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Gun Violence Effects

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I still remember the day: 2nd October 2015. My professor, always punctual, arrived five minutes late to the class. Any other day, if a student was late to the class, she had a few strict words, so we were all curious about the reason she would provide. “I wanted to be a little late for class today because I didn’t want anybody to miss what I have to say”, she started. From the grave tone of her voice, I knew that I had better provide my full attention. “Yesterday nine people lost their lives when a gunman opened fire at a community college in Oregon, eight of them were students and one teacher” she continued in the same tone. She scanned the whole class and then told “I am always complaining about you people being late to the class, and it …show more content…

In the 2002 article “Mitigating the Effects of Gun Violence on Children and Youth” James Garbarino and co-authors pointed out that “children exposed to gun violence may experience negative short and long-term psychological effects, including anger, withdrawal, posttraumatic stress, and desensitization to violence”, the result of which, they believe can continue a “cycle of violence” (Garbarino 1). The report suggests that children exposed to violence are often times victims of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - associated with “hyper vigilance (an overly alert state), an exaggerated startle response, anxiety, and recurring thoughts and dreams associated with the traumatic event”, and in some cases Psychic numbing- associated with “emotional detachment and decrease in activities they once enjoyed.” (Garbarino). These grim statistics and reports scream one common idea: Gun Violence needs to be …show more content…

She argued, “It’s long past time to say enough. Enough talk. Enough delay. It’s time to act.” And, we need to act. Each single one of us needs to make a promise to ourselves to throw our guns. We need to realize that guns are not the solutions to our problems. We need to stop trying to fit square peg into round holes. I do not want the full power and money to solve this issue. It is our common problem, and what we need to realize is that effort from single entity is not enough. It is not enough that I have all the money in the world, or all the power in the world. I can try from my side, but gun violence will still prevail unless everybody tries from their side too. As for me, I try not to be late to the class yet, I still am sometimes. But, I believe that by now my professor knows that I do not want to harm any of my friends in my class, it’s just that I am not a morning

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