Should The Government Increase Gun-Related Violence?

In America, guns have done great harm to society. Guns have been culprits to many different types of shootings such as Charleston, which was a shooting in a church, Sandy Hook, which was responsible for the deaths of twenty young children and six adult staff members, and the shooting in Aurora, Colorado during a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises which resulted in the deaths of twelve innocent people. These are just three we listed here. How many times have there been news of another shooting? It’s like, everytime we turn on the news, we see another shooting that occurred. It doesn’t take a lot for one to notice that the current gun laws haven’t been working. The evidence which we all see daily in the news

Gun violence has been a hot topic these past years. Guns are being used for crime rather than for safety. Every person holds a different opinion on how guns should be managed. Some say that gun laws should be stricter: others say that the laws already in place have enough control over the people. With the rise of gun violence people are wondering what the future will hold. On average, 90 people die from gun violence every single day (Brady Campaign). That means that in a year, at least 32,850 people die from acts of gun violence. Whatever our government has done to stop gun violence is not working. Gun related crimes have reached an all- time high. The nation is waiting for a solution to this ongoing phenomenon. Now is the time for new or upgraded gun policies

The United States is one of the few countries were the right to bear arms is protected by the constitution. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most violent with incidents involving guns this year reaching an estimated 36,212 and an approximate 9,050 deaths (“Gun Violence Archive”). There are an estimated 310 million firearms in households across American, these are only estimates because current gun laws do not require them to be registered or tracked. A more staggering estimate is that most of the guns owned by private citizens are semi-automatic guns, the same type of gun used in almost all mass shootings. While these privately owned guns are legally purchased, many times, they land in the hands of criminals, and owners never report them stolen. Mass shootings and gun crimes are not the only issues with gun violence the one never talked about is suicide, more guns available equals more suicides. The United States is one of the easiest countries to own a gun legally or illegally, stricter gun control laws are necessary.

Gun violence has been on the rise for many years and there seems to be no solution. People feel more protected with guns in their home, but actually this increases their risk to be in harm’s way of being hurt or killed because of the gun. The majority of gun ownership is owned by civilians “75 percent of the world’s 875 million guns are civilian controlled”(Gun Violence). People also feel more protected when they carry a gun on their person but this also increases their risk of being harmed “Philadelphia study found that the odds of an assault victim being shot were 4.5 times greater if he carried a gun" and that "his odds of being killed were 4.2 times greater when armed”(Gun Violence). If people knew that it increases their risk of being killed then not very many people will carry a gun around.

An ongoing and highly debated social problem that continues to grow in our society today is the gun control epidemic. Gun violence in the United States is a national epidemic. Many people take advantage of guns using and manipulating the tool with hardly any thought. Countless lives have been lost due to fact that people have been able to obtain firearms legally or illegally and have taken the notion to be judge, jury and executioner in holding ones live in their hands. This is a common issue that will continue if action is not taken as a nation to try and stop it. Gun violence can lead many citizens to believe that no place is deemed safe anymore and recent tragedies that have taken place in United States holds up that statement. In

“Interview the survivors of mass shootings and you hear these phrases a lot: Gunfire, they explain, rarely sounds like what it is… Many who have lived through the terror recall thinking it was a joke. A drill. Anything except the awful truth: that they might have only a few seconds to live” (“Stop the Violence” -Brody 220). Some people say guns make us feel safer, but in reality, they cause more harm than good. Arthur Kellermann and his colleagues concluded that, “Sadly, buying a gun does not make you safer. To the contrary, the evidence suggests that bringing a gun into your home increases the chances you will be killed” (“Feeling safe” -Vyse 27). Gun violence poses a very big threat to the U.S. “The U.S. has many more guns--and gun deaths--than any other developed country. In 2014, there were more than 33,000 such deaths in this country” (“Fight Over” 12). Guns are extremely dangerous and many deaths occur due to them, including murder, suicide, and accidental deaths, so stricter gun laws and technology should be used to decrease the number of gun deaths in the U.S.

My second point is why guns are such a problem in the United States. The problem with guns is fairly straightforward: they make it easy to kill or injure a person. In Dr. Jeffrey A. Roth’s Firearms and Violence Brief he points out that approximately 60% of all murder victims in the U.S. were killed by firearms. In 1985(the latest year for which data is available) the cost of shootings was estimated to be more than $14 billion nationwide for medical care, long-term disability, and premature death. Arthur L. Kellerman found that residents of homes where a gun is present are 5 times more likely to experience a suicide than residents of homes without guns.

