How Does Gun Violence Affect Society

More than 30,000 people are killed by firearms each year in the US. Most of which are caused by handguns. Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-24 year-olds. Most reasons for gun violence are caused by video game influence, and issues of mental illnesses. Video games are one of the biggest causes of gun violence because of the majority of in game violence that occurs. Today’s children are more prone to violence due to video games and the violent movies, but then that leads back to the way they were raised. In today’s world, both parents work, there is no family time to teach their children the main differences between right and wrong. When most people don’t know who they are harming, it makes it a lot easier for them to cause harm.

With the popular culture providing positive images of guns, the United States has a gun prevalence that is very rare in the modern world. While many people appreciate the “gun culture”, guns are heavily involved in violence in the United States. According to U.S. Department of Justice, since 1960, more than 750,000 Americans have died under firearms, including homicides, suicides, and unintentional injuries. The figure 1 provides a comprehensive survey of U.S. violent crimes for the period from 1993 to 2011.This figure illustrates that from 1993 to 2011, about 60% to 70% of homicides were associated with a firearm. Over the same period, between 6% and 9% of all nonfatal violence, with about 20% to 30% of robberies and 22% to 32% of aggravated assaults involving a firearm.

Each year homicide and assault-related injuries result in an estimated $16 billion in combined medical and work loss (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/education-gun-violence-presidential-debate-2012_n_1974740.html). Gun violence may be broadly defined as a category of violence and crime committed with use of a firearm, it may or may not include actions ruled as self defense, actions for law enforcement. Gun violence is prevalent in African American Communities, although some might believe that it is not a racial issue ( CNN New’s stated “America’s Gun problem is not a race problem).

Every year more than 20,000 children, as well as a youth under the age of 20 years, face deaths and in other case injured by firearms in the US. The fact that guns are lethal, as well as the fact that there is ease of access to the guns by the young people, is the main explanation why firearms are the second cause of deaths among young people between 10 and 19 years. Most of these deaths are homicides while suicides account for approximately one-third of the deaths by gun among the young people, and unintentional shootings account for approximately 7% of the deaths. Among the homicides that have perpetrated by the young people in their school include the 2012-gun attack at Sandy Elementary where 28 people at the school killed. In the year 1927 in the bath school, there were 45 murders whereby the majority of the victims were children. At Virginia Tech, a gunman killed 33 victims in the year 2007 (Swanson, et al. 361-376).

The Orlando nightclub shooting in Florida on June 12, 2016 was the single largest massacre in U.S history, taking the lives of 50 individuals, including the shooter himself, and injuring 53 others. This is one extreme example of the gun violence that has been occurring in this country, but mass shootings like this and the one at Newton in 2012 are only a small part of our gun violence issue. The everyday gun violence that takes place in cities all across the United States claims the lives of thousands every single year. According to The Guardian, 33,500 civilians die each year because of gun brutality- “that’s about 1 life every 15 minutes” (Beckett). Between the years of 1999 and 2013, there were 464,003 gun deaths in the U.S, about 58% of them were suicides 37% were homicides. (ProCon.org) Gun violence and the consequences of that violence, have become a real and dangerous problem in the U.S , why else would the CDC list the United States as having the highest rate of gun violence out of all developed countries today? (Gale Opposing Viewpoints) This issue is not just attributable to a single factor, there are several that play an important part in why gun violence is such an issue in the U.S, namely laws and poverty; and in these causes we can also find solutions.

Guns are easily accessible in the world today, easier to obtain than getting a college degree, a job, or even a loan from your bank. This poses a threat to everyone on both ends of the gun and can harm both the victim and offender. The crimes often coincide with drugs, gang affiliation, robbery, and the intent to murder. People lose loved ones to every day when foul play is involved, ending up dead or seriously injured and disabled, bound to wheelchairs or brain dead for the rest of their lives. The offender ends up sentenced to life in most cases.

