Gun Violence And Gun Control

Many tragedies have occurred recently that have spurred the debate on whether or not we need tighter gun controls. On one side of the debate are the gun control supporters, who claim that the easy access to guns is the primary cause for high rates of crime plaguing the United States. On the other side are people who argue that gun laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns, since they will continue to get them illegally. Guns are used for protection when in the hands of people who obey the law. It is crucial to not hinder law-abiding citizen’s ability to possess firearms with stricter gun laws, since gun laws do not lower crime, and guns can keep people safe.

The two articles that I have read were “Connecticut School Shooting ‘An Attack on America’” by Ted Anthony and “The Price of Gun Control by Dan Baum. All around I believe these articles were both very interesting and both took different perspectives on the issues of guns in America. Both Anthony and Baum illustrated the different problems that we have in America and our communities with gun control and gun violence. But, they both brought the text together to relate it on a personal level. I enjoyed reading both texts and connecting to each one on a different level.

According to CDC, "One person is killed by a firearms every 17 minutes, 87 people are killed during an average day, and 609 are killed every week”(CDC). That means gun violence is out of control, and you can be next. In fact, there 's been an increase of mass murders occurring everywhere due to guns. Which has brought our attention to the gun violence in our nation. They say guns are for protection, but in reality there seems to be more murder associated with it. There 's a controversy that it 's the people 's right to bear arms, but others argue that there needs to be greater gun control. As author Pascal Emmanuel Gobry stated in Both sides are wrong on the gun debate. Here 's why,“ Liberals declare that if only we regulated and banned guns like Europe does, there wouldn 't be any more gun violence. Conservatives insist that the solution to gun violence is more guns, and just more guns” (Gobry). I am writing to you, because I believe gun violence needs to come to an end. So, I propose that the right to bear arms needs to be taken away, and the U.S needs to ban gun ownership. Since guns does no good for our nation other than kill the innocence.

Gun violence is the sign of a far greater universal problem in America today. Violence and gun violence specifically, is surrounded within, and spread all through every part of our society. All the reasons remain intimately related to the actual solution, which can only be a general solution one by treating it as one issue. The region that I live in is considered a peaceful part of Harvest, which I am particularly grateful about. I do not have to worry about gunfights in the roads of my community, nor maybe being helpless confronted by students with a gun at school. That, nevertheless, does not mean that my community is impermeable to gun violence. Huntsville has seen its share of gun violence from the incident at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), where three people were murdered and three others injured on February 12, 2010. Throughout the course of a routine gathering of the biology department attended by about 12 people, professor Amy Bishop stood up and began shooting those next to her with a 9-millimeter handgun (Hall 2010)

Many students in America, might consider school almost like a home because they spend about half a day in. We need students to be safe at school, so why not have an officer patrolling the hallways. To make the school much safer, the officers should have guns in case there is a threat towards the students. In the eyes of many United State citizens a gun can symbolize death; however, a gun can save several people’s lives. As U.S citizens, we have the right to keep and bear arms, so why do we not have police officers with guns patrolling schools. “Gun violence is a major social issue in America and American schools and university campuses have become targets of gun violence” (Bond). In the U.S we had several severe situations when someone comes to the school and starts to kill not only students, but teachers and staff, this could have been prevented if we were prepared and secured. Although the opposition may suggest it could be more dangerous to have an officer or guard be allowed with a gun; however, having an officer with a gun would decrease the number of shootings and other minor problems at schools.

Eighty-nine people depart from this earth due to gun violence in the US every day. From school children, to victims of domestic violence, to people going about their daily lives, this status quo is unacceptable. On Tuesday January 5th, 2016 President Obama announced that he would send proposals on reducing gun violence in America to Congress. His spokesman, Jay Carney, mentioned that this is “a complex problem that will require a complex solution.” The ability to own a gun is considered by some a birthright of Americans. However, with crime rates involving handguns rising each day it has become quite clear. Handgun laws must become stricter in order to reduce homicide and crime. The question is, “which solution in most effective in decreasing gun violence?” Gun control is a major conflict that is constantly reoccurring and the US is seemingly divided over it.

America is known as the land of opportunity, freedom, fast food, and raging numbers of gun violence. According to Mass Shooting Tracker there has been about 367 shootings so far since the year started (Mass Shooting Tracker). This is outrageous considering that in other countries, gun shooting numbers don 't even reach a two-digit number. Far too many people have been victims of these unregulated weapons, claiming lives and ripping families apart. There is no safe place from these assault weapons, no movie theater, night club, church, or school. American’s must deal with the fact that any unsuited person is legally allowed to purchase a weapon with the weak regulations we currently have. Assault weapons have been damaging for this country and it 's time to change the laws. Gun regulations and laws need to be stricter to make it harder for individuals to purchase guns to prevent any future tragedies from happening.

