The Epidemic
How would you react if you were informed that there was a cancer which, according to research conducted by Vox, from 2001-2013 has killed more United States Citizens than AIDs, illegal drug overdose, war, and terrorism combined? A vast majority would search for a cure the ailment, fight for justice for the victims, and seek to ensure that the epidemic was contained. It is an unfortunate truth that such a cancer exists in society today. We have tried to treat it, to avoid it, and in the end, we have swept it under the rug as an aspect of daily life. This cancer has no elaborate medical terminology, it is a simple two-word phrase that many of us are well acquainted with: Gun Violence. It is imperative that the people of this
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Officially patented in March of 2012, Trigger-Smart gun technology is simple. It requires a form of identification before it can discharge. Huffington post published an article exploring the many functionalities of Trigger-Smart technologies, examples include a watch which sends a signal out only ten inches, requiring that the user wears the watch on the wrist of the hand in question, or a biometric lock system, requiring the scanning of a fingerprint of the user. It was developed as a technology which would combat crimes committed by criminals who have stolen guns as well as prevent accidental shootings where a child might obtain and unintentionally discharge a …show more content…
While research into the subject is crucial for the development of programs to help protect the mentally afflicted from themselves as well as others, technologies such as Trigger-Smart firearms can help protect potential victims of suicide. According to the New York Times, in this state of Wyoming, the unfortunate record for most suicides committed per capita is held at a rate of 30 out of 100 thousand as opposed to national average of 12.6 in 2012. The issue is heavily prevalent among teenagers, and the state of their mental health is a largely determining factor in their likelihood to commit suicide. As a matter of fact, according to Child Trends, more than 90 percent of children and adolescents who committed suicide had some type of mental disorder. Many would argue that those suffering from mental disorders should not have access to a firearm in the first place; however, this does not mean that the family of a depressed individual should sacrifice their right to bear arms and protect themselves from threats foreign and domestic. In acquiring a Trigger-Smart firearm, suicidal teenagers will not be enabled to inflict damage via gun violence on themselves nearly as easily, which would be a dramatic decrease in the use of home acquired firearms used in suicides. The numbers on such a subject are worrisome, in fact, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
Among ages 15-19 years, firearm-related suicides accounted for 62% of the suicide rate over the last few decades.
Weinberg 's goal and objective was to prevent two things. First, she wanted to prevent the accidental shooting of children due to gun violence; second, she wanted to prevent the number of people from stealing any gun owner 's gun to use them for the wrong reasons. Assemblyman Louis Greenwald is another stakeholder who took interest in the revision of this law. Greenwald believed that the legislation needed to be reexamined and reconsidered. For example, Greenwald states “the legislation is having the effect of restricting access to the consumers’ product” (Brodesser-Akner, 2015). In other words, the legislation is restricting access to that consumer’s product by not giving the consumers the ability to decide what they want, rather than what they are required to purchase. Although Greenwald did not disagree with the smart gun laws, he defined the problem as the legislature coercing consumers to purchase a smart gun only; this stripped them from their choice of product. Greenwald believed that it was necessary for gun consumers to have the choice if they wanted that technology or not, so he highly suggested that economic incentives such as tax breaks be put into place for those who do volunteer or choose to use the smart guns (Brodesser-Akner, 2015). Attorney General Jay Hoffman is also a stakeholder. According to George Amick, Hoffman is responsible for the reporting of the smart gun whether it is beneficial or consequential (2015). Jay Hoffman
In the short article "Guns in America" by Esmé E Depres, she shows that firearms are involved in the deaths of more than 30,000 people in the U.S. annually, about two-thirds of which are suicides.
Everyone’s off-target. Another horrible shooting, another young shooter. Eighteen years of death since West Paducah, Kentucky first warned of an epidemic. Finally, there’s invigorated debate about gun control and mental health care. But, there’s a glaring problem.
