from a legal vendor but only if they are involuntarily committed to a mental hospital or if the government declares the person mentally ill. (Shortell 1). After the eighteenth mass shooting of 2018 Trump called for a focus on mental health. Although the current administration says that this is their new focus, Trump revoked a bill that added mentally ill people to gun check register which is a step backward in the prevention of shooting caused by the mentally ill. ( Korosec 2) The few laws that are actually passed often have loopholes. For example, through the Baker Act, anyone who is involuntarily committed is placed on a federal registry designed to prevent them from buying a firearm; however, only about 2 percent of Baker Act commitments in are involuntary. Individuals who agree to a voluntary commitment still retain the right to purchase a firearm.

Since 1982, there have been over 85 mass shootings in the United States. Of those 85 shootings, three quarters of the weapons used were obtained legally. That means that our background check system has failed. If purchasers were required to undergo a mental health evaluation, numerous lives would be saved. Many mass shooters have shown previous signs of mental instability. Take Jared Loughner, the man who opened fire at a public constituent meeting in a Tucson, Arizona supermarket parking lot wounding 13 people and killing 6. Loughner had been showing signs of mental illness for years. He was even suspended from college for disrupting class and showing bizarre behavior. The college told him he needed to be cleared by a mental health professional before he could return. Instead, Loughner dropped out of school. In addition to his disruptions at school, he had many run ins with law enforcement. In fact, on the day of the shooting,

Many remember December 14th of 2012 when Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 students and 6 members of the faculty of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Mr. Lanza was a troubled man, enough so that he was driven to shoot his own mother and take possession of her weapons which he would use to wreak havoc on the school whose name would go down in history. A report released...by Connecticut’s Attorney for the District of Danbury says...guns and ammunition involved...at Sandy Hook Elementary were legally purchased by Nancy Lanza [his mother] and then stolen by her son, Adam. One would have to be delusional to believe that Adam would not have found a way to inflict this violence, and that is the unfortunate reality; however, one must wonder whether or not

State laws that prohibit groups associated with high risk, such as domestic violence offenders, those with severe mental illness, and those that commit violent misdemeanors, from the possession of guns has been documented to have a reduced effect on violence. The number of state laws that prohibit individuals with a domestic violence restraining order from owning guns has resulted to close to a 19 percent reduction in domestic homicides (Webster, Vernick, Bulzacchelli, 530). A universal background check for the various states alongside the other laws which are meant to increase the accountability between the purchasers and sellers of guns have had a significantly positive impact in the reduction of the number of guns that have found their way to the illegal market scene. Illegal markets are where these prohibited groups often obtain their firearms. Background checks will genuinely diminish the number of guns entering the illegal market, which will result into the reduction of unstable individuals from obtaining

According to the article a three year old girl was faitily shot and killed in d.c in a second-floor apartment at Benning Terrace by a child playing with a gun. D.C police said a child had a gun in his hands and fired it, turning a innocent summer time play into tragedy when a bullet struck 3 year old Dallas cox in the chest. The police also said we have no reason to belive that it is anything other than an accident, so what we are looking at is how the gun got into the house.

As the daughter of a victim of gun violence I know what it is like to hear about this rising issue and instantly feel pained. Gun violence not only harms those that have been injured or killed, but it takes a lot from close relatives and friends. Within in the past few years it has become normal to hear about this act of violence occurring in America. According to GunViolenceArchive.org, there have been a total of 14,259 incidents in 2016 thus far. This is shocking because the year just began a few months ago and this number is extremely high. The big question is why is this number so high? The gun violence rate in America has inclined over the years and if nothing is being set in place to stop or control it, it will only get worse as the years continue. The Washington Post’s article, “Gun Violence in America is out of Control” is simply stating that the gun violence in America is out of hand and as citizens we need to be aware of this issue and keep that in mind when we are voting for our next president. (Washington Post) In Vox.com’s article, “Gun violence in America, in 17 maps and charts” express that America is one of the most violent countries in the world and gun violence is happening more frequently because of the easy access of guns. (Vox) Both sources recognize that gun violence in America has reached an all-time high, but I agree with Vox’s argument because

This question is more relevant today than ever. Gun violence is a key topic in news and discussions today due to the Florida school shooting. Personally, for me, it hits home since I work in an elementary school. When you work in a school, a shooting is one of your biggest deepest fears. After hearing about the Florida shooting, everyone in school was talking about it and still are. In fact, yesterday, I had a student tell me “did you know that there was a shooter in Florida that killed students, it happened on Valentine’s Day." I was speechless, what can you respond with? This day in age you can’t promise them that is won’t happen here. All I could say was “I know, it is very sad what happened.” I think that there is a lot of problems that

The crime that this paper will focus on and try to dissect/solve will be civilian mass shootings or as the Federal Bureau of Investigation refers to them, active shooter incidents, where a person(s) goes out into a public setting and tries to kill or injure others on purpose (FBI). The first problem with these types of incidents is gun control because the weapons that are used for these are guns that can be purchased from a store, and even if someone is to pass all the requirements to obtain and use one that does not mean that they should have one because of the risks involving not only them but anyone who might have access to the gun. Then there is the issue of mental health, not just mental illness, because besides anyone with

Many innocent lives each year are taken away because most states do not have laws particularly dealing with private dealers administering background checks. Background checks are needed to make sure that clients who are purchasing firearms will not use the gun to endanger themselves or others. However, even in the states where background checks are administered the laws still consist of many loopholes; some of these include, not checking for mental illnesses that the client might have , not following up on the client after they purchased the gun, and how private sellers and many states are not administrating strict and complete background checks., “Researchers confirm that universal background checks laws effectively improve public safety and