Today I saw a story on the news, about a 22-year old boy in California who went on a murder-spree and killed 6 people before taking his own life. His motive, you ask? Because he was still a virgin. Because he wanted to punish every woman for rejecting him and every sexually-active man for having a better life than he did. But the worst part is that this wasn’t the first time. This wasn’t the first time a person woke up in the morning and decided they were going to take innocent lives because they weren’t happy with their own. 121. That’s the number of attempted mass shootings that haven taken place in the United States this year alone. 475 people murdered and 1 870 injured in 154 days. This is what America’s gun crisis looks like, and this …show more content…
There always a “no, no, it’s in our constitution! Our right to bear arms in in our constitution! You can’t change the constitution!” Well darn, if only there was some way of amending the constitution, like with, I don’t know, an amendment? And I’m going out on a limb here, but maybe something like the 33 amendments that have been made to the US constitution since its inception? The abolition of slavery was an amendment, a women’s right to vote was an amendment and even the right to bear arms, the very law you are saying can’t be amended, was the second amendment! So change can happen! Some of the most significant laws in your constitution are amendments! But with this there comes the denial of “you can’t change a change! The change happened for a reason!” The 18th amendment introduced the prohibition of alcohol in 1917, however, it was later repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933. So America, you are quite happy to change an amendment if it means you can down a couple of beers with the guys after a game, but not when it comes to the highest amount of gun deaths per capita than any country in the western world. You are just happy to let that one slide, are
School should be a place of peace and opportunity, but gaps in the system of gun control threatens the safety of faculty and students. School shootings have killed a total of 297 lives, young and old (Slate Magazine). Gun control has been a continuous nationwide debate for many years. It seems that no one wants to take a stance against guns unless they are personally affected. In order to take control of the matter and prevent more incidents from continuing schools need to change. To achieve a safe environment in schools need to educate faculty, safe and students, heighten security, and assess mental health issues.
Every day in America an average of 93 are killed people due to gun violence. One of the biggest concerns today in American policy is gun control. This is a very controversial and complicated topic for both pro-gun and anti-gun supporters. American policy makers need to make it harder for the wrong people to obtain firearms and the fact that Second Amendment and gun control can co-exist. Mental illness constantly emerges in relation to mass shootings and shooters a like, as well as day to day homicides and suicides. America doesn’t necessarily have more crime then other developed countries the crime is just much more lethal. Right-wing Republicans constantly use the Second Amendment as shield to use firearms, the fact is the document is
Every so often the media and news feeds flood with reports of a mass shooting. Families mourn. In the days that follow, calls to action can be heard, and there is a demand for change. Sometimes minor legislation passes, but in the United States extreme change is rarely seen. Other developed nations provide an opposite comparison. Following the Port Arthur shooting in Australia and the shooting in Great Britain, both countries organized for significant gun reform.
According to Nicholas Kristof’s article “our blind spot about guns” gun control is a lot like cars regulation such that if we can regulate cars we can regulate guns. It took a lot of time and effort but thanks to regulations cars are safer than they were many years ago, and the same is very possible with guns. We need to keep our country safe. The first steps to gun control are improving on background checks and also requiring trigger locks on all guns.
October 1, 2017 marked the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. With almost 500 injured and 58 killed, not only did Las Vegas feel the tragedy of a personal loss, but the incident had rippling effects that shook all of America (Flaherty). With the fresh wounds of the recent Las Vegas shooting, politician's initial reaction is to implement more strict gun restrictions and "lay down the law" to prevent a similar event from happening again. Due to the drastic laws being carried out, the topic of gun control is a current issue in society. Is the solution to implement more firm restrictions on gun ownership or can the government allow the people to be their own advocates? While the opposing views of pro-gun restrictions argue that is up to the discretion of the government, they are often narrow-minded resolutions with no hope to finding a real solution. This particular shooter obtained his guns legally and passed all background checks, going unnoticed until his plan unfolded. Establishing more strict firearm restrictions would not have stopped the Las Vegas shooting from occurring. The number of gun restrictions can not increase, the government needs to either fix the existing laws or do away with gun restrictions entirely. Gun restrictions are not the solution because guns are not doing the killing--people are, the laws only attack the law-abiding citizens, and the gun restrictions add another infringed upon right that the government controls. While voting against additional gun rules will not completely eliminate the controversy behind this topic, voting against these laws will be a milestone to regaining the rights we have already been promised.
From 1988 to 2001, the usage of anti-depressant drugs in the general public increased by four-hundred percent (Swanson). The mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary took place in December of 2012, and during 2014, firearms were used in 88 percent of teen homicides, and 41 percent of teen suicides (“Suicidal Teens”). On February 28th, 2017, the Trump administration repealed a firearms regulation that prevented mentally disabled persons from owning guns. At the same time, teenage mental illness is on the rise, specifically in cases of depression and anxiety. A report from the Surgeon General shows that over 90 percent of adolescents that committed either suicide or homicide have or had a mental disability. Mental disabilities such as depression and anxiety put teenagers at a high risk for homicides and suicides. Teenagers who are stressed due to school, lack of parenting, puberty, bullying, and other factors can develop depression, anxiety or another mental illness. Allowing these teens easy access to firearms proves time and time again to be very dangerous. In some cases, the families of these teens have never been assessed to see if they can responsibly store firearms. The only background check performed is on the owner of the firearm, meaning that a person may own the weapon even if another family member living with them legally cannot. Loose gun control laws allow families with physiologically ill children to have access to firearms, without first checking to see if the disabled children in the home are responsible enough to be around said firearms. Repealing gun control laws instated by the Obama administration will cause an increase in adolescent firearm-related homicides, suicides, and tragedies similar to the one at Sandy Hook Elementary.