The United States of America has been described by many people as the Land of the Free; a Land of Opportunities. There has always been a gun culture in America; however it has also been a gun-control culture. Whenever a devastating mass shooting occurs, such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, a deliberation about gun violence follows suit. Depending on whom you discuss this with, that case is not always true. There are those that are for gun control and those that are against. There are also conspiracy theories that claim that the events that occurred on that day were, in fact, staged with “crisis actors” playing the part of the deceased, yet they kept “popping” up in all the news photographs? Did it really occur or was this a way to bring to attention the fact that the Government want to stop honest Gun Owners in having weapons to protect themselves? Was there a complete lack of documentation of the school shooting and did it really occur? There certainly has been a lack of, or perhaps, a complete absence of any photographic proof of dead bodies, or what is noticeably staged, emotionless actors walking around in circles looking lost! Was the purpose to move the anti-gun movement forward?

Gun control has been a continued issue amongst politicians and civilians in the United States. The U.S. has a homicide rate twenty-five times the average of any other developed country in the world. Specifically, mass shootings have been in the limelight as of late due to the deadliest Las Vegas, Nevada shooting, along with Orlando, Florida, and Newtown, Connecticut being in the recent past. Aim has been set on the mentally ill for these mass shooting, and our gun control laws because of this. America agrees gun laws need to be strengthened, but how to do so is the problem ahead. The target should not be on the mentally ill due to their miniscule effect on gun violence.

But, looking at this idea from a global standpoint, one could infer that other countries that uphold a strict “zero gun tolerance policy” still have higher crime rates than that of the United States (Kates, et al., 2006). According to Kleck and Patterson (2006), a huge issue for criminals is the ability to purchase guns illegally. Even with policies in the United States requiring background checks for gun purchases, the government will not be able to limit a criminal’s ability to attain guns (Kleck, et al., 2006). In Koper and Wilson’s study (2006), evidence is found to support how law enforcement aims to proactively reduce possession of illegal firearm with tactics such as gun detection patrols, surveillance of probationers and parolees, weapon reporting hotlines, etc. But, these gun control laws show to be ineffective with over 80% of incarcerated gun offenders having possessed guns illegally prior to confinement; while, more than a third of these offenders were already on either probation or parole when arrested for a firearm crime (Koper, et al.,

In the article, Americas Deadly Gun Addiction, By the Numbers written by Joanna Pearlstein, data is released regarding the United States having more guns that adults in the country. The mass shootings across the country has led to many civilians wanting more gun control. President Obama spoke to the nation that more background checks will be ran to hopefully reduce this situation, and lower the gun deaths in the United States, however gun lobbyers argue that it is not the guns themselves that are causing the issue and they believe that no matter how many background checks are ran you cannot make sure that a fun will not be placed in the hands of someone who many end someone’s life unexpectedly.

In 2015, 13,367 people lost their lives due to gun violence according to Gun Violence Archive. The Archive also states that out of that number, 693 were children from ages 0-11. We can all agree that there is indeed a problem that we have to address. The solution to that problem, however, has been debated by many. I believe the solution to this problem exists in three parts: Mandatory training and licensing along with more heavily secure gun storage, stricter regulations on the purchasing of a firearm—disabilities and criminal records should be more deeply looked into before transaction—and finally, equipping teachers at highs schools with the right kind of weaponry to prevent mass shootings.

Gun laws and gun control are the cause of violence in the United States of America and need to be changed in order for the law abiding citizens of this country to easily obtain a weapon and conceal it on them to protect themselves. As the gun control debate rages on the NRA or National Rifle Association and President Barrack Obama clash about the right to own and carry weapons. As president Obama enacted his executive order about gun control, gun sales increased exponentially. This leads to the question should we enact stricter gun laws or reduce our existing laws to make it easier for citizens to carry a weapon? And will it actually work to reduce the murder rate and violent crime rate in the United State of America?

I looked at the most recent news story, another mass shooting has occurred. Thoughts flood my mind, what happened, why, who did this? I don’t have the answer, and nor does the news. I search up on Google everything on this, but no answers. Then along comes CNN, making up yet another lie around this story, and why we need gun control. A few days pass, and boom, this gun crime happened through illegal firearms. I sat back and wonder why gun control can actually solve for anything when people get guns illegally all the time. I got bored and grabbed my phone. Clicking around on Facebook, Instagram I saw more about this, and got annoyed, so I started commenting my thoughts, making people start to argue about every little detail possible. I got so fed up I closed my phone, but had nothing else to do.

“In America, there are approximately 270 million firearms possessed by civilians, and only 897,000 carried by police” (dosomething.org). “The first automatic pistol was created by Joseph Laumann in 1892. But the Borchardt pistol of 1893 was the first automatic with a separate magazine in the grip, and this remains the defining feature of the breed” (PBS gun timeline). Guns are very dangerous in every way possible, especially in the hands of an underage child. Due to the fact that, more gun control laws needs to be put in place, the less guns we have the better, and expand the background checks.According to Kristof “Our Blind Spot about Guns” more enforced background checks and trigger locks should become standard in purchasing and owning a gun because mass shooting in schools, making sure criminals and mentally unstable people don’t get guns, to protect the future of the world.