Guns And Mass Shootings

A shooting here; a shooting there; an every day occurrence heard in the newspapers and on the news channels on television. New media are reporting a shooting somewhere. Whether the shootings are accidental or intentional; they are happening across the United States. Nevertheless, in today’s society, gun violence is sparking debate and controversy on how to control gun violence. Throughout the country, thousands of laws and regulations have been created to aid in the control of guns. Through much study, the gun laws and regulations in place have very little effect on the number of gun related injuries and deaths. More needs to be done to establish an effective way to control gun violence.

The issue of gun control begins with the careless distribution of firearms and how easy they are to obtain. In the United States, many mass killings by gunmen in civilian settings set

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.

Mass shootings in the U.S have many different causes as to why they occur. USA Today mentions that breakups, estrangements and family related problems make up the majority of mass killings. Although, many seem to blame gun violence and mental illnesses. Mass shootings can also involve a failed security system such as mistakes in the mental health system and gun control. (USA Today, 2013.) People question whether or not people with mental illness should be allowed to obtain a gun, while others argue that guns can provide safety when used correctly.

As the population increases its stocks on firearms, a significant number of citizens are at risk of being harmed. According to statistics, “In 2000, almost 30,000 persons died from firearm injuries in the United States more than the number of deaths from, alcohol abuse, or drug abuse… [in spite of] almost 20,000 laws and regulations regulating gun usage to some degree” (Kwon and Baack). Though several individuals are in fear of losing guns as weapons for protection, a greater number of laws will continue to be useful in maintaining the security of citizens upon significant new laws addressing gun control. Although the existence of guns is necessary to protect bear arms, gun control laws help reduce violence, decrease the homicide rate, and help prevent accidents from around the globe. New gun control laws should be enforced to ensure the safety of the entire population, and most importantly to prevent any gun violence as necessary to help save the lives of the innocent.

1. Blum, D., & Jaworski, C. G. (2016). From suicide and strain to mass murder. Society, 53(4), 408-413. Retrieved from ProQuest database.

Without a doubt there is a lot of violence on the news today, from mass shootings to murder almost every day. The violence happening should have schools and work places concerned and working better security to their environment. Mass shootings that have occurred over the years such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Aurora Movie Theater and the University of California had shooter that had been diagnosed with one or more mental issue. In the article by Jonathan Metzel, he explained each of the three shootings that are listed above in detail. Jessica Jigmond stated in her article that by voting having better gun laws could help prevent shootings to occur and killing innocent people. The last article Guns, Schools, and

In the United States, mass shootings have been an issue for decades. The latest being the Las Vegas shooting where 58 people were killed and 546 people were injured. This is just one of many examples of the shootings that have taken place within this nation. Statistics from CNN also show that in the last ten years, four of the five deadliest shootings have occurred. (Willingham, Ahmed) The lack of strictness which the United States has on the ability to obtain guns gives leeway for these incidents to happen. When thinking about the safety of the citizens of the nation, one can argue that there needs to be better policies put in place to ensure fewer deaths which are caused by gun violence. While many can argue the Second Amendment prevents

people and the cops can’t trace the gun back to the suspect. There has been 133 mass shootings in the U.S. between January 2005 to July 2009. The mass shooting in Las Vegas killed 58 people and injured 500 others. A church shooting in Texas killed 20 people. In order for it to be a mass shooting it has to kill more than 3 or 4 people. 3 out of 4 mass shootings in the U.S. came from kids under the age of 19. On Jan. 17, 1989 a man killed 5 children and wounding 30 other students and teachers before killing himself. Shooters in some of the deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. history carried models of the country’s most popular types of weapons.

