“Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages”. A very well said quote by Thomas Adison, who ironically talks about violence which can lead us humans to behave like animals. The thought of someone with a deadly weapon in a safe surrounding like a school is quite unsettling. A safe haven for our precious bundle of joys, an institution we send our kids to become better a human beings and to be a honest citizen of the country. But, what happens when this promise and faith is destroyed. When an outsider or sometimes the a classmate, whom you have grown up with ends up picking up the deadly weapon, only to destroy everyone’s lives including theirs too. Such was the case of the two most unsettling and horrific incidents occurred in our very own country. The Two Horrific Acts “Columbine High School shooting was one of the deadliest mass shootings in the history of United States. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers killed 13 people and wounded more than 20 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The incident drew worldwide attention. It led to widespread discussion over gun control and the prevention of school violence. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton, a suburb of Denver. At about 11 a.m. on April 20, the two arrived at the school with guns and homemade bombs. They set bombs in the school’s cafeteria, kitchen, and parking
According to History.com,“the Columbine shooting was, at the time, the worst high school shooting in [the] U.S.”. Recalling from this incident, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had planned this attack months prior. The two had originally planned bombing the school, but they failed to do so. Because their original plan backfired, they
School should be a place of peace and opportunity, but gaps in the system of gun control threatens the safety of faculty and students. School shootings have killed a total of 297 lives, young and old (Slate Magazine). Gun control has been a continuous nationwide debate for many years. It seems that no one wants to take a stance against guns unless they are personally affected. In order to take control of the matter and prevent more incidents from continuing schools need to change. To achieve a safe environment in schools need to educate faculty, safe and students, heighten security, and assess mental health issues.
"We are dealing with the largest mass shooting in our state's history," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (Tegna) On a peaceful November morning during a “Sunday service at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.” (Grinberg) A young man across the street from the church “was dressed in black "tactical-type gear" and wearing a ballistic vest he crossed the street in his car, got out and began firing he entered the church and continued shooting.”(Grinberg) During this time “a man who lives next door to the church grabbed his own rifle and engaged the suspect, The gunman dropped his "Ruger AR assault-type rifle" and fled. The neighbor chased after the gunman, police said. The chase ended when the shooter crashed his car about eight miles from
Change is eluding our sight. There is no doubt that the debate of gun control has been prominent for several years. However, very little in the way of change has occurred. The question has shifted from how to establish gun control, to how can we avoid gun control. We the people have reached a point of no self control. We have been swept away by the blur of freedom’s sweet kiss. We hold a real issue at hand, now is most certainly not the time to sit around and ponder about the issue, we must take action in order to keep our communities safe.
Every so often the media and news feeds flood with reports of a mass shooting. Families mourn. In the days that follow, calls to action can be heard, and there is a demand for change. Sometimes minor legislation passes, but in the United States extreme change is rarely seen. Other developed nations provide an opposite comparison. Following the Port Arthur shooting in Australia and the shooting in Great Britain, both countries organized for significant gun reform.
This country has a mental health issue. We don't want to talk about it because it makes us look vulnerable. There is no law that can fix this, you could literally go door to door and take every single firearm in this country and we would still see tragedies like this occurring. We have a shit ton of people in this country and people like to kill each other, it's just the way this works for some reason. The reality of it is this; these public shooters are more or less a statistical anomaly. They're comparatively rare in a country where people constantly use illegally-acquired firearms to commit murders every day.
Have you at any point felt terrified and unprotected? You know, that feeling you get when you 're strolling through a terrible piece of town alone and you understand that your telephone just kicked the bucket and there 's nobody around to hear you scream if something happened? Presently envision feeling that way wherever you go, constantly. This is the truth that we Joined States nationals would be living in if our legislature were to execute add up to firearm control. Completely there should be some control, and no uncertainty more stringent directions to possess and convey a firearm than we have now, yet removing weapons from all of us together would be a disaster!