In 2000, nearly 30,000 people died due to uncontrollable gun violence, even though the US has many gun laws. Gun control is now one of the main political issues because of all the shootings in the past decade. There have been many studies taken on gun control, which shows more gun-control decreases deaths with a gun involved.

As the number of guns sold is dwindling the number of guns on the streets in the hands of criminals could be slowed as well. There has been great need of increasing gun control within America as well as it is written within the article The Fight Over Guns In America published within the Junior Scholastic it states that “The U.S. has many more guns—and gun deaths—than any other developed country. In 2014, there were more than 33,000 such deaths in this country.” This is an astonishing fact that needs to be addressed and it seems that gun violence has not slowed down either. According to Why the gun control movement fails by Gary Younge published within the Nation it states that “There have been 1.4M US firearm deaths from 1968 to 2011, compared with the number of US military deaths (1.2 million) in every armed conflict from the Revolutionary War to the invasion of Iraq” This is an even more astonishing fact as it is so blatant how many Americans lives are lost every year due to the lack of gun control within America. It is so blatant that we must address these

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

Between 1999 and 2013 469,033 total deaths were caused by guns. Guns were the leading cause of homicides as well as a leading cause in most deaths passing several well-known diseases. About 200 people a day go to hospitals with gun wounds. Another repulsing facts is that American children under the age of 15 or 9 times more likely to die of a gun incident. Gun violence is an obvious problem and more gun laws could better our country as a

There is a well known saying that ‘guns don’t kill people, people do.’ The question is how does society keep guns out of the hand of those who will misuse them? Mark Kelly claims that he is pro-gun but anti-violence. To some this may seem like a contraindication, how can a person be in favor of the object that is used to create violence? People use guns in different areas of the country for different reasons. Some people own guns for protection, hunting, collecting, or for sport. Although even if a person owns a gun it does not mean there is an increase in violence. In an article written by Mark Perry in 2015, he describes the relationship between gun ownership and violence to be inversely related. So as the number of guns being purchased and kept within the home increase, the incidences of gun related deaths decreased. Perry also states that “even if you’re not convinced that increased gun ownership reduces violent crime and gun homicides… Gun violence has been decreasing significantly over time (2015 para 8).”

People all across the world are debating about whether to require the start of reducing gun violence. Guns have always been a part of American culture, even before we became the America we know today. In colonial times and the days of the Wild West, guns were an essential part of survival. They were needed to kill animals for food and to protect against unwanted trespassers and predators. However, in these modern times, because we have conveniences such as Hannaford and organized police systems, guns have gone from tools of necessity to novelty toys. For the most part, people own guns in this century for sporting reasons or to protect their families and home from intrusion. The simplicity of a gun and the lack of effort it requires owning

The attempted assassination of former President Ronald Reagan was a horrifying day for many people that were attending his speech; sadly James Brady was at the wrong place on the wrong day. Reagan was not severely injured but Brady certainly was, Brady ended up in critical condition! After recovering from the gunshot, Brady became a serious advocate for an anti-weapon organization, which is why there is currently an organization named after him. The lack of gun control is the main leading effects from gun violence, whether you are at school or sleeping at night, there is someone getting killed or hurt from some type of firearm. Guns tend to be used mainly for harming someone, whether it is self-defense or purposely. Plus gun trafficking has been increasing due to the lack of gun control. Gun violence is pretty much everywhere, and the Brady Campaign statistics show that “On average 31 Americans are murdered with guns every day and 151 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room” (1). Although the statistics are made from an anti-weapons group, which might be a little bias, the statistics are still accurate enough to get the point across. The only way any of this happened was due to amount of weapons that are in America, it would be less likely for someone to cause a shooting if there were not as many weapons being produced. More and more weapons are being made by the second, due to the continuation of this, people will continue to be hurt because the common saying is

It is impossible not to open a newspaper, watch the television, or listen to the radio with out hearing about some type of gun violence. Perhaps the main reason for such high gun violence is that guns are so plentiful in the Unites States. In fact, there are sixty five million handguns in America ("The `facts' about Guns"). These guns contribute to an annual medical cost of fourteen billion dollars, which is spent solely on treating gun victims ("Handguns in America"). Not surprisingly, handguns are the cause of eighty percent of homicides, seventy percent of suicides, and almost every accidental shooting ("Youth and Violence"). Handgun violence is a problem that is easy for everyone to see. How to solve this predicament is another