Every day in the U.S. 58 people kill themselves with a gun. These statistics are more than just numbers to me. Both my uncle, Lynn, and his own son, Aaron, committed suicide with hunting rifles kept within the family’s home. Studies have proven that roughly
A counter-argument to private citizens owning firearms is that they are a major contributor to suicide worldwide. In an international study conducted by Professor Martin
School safety is something that people think of all the time. People are bullied and kicked out of school, and it’s just the “cherry on top” when they have a mental illness. That illness will tell them that everyone in the school is against them, even if they’ve never met before. They will pull that trigger because their mind told them to. A gun doesn’t shoot someone on its own. It needs someone to assist the process. The number of mental health records in the system has grown rapidly, to 5.2 million in 2018 from 234,628 in 2005 (Mueller). That number is scary, but it also means that more people are aware of their problem. I’m not going to say that everyone who has a mental illness will want to kill people, but there is a big number of people where their mental illness pushed them over the edge a little.
Firearms provide a significant increase in gun-related deaths. According to Matthew Miller and David Hemenway, directors of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center at the Harvard School of Public Health in their essay called “The Availability of Guns Increase the Risk of Suicide,” they said that
A shocking 11% of teenagers suffer from depression in the US, with 14% having suicidal thoughts and 7% attempting it. By having easy to access guns, teenagers have a much higher chance of finding and using a gun on themselves. When asked, the majority of people who were about to commit suicide had second thoughts after being unable to find an easy access method that didn’t require much thought or lengthy pain, for example hanging themselves. Comparing the percentage of suicide by guns to Australia, a country that changed their regulations on guns in the last twenty years and now has a 35% decrease in gun suicide since this law change presents the clear evidence that restricting guns will reduce the number of suicides
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).
It’s my belief that in addition to the ban on assault weapons our country needs to have tougher background checks in order to qualify for a gun purchase. We also need to put a larger focus in this country on supporting mental illness and keeping weapons out of the hands of people living with mental illness. T he National Comorbidity Study-Replication study found that 34.1% of persons with lifetime mental disorders had access to a gun, 4.8% carried a gun, and 6.2% stored a gun in an unsafe manner. Among those without lifetime mental disorders (n = 2034), rates were not significantly different: 36.3% had access to a gun, 5.0% carried a gun, and 7.3% stored a gun unsafely. However, persons who reported a prior suicide attempt were significantly less likely to have access to a gun than those who had never attempted suicide (23.8% vs.
1. To understand why the smart gun having low demand on the market, we have to understand what is smart gun. Basically, smart gun is a developing firearms gear that can identify their users, and only the authorized people will be able to fire smart gun. This advancing technology developed since 1990s, but the market has been concern that it might not work when it needs to be or it is a start to more gun control. The gun owner or people who support gun ownership would not want the smart gun project to pass or become the standard weapon of police or any legal force’s weapon. However, smart gun still have a long way to go while no reassurance from a big buyer for an unestablished technology. According to the Neoclassical Economics by E. Roy Weintraub,
Suicide was by far the greatest number of deaths from firearms. According to the CDC of the total 33,594 deaths from firearms in 2014 over 64% of the deaths from firearms were a result of suicide (Kochanek, Murphy, Xu, Tejada-Vera 2014). While it is tragic to know that means the other 36% were killed by having a firearm turned on them it still shows that the dangers of firearms lies mainly in the hands of someone who has a mental illness. Even if we assume all other deaths were from people who had no form of mental illness that is over 20,000 people who if mental illness did not exist or even just better treated, would still be alive today. In order to treat mental illness however, we must be able to distinguish what is and is not a mental illness. For the purpose of this article a mental illness is; any disease or disorder that is clinically recognized and causes some sort of distress. Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year (Martinelli., Binney, & Kaye 2014). Considering that most gun deaths are caused by suicide, it is understandable to assume that these people were
Drexler, Madeline. “Guns and Suicide”, Harvard Public Health, Magazine of the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, 2017