Every time one turns on the news it seems like there is another shooting somewhere in the United States. People who tend to hurt people or one with mental problems can easily buy a gun without a question. Mainly in the southern part of America, people argue that anyone should be able to have a gun to protect themselves and it is in their rights as an American to do as they please. I do not believe we should take away guns period, but I do believe that gun violence is a major issue and there are many precautions people should take to prevent this problem from rising further. If we use certain regulations, then it will help to make the United Sates more safe for its residents, and also for the people visiting the country. There have been several mass shootings within just a few years. Recently there was one of the biggest historical mass shootings in Las Vegas, where tons of people went to attend a Jason Aldean concert and the ending was not one that they had hoped for. Aldean started singing, and then suddenly people heard a sound almost like fireworks, as said by victims. Videos from the victims’ phones showed them running past people who were bleeding while laying on the ground. From “Mass Casualty Shootings”, “the number of annual active shooter incidents has increased dramatically over the past 15 years, from 1 incident in 2000 to 20 in 2015. In addition, the number of people killed or injured annually in active shooter incidents has increased by more than 100%
What if an individual could acquire a gun like you buy a pair of shoes whatever size or color you want? Could you imagine what it would be like? The mere thought of every person in the city walking around with guns is frightening. That will be the United States if Congress does not put stricter policies in place to control the situation. When looking at the news, or reading the paper or even surfing the web you will see overwhelming statistics. According to the USA Gun Violence Statistics, More than 30,000 people are killed by firearms each year in this country and More than 30 people are shot and murdered each day, 1/2 of them are between the ages of 18 and 35 and 1/3 of them are under the age of 20. Gun violence has caused terror and fear across the country due to the attacks on innocent people like Sandy Hook Elementary, where a 20 year old killed 20 children and 6 adults, a Shooting Frenzy at Fort Hood in 2009, or the movie goer who was shot and killed for texting in the movie theater, and Jordan Davis who was shot while in his car at a gas station in Jacksonville Florida, and we will never forget the massacres at Columbine and Virginia Tech. How many more people will have to die or become injured in these senseless acts of violence before changes are made to this problematic situation? Innocent individuals are being gun down for no apparent reasons. Enough is enough; I’m not saying that we should completely do away with the right to “Bear arms”; but the policies
The future of America is based off the choices of my generation and the generations after. I feel that a domestic policy issue that could have a strong impact on my generation’s future is gun control because we take advantage of guns and treat them like toys. Gun violence is at an all-time high and regulating gun usage could make my peers make better choices regarding guns, which could possibly decrease the amount of deaths due to gun violence.
Gun Violence is a major problem in the United States, it leads to a lot of deaths every day. The area of focus is the United States of America. More controls need to be put on guns to make America a safer nation. More than 30,000 people are killed each year in this country due to guns. There are some questions that haven’t been answered like, Amendments that need to be made to reduce the availability of guns. At the point when American threats with Britain began on April 19, 1775, the Continental Congress had no standing armed force, no stores of weapons and munitions, no naval force, and no navy ships. The Continental Congress revitalized volunteers to join the battle against the British. Farmers and tradesmen conveying their own black powder guns framed a volunteer army along the street from Boston to Concord, Massachusetts, discharged the first shot of the Revolution, and battled again on Bunker Hill in Charlestown on June 17. As a result, the Constitution of the United States was embraced in 1787 on the condition that a Bill of Rights would be included. The initial Ten Amendments to the Constitution, including the Second Amendment, were sanctioned by Congress on December 15, 1791. The Second Amendment states: 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. The historical backdrop of
What are some answers to reduce America’s gun violence? In the following, I will describe America’s problem concerning gun violence, some solutions and the best solution to solve this problem.
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
When it comes to gun control, a considerable number of people assume it is the guns that cause the deaths that mass shootings and firearm crimes see. However, there shall never be a direct focus on the firearms themselves, but instead a focus on those who are using said weapons. Take a moment to stop and ask yourself, will a handgun kill somebody if it is just sitting on a table. No, that will never happen, to cause a gunshot to go off a being has to handle the firearm. The last thing needed in America is for mentally unstable people or a convicted felon/criminal being the one behind the trigger. Mistakenly Americans want control on the guns themselves, instead of also controlling the people buying the arms. Which the way to manage who gains access to weapons is to simply make the background checks more vigorous. Along with background checks, make new stipulations on who can buy and handle weapons and keep track of all gun sales, this includes private dealers.
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.
