Last weekend a man posted up on the thirty-second floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. He stocked piled twenty-three weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. On Sunday, October 1, he opened fire on an outdoor country music festival, raining bullets for fifteen minutes on the terrified crowd of Americans. Fifty-eight people were murdered and more than five-hundred wounded. This was an act of violence far greater than anywhere else in the modern world, in fact it was the deadliest mass shooting in American history. I have been shaken to the core knowing that my cousin and three high school friends attended this concert that night and miraculously made it out alive.
The Gun Violence Achieve states, “there have been more than 1,500 mass shootings in America since Sandy Hook in December 2012”. It appears that America has been in a constant state of grief, prayer, and remembrance from these atrocities that we continue to see across our country. But yet after each horrific event, it is as if they recede into our memory without any changes implemented regarding gun violence and national safety. Our country is not hopeless. There are steps we can collectively take to prevent such mass shootings from tearing our country apart.
According to Simon Rodgers from the Guardian, America is the leader in developed countries for the most gun-related homicides. This is simply because there are far too many guns acquired through loose background checks and documentation. In 1996, Australia suffered a major mass shooting and twelve days later the Australian government announced a bipartisan deal to enact sweeping gun control measures. They banned automatic rifles and shotguns. Since this gun control legislation was passed, the gun homicide rate was almost halved and there has been zero mass shootings, according to Science Daily.
Epidemiologic Reviews, found that “law restrictions on owning and purchasing guns was followed by a drop in gun violence, indicating that government imposed restraints to gun access can save lives”. If our nation imposed tighter gun control laws like the Australian government, we would see a drop in gun-related violence across America.
Opponents of gun control regulations will argue
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.
Since 2013 there have been 268 school shootings in the United States alone (Everytown for Gun Safety, 2017). School gun violence is becoming increasingly probable. It is imperative that our government and our citizens come together to create a solution and implement a plan to prevent and stop the occurrence of school gun violence. The solution, for some, is to bring more guns into the picture by arming teachers, principals, and other school officials, or place armed police officers at school sites (LaPierre, 2015). For others, the solution is to make even stricter laws regarding gun use or to get rid of these weapons altogether. These certainly are drastic options; I must say that I do believe the true solution is to increase the focus on mental health services and by extension, mental health awareness. There is simply not enough focus on the mental health of our youth and of our students. Mental health services are the most important step to making schools safer, because this solution touches the entire problem of violence at its root level.
Unfortunately, the notion of schools being a safe place is no longer a trend across American schools. Disturbing mass shootings in the U.S continue to shock the media. A school shooting is when someone attacks a school using a gun. The Secret Service says these shootings are "deliberately selected as the location for the attack". The reasons massacres occur in schools is because of poor security, violence in video games/media, and bullying. Shockingly the U.S. has the most school shootings than any other country in the world. According to the FBI, mass shootings occur, on average, every 2 weeks in the U.S. While the cause of school shootings are sometimes unpredictable, it is a growing issue and they need to be prevented. Most shooters don’t have mental issues, they have a plan to kill, so there is no singular cause that creates violent people. On April 16th, 2007, the most deadly school massacre occurred. Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two students at Virginia-Tech. As Americans, we no longer should turn on the news and witness these gruesome murders. We try to make sense of these murders, but it’s ineffectual. There are measures we can take as a society to help. The number one question in a school massacre is, "why would a person that has a capable sense of mind even do that?” It is our moral responsibility to fix these issues. In order to stop this problem, we need to find its roots.
In recent years gun violence has increased significantly in various parts of the world. There are more cases of children and young adults engaging in violence or getting caught in the crossfire. Is there anyone to blame ? There has been debate over whether gun laws are strict enough and what else can be done to reduce such acts from occurring. With more lives being affected on a regular basis, more concerns arise as to how people can live safe lives when guns are being used in increasing numbers. It is shameful to say that almost every day you hear about some sort of gun violence affecting people either in your hometown or in another part of the world. It's sad isn't it ? where i live in chicago so fourth
As stated before mass shootings have increased drastically throughout the decades. Just within 2017, the number of mass shootings are 293 with several deaths and injuries, (“Gun Violence Archive”). Within the last 10 years, the deadliest mass shootings have occurred in America history, (CNN). Recently in Las Vegas, Nevada held a music festival for people to enjoy and listen to music, but a shooting changed the evening for many. A man was in an hotel near the event and shot down towards the people and killed a total of 58 people and injured at least 200, (CNN). The Orlando shooting was right behind it with a total of 49 dead, (CNN). Since this has become a part of our everyday lives, we rarely hear about all the mass shootings that kill not even into the double digits.
