The Honourable Mr. President,
Gun violence has become a great problem for our society in the recent years. Data from Every Town Reasearch has shown In their article Gun Violence by the Numbers “...that on an average day, 93 Americans are killed with guns...For every one person killed two are injured” Many will deny that gun violence is a problem, but it is. After more research I have found that over 62% of the deaths are suicide, and just over 1,642 people killed were accidental. There is something wrong here, and something needs to change soon. If so many of these deaths are accidental, and suicides there must be something wrong in our society.
Many focus on the amount of homicides and mass shootings occurring. Which is indeed a problem too, however it is actually significantly lower than it was back in the late to early 90’s. In 2015 there were 12,979 homicides. In the Article Gun Homicide Rate Down by 49% since 1993 by pew research “.In 2010, there were 3.6 gun homicides per 100,000 people, compared with 7.0 in 1993…” according to these statistics homicide has dropped drastically over the years. Yes, this is a very good thing, but rates are still very high. However I think that homicides are not necessarily the main problem here.
I believe to reduce gun violence we need to go right to the majority of what it is. In this case it would be suicide. One article Suicide and Self- inflicted Harm published by the center for control and disease states there the “deaths per
On Friday, October 24th, things appeared normal, and in an instant, they changed. During the busy lunch hour, Jaylen Fryberg opened fire on his classmates, resulting in the death of one student, and the wounding of four others. After his actions, he committed suicide. His description fits into the template of a typical good kid - prince of his homecoming court, a volunteer in his community, an athlete. A good kid, yes, yet a good kid that decided to perform a mass shooting. After the incident, the hundreds of published articles discussed the underlying mental health problems that Fryberg apparently had, and blamed them for his act. However, little evidence links the two, since ninety six percent of gun violence have no connection to someone mentally ill. When gun violence occurs, mental illness should not serve as the main reason behind it.
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.
Imagine heartbreak, loved ones dying, and losing hope. This has transpired for many in America today, all because of gun violence. It has become a great problem for our society in recent years. Data from Every Town Research has shown In their article Gun Violence by the Numbers “...that on an average day, 93 Americans are killed with guns...For every one person killed, two are injured” Many will deny that gun violence is a dilemma, but it is. Most do not realize this but, over 62% of the deaths that occur are suicides, and just over 1,642 people killed by gun violence were accidental. There is something very wrong here, and something needs to change quickly. If so many of these deaths are incidental, and
An evolving and highly debated problem that continues to grow in our society, is the gun control epidemic. Gun violence in America is a national epidemic. Many people carelessly take advantage of Gun use and manipulate the tool without much thought to any repercussions. Many lives have been loss due to people legally or illegally obtaining guns and taking matters upon themselves to be executioners in holding other people's lives in their hands. Specifically, ongoing gun violence in schools have become a horrific catastrophe. It is putting student lives at risk, in a place that is supposed to facilitate a certain level of safety for the students. According to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, there was 558 gun incidents in schools
What makes gun control reform even more difficult is that many Democrats themselves can’t support gun control without risking their seats. Many representatives or senators come from districts and states that vote Democrat for different reasons, such as union strength in the Midwest or rising immigration numbers in the Southwest. However, states like Wisconsin, Florida, or New Mexico also are strong supporters of guns, putting Democratic lawmakers in a precarious position (Scher 2017). This split in the party makes it nigh on impossible for bills to get anywhere. Indeed we saw this to be true after the Sandy Hook shooting. Senator Dianne Feinstein has been a passionate advocate for gun control nearly her entire tenure as a Senator, becoming one of the leading Democratic senators in the push for gun control (Friedman 2013). Feinstein represents a state where gun control measures such as assault weapons bans are extremely popular (California), so there is no constituent fear from her to back off gun control (Wheaton 2017). After the Sandy Hook shooting, Senator Feinstein introduced a new Assault Weapons bill to replace the previous one which had expired in 2004. It made the sale, manufacture, or transfer of 150 semi-automatic weapons illegal, which had features like magazine releases and thumbhole stocks, restricted large capacity magazines, and used a one feature test to determine whether or not a gun was an assault weapon (Feinstien 2013). Democratic majority leader Harry
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.
Do you feel Gun violence has taken a bad effect on taxpayers? I do, because even if your family member hasn’t been shot or killed, it still hurt you in a way. When a person has been killed in a certain state, and the killer is a part of that state. The state happens to give away four Thousand dollars to help cover the funeral costs. If you didn’t know, that’s coming from our taxes. When a person have been shot and wounded, your taxes are being taking and helping paying for medication to keep that person out of pain. Even when the killer gets caught, your taxes will be still be a risk, because killers has to eat too.
Gun violence has been around for centuries and there have been many mass shootings, homicides and suicides. There is always the argument on “do guns kill people” or “do people kill people”? What people really need to be looking at is the problem which is people stocking up on guns and not knowing how to properly handle them and all the mass shootings that are taking place. As a country, people need to be coming up with solutions instead of doing nothing.
According to the 2010 study there were 31,672 fatalities due to firearms. The following year the number went up to 32,163. Homicides that are a result from guns are relatively high in the States and they take more than eleven thousand lives a year. According to Vision for Humanity, an initiative for the Economics and Peace, the United States is ranked 99 out of 162 countries in the 2013 global peace index, homicide rates and violent crimes are among the various criteria used to determine the ranking (Vision of Humanity). Mass shootings at work places, schools, shopping malls and places of worship are happening in an alarming frequency. While the Newtown shooting is one of the horrific ones, it certainly isn’t the only one that happened in the last two years alone. There were several other mass shootings that took the lives of many all across America. While there are other significant problems in America that need our attention, in my opinion, increasing rate of Gun violence is the most significant problem in American that needs to be addressed.
As of November 29, 2016, there have been a total of 13,528 deaths and 27,894 injuries in the US that were caused by gun violence this year. This is an alarming statistic, especially when you consider that 354 mass shootings have contributed to the body count. 1952 of these deaths have been labeled accidental, which is almost as startling as the death toll itself. (@GunDeaths) Gun violence is a problem that is not going to go away unless there is action taken to combat it. A lack of gun education, weak gun regulation, and government indifference towards gun violence in the country has allowed gun violence to become a bit out of control in the modern era, but with proper gun education for students and an effective government strategy to reduce gun violence, we can reduce gun violence in the US rapidly.
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 we all know gun violence has become an increasingly conflicted issue in the world and specifically in the United States. Gun violence is the leading cause of premature death in the United States as it kills almost 30,000 people and causes about 60,000 injuries annually. But guns are not the main cause of this problem. The problem is America's culture of violence. We need to understand that guns are not what’s killing people, people are what’s killing people. Although guns may enable killers to commit an act of violence more easily and effectively, stricter laws on guns would not necessarily dismantle the problem. Currently, guns are just a symptom to the real problem, which is our violent human nature. For decades, we have been dousing
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
day in America, around 85 are killed (33 of those are homicides). 97,820 were shot last year. This is really a serious problem we should think about, despite we
According to the past summaries ledgers provided by GunViolenceArchive.org the number of gun related incidents has increased over the past three years, along with the number of children deaths. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the charts, the number of deaths has been steadily increasing over the past three years by about 1,000 deaths, a crazy number that should be going in the opposite direction.