Persuasive Essay On Gun Violence

Many teenagers and even adults feel worthless and depressed and give up on life. Instead of taking action and getting help to solve their life problems, these people choose to commit suicide. There are about 30,000 suicide deaths per year. This number is outrageously high. One out of every 45 attempts of suicide actually succeeds. Whether suicide attempters succeed or fail, all depends on how easy it is for them to get the resources they want to use for this task, especially firearms. Deborah Azrael, a research associate at Harvard’s Research Center, found that when guns were predominant in a state, suicide rates were higher. The inverse of this statement was also correct, in states where guns were not prevalent, suicide rates were lower. Many lives would be saved, many suicides would be prevented, and many families would be able to avoid heartbreak and despair, if firearms were not accessible in the United

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.

This means more than half of the suicide in America was done using a firearm. Perhaps the use of firearms use in suicides are high is because it is also reported by GunPolicy that, “The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in the United States is 270,000,000.” Also it is important to take in an account that this number possibly can be much greater because illegal guns and unregistered guns might not be included. With this amount of guns in America, someone with the passion to kill someone or themselves, the most convenient way to commit suicide or kill someone would be to obtain one of the million guns across America. The number of suicides from firearms are so high because the availability to obtain the potentially greater 270,000,000 guns in America. Gun control laws can potential decrease passion crimes and suicides. In Australia, they have passed guns laws that have reduced homicides and suicides. The law that made it possible for the decrease in firearm suicides and homicide for civilians is that

Another consideration is whether firearm violence is more a matter of harm to self or others. Suicides account for 61 % of all firearm fatalities in the United States in 2010 as recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (qtd. In Bowen, Injury 2015). In spite of such evidence, Gallup polling data from 2013 showed that 48 % of adult Americans blame the mental health system a great deal for mass shootings in the United States, whereas fewer 40 % blame easy access to guns; an inadequate mental health system is perceived as the top cause of mass shootings (qtd. In Bowen, Saad 2013).

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.

Gun law advocates argue that gun control laws diminish the amount of weaponry in the streets, and, by extension, in the hands of criminals. Likewise, gun control will diminish suicide. There were 464,033 total gun deaths between 1999 and 2013: 270,237 suicides (58.2% of total deaths); 174,773 homicides (37.7%); and 9,983 unintentional deaths (2.2%) (CDC, 2014). If perhaps, one of these families had a surviving brother or sister, mother or father, due to the current policies, it is worth enacting change. It is inhuman to allow people to die by firearms when they could simply be banned. In light of the recent mass shootings, families are left with the lingering wonder as to whether these national tragedies could be prevented. Criminals can easily

More than 89 people die from gun violence every day and out of those 89 people, two- thirds of them are suicides. Guns displayed around the house make it three times more likely for suicides to occur (Gun Violence 2). Every day, out of seven children and teens that die from gun violence, two kill them themselves. Out of 41 children and teens that are shot and survive every day, one of those 41 survive from a suicide attempt. 89 people that die every day from gun violence, 55 of them kill themselves. Every day, 208 people are shot and survive and ten of those people survive a suicide attempt (Key Gun Violence Statistics 2). In one year on average 827 out of 2,677 kids kill themselves and 280 out of 14,822 kids survive a suicide attempt (Key Gun Violence Statistics 2). In our communities, hundreds and thousands of people commit suicide with a gun (Fact Sheet: New Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence and Make our Communities Safer 2). “Firearms were used in 19,392 suicides in the U.S. in 2010, constituting almost 62% of all gun deaths. Over 50% of all suicides are committed with a firearm. On average, 49 gun suicides were committed each day for the years 2005- 2010. White males, about 40% of the U.S. population, accounted for over 80% of firearm suicides in 2010. Firearms were used in nearly 44% of suicide deaths among persons under