Mass shootings are a huge epidemic in the United States right now. Many people live in fear of another mass shooting. Two important facts to know about mass shootings is what exactly a mass shooting is and how often they occur. CNN’s authors used the Gun Violence Archive to define a mass shooting in his article “A Visual Guide; Mass Shootings in America” as “any incident where four or more people are wounded or killed”(Willingham). The frequency of mass shootings depends on which source you look at; using the definition given by CNN as well statistics, the United States has seen “136 mass shootings in the first 164 days of this year”(Willingham). However, author Sam Harris has a staggeringly different statistic in his blog article “The Riddle of the Gun”. Harris claims that “seventy mass shootings have occurred in the U.S. since 1982, leaving 543 dead” (Harris). Harris’s article is three years older than CNN’s article, yet the facts are staggeringly different by an amount that is nearly impossible to reach in three years. The definitions the two articles used for defining mass shootings are obviously different, but are both capable of informing the reader on the statistics of mass shootings frequency.
This article states the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and how it lists the United States as the country with the highest rate of firearm violence among modern communities. On average, about 33,000 people are killed by gun violence each year. On an average day 96 Americans are killed with guns, there are nearly 13,000 gun homicides a year in the United States, 50 women are shot to death by their intimate partners and for every one person killed with guns, two more are injured. Black people are 10 times more likely to be killed by guns than any other race. The impact of gender and age says that 87% of gun deaths occurred in boys and 13% occured in girls. Boys were seven times more likely to be killed by guns than girls,
In light of the mass shooting in Umpqua, Oregon earlier this month, President Obama 's sobering remarks made a crucial point about the nature of Gun Violence in the United States. He remarked, "Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it ... We have become numb to this." As of this day, the United States has a little over one mass shooting every day. It occurs so frequently that people go back to their regular lives after the heavy media coverage is over, only to be outraged once it happens again a week or a month later. Consequently, this problem and the general public sentiment about it has become a stain on the face of this
To clarify, a mass shooting is defined as “the death of three or more people” (Diamond-Welch, 2013). Granted, deaths from mass shootings only comprise less than half of 1% of gun violence in America; however, mass shootings are an increasing concern, affecting people more often than ever before. Because mass shootings have become a more recurrent event in American society—about 190 mass shootings in 2016 alone— it has come to be classified as a social problem since it jeopardizes the safety of American people (“Mass Shooting Tracker,” n.d.). Likewise, mass shootings can be considered a social problem because society has deemed it a mounting issue due to the rising death toll, and because there is a solution to mass shootings: gun restrictions (Carl,
Mental health and mass shootings seem to go hand in hand, especially when the talk of gun laws comes up.The debate about gun laws getting stricter due to the mass shootings across the country has been stewing for about 18 years now. What sparked the debate was back in 1999, Columbine High School was involved in a mass shooting killing 12. This is one of the many examples that could define the gun violence and mass shootings in our country. As there seems to be a direct correlation between gun violence and mental illness.Now rather than enforcing stricter gun laws in the wake of recent gun violence events, the federal government should fund mental health programs.
On October 1, 2017 America was, yet again, devastated when Las Vegas suffered the United States worst mass shooting. One man killed over 50 people and injured 527. After he was finished firing from the 39th floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort, he committed suicide. His name was Stephan Paddock (Yan and Park). When most people think of a mass shooting, they think of a terroristic act or someone shooting at a large group of innocent citizens, like Columbine High School or Sandy Hook Elementary School. In actuality, most people do not realize that whenever two or more people are injured or killed by a gun, it is considered a mass shooting. These “mass shootings” happen every day in America and they are one of the leading causes of death in
I am not advocating that guns should be completely removed from the streets and homes of our society because, as proposed by Peter Van Uhm, “there are times when the only option between good and evil is a gun” (Van Uhm). Nevertheless, gun ownership and possession should be more closely monitored and regulated. Guns should only be used when necessary and not just shown off as some type of accessory. Laws need to be made more stringent to ensure that this is the case. “In the 10-year period from November 30, 1998 to December 31, 2008, about 96 million background checks for gun purchasers were processed through the federal background check system. Of these approximately 1% were denied” (Agresti, and Cardone). Our society is making it very easy for individuals to get obtain firearms. Many laws need to be reformed, especially those pertaining to assault weapons and the number of guns an individual is allowed to own.
Gun Vilence has been considered a public health crisis for some time. It has been a constiant battle to fund studies, adn pass more legilative measures ( Nelson, 2017).