Violence In America

Residents of the United States can, and do state that more gun control and assault rifle laws would reduce gun deaths. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, asserted "This happens nowhere else, other than the United States of America. It only happens here, not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else” (Lopez). Citizens can conclude, through research and data, more gun control would lead to fewer suicides. The opposing side would promote that if one is trying to kill themselves, they will find a way, whether they kill themselves with a gun or with a knife. In 2015,

As a result, America has higher gun homicide and suicide rates than any other country. England and Wales only had 4.5 percent of civilians who were killed by firearms in 2015, which is 60.5 percent lower than America. These two high-income countries have strict gun control laws (“America’s Gun Culture Charts”). In reference to the previous argument made about how firearms increase the number of suicides, examining other countries’ policies is an effective way to explore potential solutions to the problem of gun violence in America. In Israel, all men must join the military at age 18. Israeli officials began to realize that men would bring their weapons with them while spending the weekend at home, but would never return in the result of suicide. The officials decided to force their soldiers to keep their weapons at the base when they went home. The solution worked; suicides decreased 40 percent after enforcing the new rule (Lopez). Germany is another country that appreciates their liberty of gun ownership, as America does. In 2014, 1.45 million German civilians are reported to have registered for $5.5 million worth of firearms. However, Germany’s crime rate in the mid-2010s was only 0.05 per 1,000 people. One might question that if the citizens love firearms so much, why is there hardly any crime? The answer is crystal clear: Germany enforces its laws.

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne La Pierre repeated the mantra of all gun supporters that, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. However, this assertion that many gun rights activists have begun to declare has been proven to not always be the case. For example, the shooter of the Las Vegas mass shooting was on the 32nd floor hotel room. He opened fire looking down at the thousands of concertgoers who attended the music festival. Once the SWAT team had arrived, fully equipped with weapons, the shooter had already committed suicide. It is very difficult to argue that the situation would have turned out differently if one of the concertgoers would have opened fire using a concealed firearm (Millhiser). Supporters of guns also believe that mental illness is the main cause of both mass shootings and firearm suicides. Michael Stone, a physiatrist at Columbia University who studies mass shooters and their personal histories reported that twenty-two percent of the mass shooters were mentally ill, which was only fifty-two out of the 235 killers (Lopez). House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to support the proposal to create a special committee to study gun violence in early February 2018. He claimed, “This is not the time to jump to some conclusions.” While on the Senate floor, Minority Whip from Illinois Richard Durbin said,