Upon reading the article, “What If We Treated Gun Violence Like A Public Health Crisis?” and watching the news every now and then, there are many major tragedies surrounding around us. It is absolutely scary, and only seems to be getting worse. The article starts off with the statement that, “More than 30,000 people a year are killed by gun violence,” making it clear just how serious the situation pertaining gun violence is (Kodjak, 2017, p. 1). Yet, this statistic does not even take into consideration the amount of people who are injured due to gun violence, which would sky rocket this total.

The children of today are being born into a harsh society, one that Americans have never seen before. Media bombards citizens with scenes of death and violence. From the toys children play with to the movies they watch to even seeing what their parents watch on the news, children grow up learning that violence is the social norm. With over 30,000 deaths by guns each year, Americans are now realizing change is needed causing huge debates within our political system (Siegel But could the solution be closer to home? In order to minimize gun violence in America, society must first recognize its flaws in approach to finding a solution, with fixing Americans societal problems first not only will violence be minimized but the health of American

As far back as 1994, Webster and Wilson found that “Because guns are ubiquitous in the United States and integral to the current epidemic of youth violence, pediatricians should participate in primary prevention of firearm injuries,” (Webster & Wilson, 1994, p. 617). The author also discusses the effects of media violence in the nature of television and video games as instilling violence into the development of children in their formative years. “These portrayals of gun use may suggest to children that guns confer power, respect, and a

    The American Psychological Association (APA) has recognized the demand of gun violence prevention. In February of 2013, the APA authorized a report led by experts to research and find conclusions and loopholes to help prevent gun violence. They began with the antecedents of gun violence; developmental issues and gender and culture. The research first went toward finding developmental risks, such as firearms being introduced to families. Also, studies were conducted where male expectations started; why are males supposed to be tough and independent. Their conclusions began with children. If we can help parents raise emotionally stable and happy children, we can have less anger, violence, anxiety and depression embedded in families. “The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development” supports this fact (Ginsburg, 2007). The ACT/Parents Raising Safe Kids program focuses on teaching parents strategies to prevent their children from growing up around any violence. This program also teaches parents the way to react when your child has any act of violence; how to point them away from violence and resolve issues with peace (ACT, “n.d”).

In the last two decades, mass shootings have become seemed to be dominating news headlines in North America. These local acts of violence have devastated families, communities and countries and have since shone a light on debates surrounding gun violence and the laws that govern it, the negative affects of social media, bullying, and the wide and deep breadth of mental health issues. A mass shooting is largely defined as a shooting perpetrated by one or more persons, where four or more people are killed. Since 1966, in the United States alone, there have been twenty mass shootings yielding eleven or more victims. All of these atrocities were carried out with the use of semi-automatic rifles, all of these massacres continue to garner more and

We often see too much gun related violence in today’s news. Throughout the years we have seen a large increase of shootings in the United States. According to the Huffington Post, from January 2013 to October 2015 there has been 994 shootings out of the 1,004 days. It is no doubt that we are in living in a society where these shootings are becoming a repeated occurrence. This is a highly controversial topic

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

If the United States of America were to make the right to bear arms and legally own guns it would have a negative effect on society. By getting rid of ways to legally obtain guns and ammo it would increase the amount black market gun sales. Culturally in the United States we want the items were told we cannot have taking away guns would only fuel the desire to obtain numerous amounts of guns. We have already tried this type of method back in history and it wasn’t successful the prohibition in the United States was a nationwide ban on the production, importation and transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages (History). When this law was in place it didn’t stop individuals from consuming alcohol, they proceeded to drink illegally in unsafe

Gun violence can have lasting effects on children. Studies show that kids who have been exposed to this type of violence behave like veterans who have returned from combat with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD (Kotlowitz). They have flashbacks and suffer from depression and anxiety. Some children also experience anger, and they tend to do less well in school. They are more likely to engage in delinquent actions and even have lower aspirations in life (Garbarino). These outcomes affect the brain development of these children, making them more prone to becoming aggressive. These children can grow up to be very dangerous assets to their community. They could make decisions in their adult life that could potentially hurt a lot of people. First, these children are affected by gun violence, then they suffer the psychological and emotional consequences. Finally, they end up demonstrating violence to another person. This damage is a never-ending cycle in American communities and