As a result of the Las Vegas Massacre, people are demanding political action to be taken. Mass shootings have been almost too regularly occurring in the past ten years. In fact, just in our current year, “there have been two hundred and seventy three mass shootings in the United States” (Fox 1). This number averages to seven and a half mass shootings per week! These staggering numbers are pressing a very real issue to our leader on gun control laws. A mass shooting has no true definition but follows a strict criteria.According to the Gun Violence Archive, which receives data from shooting incidents, a "mass shooting" is any incident in which a gunman kills four or more people, selects victims randomly, and attacks in a public place (Fox 1). It is necessary for action to be taken in order to decline the occurrence of gun violence. The topic of gun control has sparked great controversy amongst Americans. Protests regarding this issue has led me to research gun control to see how heavily it corresponds with mass shootings. Are more strict gun control laws essential to low gun- related crimes in the United States?

Gun violence, and solutions to decrease the amount of gun violence and mass shootings, has always been an issue in Presidential elections, and 2016 is no exception. In a country where there have been, according to a study by the CDC and reported by CNN, there have been over 406,000 American gun deaths from 2001 to 2015, compared to the number of Americans killed by terrorist attacks, slightly over 3,000 in that same timeframe (Bower and Jones). Every candidate running for the Presidency has their own solution to gun violence, from regulation and control of firearms to making it easier to purchase a gun, to some wanting to keep the status quo. There is a proposed gun control solution that does enjoy broad support across most of the public and even gun owners themselves, the expansion of background checks. With the broad reach of support that this has, and its implementation being relatively small in its size and scope, as well as proven results in the 17 states that have implemented this, expanding background checks for firearm sales should be done in order to reduce gun violence and mass shootings nationwide

There were 327 public mass shootings within America in 2015, in all killing 475 innocent people and even wounding 1,870. As of present day America, this issue has began to exacerbate. Since the past couple of years not only has the number of gun ownership grown, but so have the crime rate within using guns have increased. Numerous people have advocated to slowly recover this issue. Which is why public gun laws should have a greater amount of restrictions because more controlled laws would reduce gun deaths, in addition to that stricter public gun laws would prevent the number of legally owned guns stolen by criminals and would reduce societal costs that are associated with gun violence.

On April 20th, 1999, the deadliest mass murder ever committed on an American high school campus took place. Two senior students of Columbine High School, armed with four automatic guns, killed 13 innocent people and injured 24, all due to the unrestrictive gun laws in the US (“Where’d They Get Their Guns?”). The Columbine massacre is just one example of the many horrors that guns inflict upon U.S. society. Currently, over 31,000 US citizens die each year due to gun-inflicted wounds (Welcome to WISQARS). Many receive no media attention, but in those that do, the guns are usually obtained by unlawful means. More laws regulating the purchase and sale of guns should be increasingly implemented and strongly enforced throughout the USA in order to reduce the high incidence of gun violence caused by illegal gun trafficking and ownership.

It is impossible not to open a newspaper, watch the television, or listen to the radio with out hearing about some type of gun violence. Perhaps the main reason for such high gun violence is that guns are so plentiful in the Unites States. In fact, there are sixty five million handguns in America ("The `facts' about Guns"). These guns contribute to an annual medical cost of fourteen billion dollars, which is spent solely on treating gun victims ("Handguns in America"). Not surprisingly, handguns are the cause of eighty percent of homicides, seventy percent of suicides, and almost every accidental shooting ("Youth and Violence"). Handgun violence is a problem that is easy for everyone to see. How to solve this predicament is another

Just before this attack, the murderer shot and killed his mother (Barron). When the security units arrived at the crime scene, the assailant’s dead body was found. This is only one specific example, which shows people how someone can easily create terror by using guns. Another point is that gun violence does not only include creating terror or killing other people like in the example mentioned above. This approach is shown to have a weakness to describe the problem that people faced. Knox states that armed citizens using guns to defend themselves and their families, police using guns to stop criminals, hunters unintentionally shooting themselves or others in the field and people who use gun to take their own lives are the part of gun – related deaths (Webster, 5). In this essay, some basic reasons underlying the gun violence in the United States will be addressed, and some major precautions, which can avoid the deaths and severe injuries, will be discussed. Rational firearm laws and regulations and smart guns are going to be focused on as a