In 1996 (the most recent year for which data are available), 34,040 people died from gunfire in the United States. Of these deaths, approximately 54 percent resulted from suicide, 41 percent resulted from homicide, and 3 percent were unintentional. Firearm injuries are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. In addition, for every fatal shooting, there are roughly three nonfatal shootings. Gun-related crime peaked in the late 1980 's and early 1990 's. Since that time, the United States has made steady improvement in reducing gun-related violence. Gun-related homicides have declined by 33 percent since 1993, including a 35-percent drop in handgun homicides. Meanwhile, from 1992 to 1996, murder rates declined by 20 percent, aggravated assaults by 12 percent, and the

According to the quote above from the Centers for Disease Control, “there were 21,175 suicides in 2013 using a firearm and roughly 42,773 suicide deaths happen every year… Firearms account for almost 50% of all suicides” claims the AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) "Suicide Statistics - AFSP." AFSP. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2016. This is why firearm owners need frequent background checks to prevent citizens with disorders to own firearms! Because guns fall into the hands of unstable people all the time, and by emplacing gun control laws into motion we can stop giving people guns and putting those around them at risk for injury or worse:

Gun ownership should be controlled and limited because of the high rate of firearm related deaths. Though numbers are decreasing, over 35,000 US citizens die from gun wounds every year. Nearly 11,000 of these die from murders. Most of these victims are unreasonably young, which is why gun violence is one of the leading causes of premature death in the U.S. In addition to these deaths, in 2010, there were an estimated 337,960 non-fatal violent crimes committed with guns.

First of all, gun control don’t prevent suicides at all. The country of Lithuania has one of the highest suicide rate in the world. At 45.06 suicides per 100,000 people, it is the 5th highest. In Lithuania there are only 0.7 guns every 100 people. The US has 330 million people with 300 million guns

Finally, the number of firearm-related suicide decreased by means of gun control. Augustine (2013) suggested that there were 152,030 gun suicides in the United States at the age of 10 years old and from 1999 to 2007, and more than half of suicides were related firearms, and the risk of suicide at home increased are related to the availability of guns; another report claims that the American gun-carry cause the high rate of suicide among developed countries, and higher gun ownership may lead to the higher risk of suicide, some states in the American government are inclined to allow to purchase the firearms and the availability of the guns were also increased the risk of suicide, and a large number of researches shows that the highest death rate

Another reason is that because of owning guns, suicide rates increase. Dailyreporter.com says Bren Smitley, 46, went to a gun store and shot himself in Greenfield, 9th March, 2016. He had a note with him that said he did it on purpose. Bren was pronounced dead at the scene. Further, dailymail.co.uk states 5 people were shot in Washington on 26th February, out of which 4 died. the Father shot the family and then committed suicide by shooting himself a few hours later. A 12 year old girl, thought to be his daughter, survived and was taken to the hospital. Also, Dailymail.co.uk says that a 17-year-old teen thought his girlfriend was having an affair with a 25-year-old army veteran. In his suspicion, he called both, the vet and his girlfriend,

Firearms contribute to high suicide rates. Fire arms are different than other suicide methods in one key aspect: attempts are much more likely to be fatal. Other means of attempting suicide are take time, less reliable, and more likely to survive and get counseling. Harvard Injury Control Research Center find that the fatality rate of suicide attempts with a firearm exceed 90%, compared with a fatality rate of less than 5% for other common suicide methods (117). The suicide with gun is biggest concern in teenagers and young adulthood. When many people experiencing, pronounced emotional and social difficulties without having the life experience or maturity to put them into

19,400 (61%) were suicides. Gun control has been big issue for several years in the United States. Every day, lot of people lose their lives unnecessarily. We do not forget a gunman killed 20 children and six adults in Newton some years ago. Congress should make new gun laws to take guns from the hand of criminal and irresponsible persons. Some against gun control have argued that gun control laws are a violation of citizen rights because the Second Amendment gives a right for citizen to have a gun. Also, it is important for self- defense as “guns do not kill people but people kill people” (Zimring), but the fact is some people do not use guns for self-defense, but they use them for harm and murder. However, gun control is very important to protect the citizen, and Congress should revise our nation’s gun laws for three main reasons, to reduced homicide, suicide, and to create a save environment.