On October 1st 2017, Steven Paddock shot and killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over the course of 12 minutes, Paddock committed the worst mass shooting in modern American history. We must honor the victims and respect their memory, but we have to ask ourselves what we will do to prevent this in the future. The first and completely valid response to that question is enacting stricter gun control, but there is much more than that. We can increase funding for mental health treatment, we can take stricter security measures at hotels and concerts, however there is something major that needs to be changed that hardly ever gets talked about. It’s something that we are used to, that we have seen all throughout our
Imagine a woman being stalked by a predator outside of her home. Over a few days, she tells the police and files a report, but the problem persists. She fears for her life and tries to find a way to protect herself and her loved one. As a last resort, she travels to her local gun store because she needs to buy a gun for her safety. Unfortunately, the cashier explains that she’ll need to wait for her gun because there is a waiting period to receive her firearm. She begs and pleads and tells the cashier her situation and all the things she has tried, but the man can’t break the law for her. Reluctantly, she gives in and heads back to her unsafe home, only to be later assaulted and killed before her weapon could get to her in time. This type of situation happens unfortunately to some people, and it is because gun control laws have implemented waiting periods to receive your weapon. But that however, is just one of the many gun control laws that should be abolished in order to take a step forward towards a better society.
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and leaving 17 injured at Virginia Tech. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza went on a shooting spree in Newtown, Connecticut, killing his mother before shooting 20 1st graders and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary. On June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured 58 others. Most recently on October 1, 2017, 58 people were killed and another 489 injured when Stephen Paddock fired onto the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest music festival. Many more mass shootings have happened where more innocent people have lost their lives. Gun control has been in debate for some period, some people advocate for it while others dissuade it. Now more than ever, changes must be made to better protect people from losing their lives to a shooter. To prevent future tragedies in the United States, there should be stricter gun laws enforcing a more advance psychological test, imposing a federal gun license, and have a 1 month waiting period to receive the gun.
Devin P. Kelley committed a mass shooting at a local Texas church. He was discharge from the Navy because he tried to kill his commanding officers. Devin P. Kelley escaped from a mental institution and was charged with domestic abuse,multiple misdemeanors and of mistreatment, neglect or cruelty to animals, and yet he was able to buy four guns legally (Rosenberg). That is the most recent example of why Americans need more gun control laws. Guns are not cool or makes you look good, they are a dangerous piece of machinery that Americans take advantage of. The average American in the right mindset should not want to own anything more than one handgun or rifle for hunting or protecting their household. Gun control reform that limits gun
Over the past two decades, rising gun control controversy among the American people alters the way Americans foresee firearms. Even today, controversies continue. The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights states that "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. (Brooks np)." In January of 2016, Obama announced his gun control plan. His plan would more strictly enforce current laws, including firearms (Smith np). People deserve the right to have firearms for the ability to protect, defend, and entertain themselves and others. The way people obtain information about firearms is the biggest controversy among the American people. The thought that "guns kill people," influences people, when in all reality, they need to understand that "people kill people." Although there are around 10,000 people killed in the United States each year from firearms, guns are not the primary conflict in the killings, the people behind the guns are (Brooks np).
Raise your hand if you have ever been victimized by a gun or know someone who has lost their life due to a firearm. Realize that if gun control laws in the united states were more strictly enforced a lot less of us will be raising our hands right now. The United States has a problem with gun violence. Great mass shootings and also school shootings have occurred in the past few years, bringing a great grief to America. Parents are scared to send their children to school or even attend any type of event due to these horrific events that have happened. Some Americans even want to ban the right to bear arms.
From 1988 to 2001, the usage of anti-depressant drugs in the general public increased by four-hundred percent (Swanson). The mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary took place in December of 2012, and during 2014, firearms were used in 88 percent of teen homicides, and 41 percent of teen suicides (“Suicidal Teens”). On February 28th, 2017, the Trump administration repealed a firearms regulation that prevented mentally disabled persons from owning guns. At the same time, teenage mental illness is on the rise, specifically in cases of depression and anxiety. A report from the Surgeon General shows that over 90 percent of adolescents that committed either suicide or homicide have or had a mental disability. Mental disabilities such as depression and anxiety put teenagers at a high risk for homicides and suicides. Teenagers who are stressed due to school, lack of parenting, puberty, bullying, and other factors can develop depression, anxiety or another mental illness. Allowing these teens easy access to firearms proves time and time again to be very dangerous. In some cases, the families of these teens have never been assessed to see if they can responsibly store firearms. The only background check performed is on the owner of the firearm, meaning that a person may own the weapon even if another family member living with them legally cannot. Loose gun control laws allow families with physiologically ill children to have access to firearms, without first checking to see if the disabled children in the home are responsible enough to be around said firearms. Repealing gun control laws instated by the Obama administration will cause an increase in adolescent firearm-related homicides, suicides, and tragedies similar to the one at Sandy Hook Elementary.
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.