Using this definition, a 2016 study published in the journal Violence and Victims reported that 292 mass shooting incidents took place worldwide between 1966 and 2012; nearly one-third of these were in the United States.”(DiLascio, 2017). The statistics are the answer to whether or not limiting firearms in The United States will help in the overall goal of limiting firearm violence. Other Countries such as England and Japan have more regulations on firearms and it limits the firearm related murders in those Countries. “Have some of the tightest gun control measures in the world, also feature some of the world’s lowest gun homicide rates (per 100,000 people, 0.04 killings and 0.03, respectively).The United States, by contrast, has a rate of 3.42 gun murders per 100,000 people-100 times greater than England or Japan” (Ballaro, 2016). Over the years gun crime has decreased a lot. “ Although gun crime declined steadily throughout the 1990s and early 2000s-thanks in part, perhaps, to the assault weapons ban still in force at the time-it increased sharply in 2005 and has been on a steady rise since. In 2008, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bipartisan group of 300 US mayors, found that homicides from handguns were highest in states with the most lenient gun laws” (Ballaro,
I have been a student in the Thomas County School System ever since I started pre-school. During my time here, I have loved every minute of it, learning and having great experiences with friends and teachers here. Over the last four years of my high school experience, I have noticed that there have been more threats of bombings and shootings around the nation. Even though we do have a safe school and take precautions, there is still room for error. I am proposing that we make school a safer place for kids to learn by installing bulletproof glass as well as door-stoppers in each class.
A very controversial topic throughout the United States and the world is guns. As American citizens, we have a constitutional right to own a fire arm. But why is a gun so important and why is it such a huge part of the United States division of its people? The division starts with people using this Second Amendment to harm people. In recent years, mass shootings have become the norm for the United States and that outcome is not the purpose of the Second Amendment. These mass shooting happen everywhere from movie theatres to concert halls. But the majority of these mass shootings seem to happen at schools with innocent children aging from kindergarten to high school students. With the deaths of children in school rising, the urge to find a solution and develop prevention tactics have become top priority. Not only limiting the access to guns but finding out the reason behind the shootings will help aid in the fight to stop gun violence in schools.
Over the last decade or so, the United States of America has been shaken by an epidemic of terrifying mass shootings, devastating slayings of unexpecting victims, and unnerving annihilations of the innocent. There is no specific target, no explicitly sought-out group, nor definite individual. From a classroom of first-graders, to a crowded movie theatre, to a U.S. Naval yard, the location seems at most, random, other than that it is almost always a public place. The perpetrators responsible for these horrific murders also vary, and often surprise those who thought they knew them. However, while the occurrences of mass shootings are unpredictable and always shocking, most have one thing in
There are many problems in this world today. One main problem in the United States and all over the world is mass shootings. This problem is a huge one because it involves people killing other people and that is just unacceptable. In the last ten years there have been over 53 mass shootings in the United States, not including the rest of the world (Chris Wilson). In the last thirty-five years there have been seven-hundred and twenty-two and then one thousand one-hundred seventy-seven (Chris Wilson). If you look at the number of people that are killed or being wounded, you will notice that with new devices being introduced. One of the devices that have been introduced is a bump stock. This device is a stock for a semi-automatic rifle that can basically turn your semi-automatic rifle into a fully automatic rifle. They are considering making this attachment to a rifle illegal to the public.
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.
In the last ten months, since the start of the year 2015, proximally 300 mass shootings have taken place in the United States. This number is about 100 times the amount of mass shootings in Australia since their gun restricting bill was passed in 1996. This raises the discussion whether or not changing the American gun laws would help bring down the total of injuries and fatalities.
In Australia, they had a similar problem that we faced, but they implemented strict gun control after the Port Arthur Massacre in 1999, where 35 civilians were killed. These new laws were shown to be incredibly effective at curbing gun crime and a mass shooting has not occurred in Australia for almost 20 years. According to a 2010 study done by Andrew Leigh, a former professor at Australian National University and an Australian House of Representatives member, and Christine Neil of Wilfrid Laurier University, the new restrictions on guns in Australia have also reduced gun homicide and suicide rates by a whopping 60% and have cut gun deaths in half, despite the fact that the Australian population grew 14% in the last 20 years. As if this wasn’t enough proof that strict gun laws are effective, studies in the U.S. also show that more guns has a direct correlation with increased gun violence. Heather Timmons, in her article “Mapped: The US States With the Most Gun Owners-and Most Gun Deaths”, shows that states with more guns and weaker gun control have up to 33% more crime compared to states with strict gun control. Louisiana, a state with a gun death rate of 19 for every 100,000 people, has 45% of the population owning guns, while Hawaii, a state with a gun death rate of 2.2 for every 100,000 people, has only 6.7% of the population owning guns. The connection is clear, but gun lobbyists
Firstly, too many people were killed and injured in the music festival in Las Vegas last October, making it become the worst mass shooting in the US modern history.
Over 900 individuals have been killed in mass shooting events, and of those, over 150 were children or teenagers. The locations change, the numbers change, and the people change, but one thing remains the same: the guns. It is not just assault rifles or semiautomatics, shooters bring a wide