On October 1st 2017, Steven Paddock shot and killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over the course of 12 minutes, Paddock committed the worst mass shooting in modern American history. We must honor the victims and respect their memory, but we have to ask ourselves what we will do to prevent this in the future. The first and completely valid response to that question is enacting stricter gun control, but there is much more than that. We can increase funding for mental health treatment, we can take stricter security measures at hotels and concerts, however there is something major that needs to be changed that hardly ever gets talked about. It’s something that we are used to, that we have seen all throughout our
October, 1st 2017 has marked the latest in a now all too familiar trend of tragedies; a mass killing of civilians by a sick individual. In the wake of this tragedy, there is a mass of human emotion, grief, anger, sadness, and a demand for justice to right what has been wronged. In looking for justice, one needs an antagonist to blame, in this case an object, the gun. While it is true that firearms are the weapon of choice for many violent tragedies across the United States, will a ban on firearms truly solve the problem of violence for the country? Although a firearm ban may seem like a preventative for violence in the United States, a comparison of violent crime in other countries with varying levels of gun control, the lack of
“A series of terror attacks that killed more than 120 people, ISIS claimed responsibility for the horrific Paris attacks,” (Castillo and et. al.). Even though more guns will give more chances of murders, will more gun control laws stop people by getting them, will we be safer without legal guns, and why should we give up our right to bear arms.
Breaking news, an “assault weapon” walked in a school and wreaked havoc creating the ninth school shooting we’ve had this year! You may be thinking, what, a gun with a mind of its own? Well, that is exactly the type of thinking the news and gun-control activists want you to have. I have never met a firearm who wants or even can shoot someone, have you? That leads us to think about who the real problem is with gun-control, the firearm, or the human? If these activists were to become successful, we would be able to see the effects. The consequences of people not being able to own guns would have tremendous effects on safety, such as self-defense, which is why laws should focus on placing more restrictions on who can get guns, strengthening the filtering system, and placing harder penalties for those who use guns wrongfully or who do not have the right paperwork.
Assault rifles are becoming the weapon of choice in these recent mass shootings. Since 2004, out of 48 mass shootings 13 of them included assault rifles. The assault rifle can be bought in many states starting at the age of 18. According to the gun control group, since 2009 individuals under the age of 21 committed two mass shootings with an assault rifle. Only one of the two rifles used was bought legally, which means just a single shooting where at least four individuals were shot and slaughtered could have been prevented. Everytown for Gun Safety reports, since 2009 there have been 156 mass shootings, eleven of these shootings were committed by individuals under the age of 21. Out of those 156 incidents 11 of those the shooter used an assault rifle. Although You have to be 21 to
Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Pulse Night Club, and Las Vegas all have one thing in common. They all became household names after experiencing horrific mass shootings shocking Americans across the country. We hear of other tragic shootings almost daily and the question we hear the media asking is, “are guns the problem?” The debate over guns has been around since our country was founded. Our founding fathers felt it was so important that citizens have the right to protect themselves, that the right to bear arms is the second amendment in the constitution, making it a secure member of the Bill of Rights. Since this amendment was published and made law of the land, people have been debating its validity, especially in recent years. Our country seems divided with half the citizens blaming guns for mass shootings and the other half adamantly defending our right to own guns. While some people argue that guns are the cause of mass shootings in America, the Bill of Rights should be upheld for citizens to have their rights to bear arms for protection of our property and from a tyrannical government.
Can you imagine waking up at three in the morning to the sound of your front door being kicked in, and police swarming in to your home, on a mission to remove all your legally obtained firearms, while ripping your house apart? I can’t, but that is what it seems like NRA activists imagine happening at the mere mention of gun control. Those two words seem to ignite the same “fight or flight” reaction as the boogie man to all my fellow gun-toting Americans. However, I believe that there is a way to bring those for and against gun control to a common ground by improving background checks, restricting gun shows, and banning semi-automatic rifles.
From School shootings to Movie theaters and concerts, we the people of the United States have noticed tremendous amounts Massacres going on in our country. All of this violence raises many big questions and plenty of controversy in our country: Do we need a ban or some sort of control on guns? Many people like to argue that this violates their rights and the second amendment of the U.S. constitution telling us that the people have the right to bear arms. Many people like to argue that guns don’t kill people, but that people kill people. In the past year there has been 372 mass shootings in 2015 in the U.S. Approximately 33,636 deaths due to firearms each year. Many other countries do not have a big issue on homicides due to
Whenever gun violence comes up in today’s society, the main focus is usually gun control. However, this has led to society ignoring the fact that guns themselves are not the problem, ammunition is. Many citizens have protested, petitioned and tried to propose stricter gun control laws. Those strategies are often not accepted and refused by the National Rifles Association (NRA). This controversial issue is leading citizens to attempt restoring a previous approach, to address ammunition regulation. Unless the problem is addressed, mass shootings will continue to spiral in massive numbers. One obvious solution is for all 50 states to enact laws which regulate the purchase of ammunition because of available new technology, the current lack of effective