To understand the extent of how common mass shooting and gun violence is in our nation and why it feels like the nations is numb to gun violence, president Obama in his last national, which he was addressing the gun violence tragedy at Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Oregon, said, “The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We've become numb to this.” If the president expressed his feeling towards the frequency of gun violence tragedy and how predictable giving a national eulogy was, then it would be safe for me to assume that gun violence is a national issue that needs to be addressed and since nothing has changed so far, it is evident that the presidents speech is not as impactful towards law makers and the
On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, 20-year-old resident of Newtown, Connecticut, shot and killed 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary. Before going to the elementary, Lanza shot and killed his mother in their home. Once police officers arrived at the school, Lanza shot himself in the head, dying immediately (Jordan 2014). This has been one of the most fatal school shootings in the United States, second only to the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, claiming 33 lives. The incident at Sandy Hook began at 9:35 a.m. and Lanza fired the final bullet to the back of his own head at 9:40 a.m according to the State’s Attorney Report (Sedensky 2013). The attack claiming 27 lives occurred in five minutes in addition to his mother, a total
Armed with 23 weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition, Stephen Paddock opened fire at a concert in Las Vegas on Sunday, October 1st. The massacre left 58 people dead and 489 people injured, making it the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. When nationwide tragedies occur, the country often divides to search for a target of blame; the aftermath of the Las Vegas massacre has proved no different. It has triggered an even fiercer debate across the nation about the already-raging argument over gun control law. It has become habitual for Americans’ support of stricter gun regulations to grow in the wake of mass shootings; among those is Junior Lorenzo Bacalso.
The shootings that have happened in schools throughout America over the past few months has divided Americans on what they need to do as a nation to stop additional shootings from happening. many believe that creating new laws on buying weapons by requiring background checks, holding adults liable for the actions of their kids and requiring gun locks on weapons to stop youngsters will stop these massacres in our colleges from happening, it's a step in the right direction, however, its not effective enough the politicians to understand that the laws should be based on facts, not opinions. There are several problems that need to be looked at in order to determine which laws are necessary.according to a recent study America has the highest amount gun related
Since 1966, there have been 150 mass shootings in the United States. Over 1,000 people have been killed, and over 150 of those people were children or teenagers. These statistics are brought up in a heartbreaking article by The Washington Post, titled “The Terrible Numbers that Grow with Each Mass Shooting,” written by By Bonnie Berkowitz, Denise Lu and Chris Alcantara. After the most recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, debates on gun control have once again sparked up. This has happened far too many times for change not to occur.
The state and region that individuals live in greatly determine their opinions on how gun control and amendment application should be interpreted. A study was done 4 months after the sandy hook mass shooting where children were killed, the study determined the belief of gun control after this tragedy. The researcher Kevin H. Wozniak found that, “ [only] a slim majority of Americans favors a semiautomatic weapon ban and proposals to make gun control laws stricter,” (Wozniak 2). Even directly after a mass shooting there is only a slim majority on a weapons ban. This makes it clear that the beliefs of guns in American culture are too deeply rooted and the county has become too dependant on them.
Although the attack was almost twenty years ago, the Columbine High School shooting forever changed American schools. To this day, educators, parents, and American communities search for a compromise between school safety and America’s right to bear arms. Multiple regulations and laws have been set in place to make obtaining weapons more difficult, but people are still finding ways around the system. Since the incident at Columbine High School, school shootings have become a common occurrence and little to nothing has been done to resolve the issue of gun violence in America. It’s time to take action before another innocent life is taken too early.
With the rise of school shootings, one would be quick to assume that restricting ownership of firearms would solve the problem. However, the issue stems further than just guns. The tragedy at Virginia Tech may reveal to us something about how a young man could be compelled to commit shocking actions, but it does not advise us very much about gun control. Recently, not many distinguished Americans have tried to use the college massacres as an argument for gun control. A logic for this is that we are in a middle of a presidential race in which popular Republican candidates are mindful that advocating gun control can earn them votes.
There have been 141 people killed in a mass murder or attempted mass murder at a school since the Columbine Shootings. (Pearle) Sandy Hook Elementary School, Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, and University of Texas at Austin are just a few examples of the tragic events that we are reminded of during debates on gun control. It is foolish to believe that having stricter laws on guns will control the school shooting epidemic. With this argumentative essay, I hope to provide multiple sustainable reasons why harsher laws on guns will not stop mass school shootings. To begin, after the shock of the tragic events, the world begins to analyze the shooter’s mental capacity.
“Guns do not kill people, the mentally ill do,” said conservative commenter Anne Coulter. Is there a common link between mental disorders and massive shootings? It is very complicated to prove that mental illness caused any massive shootings, and to prove that if they had the right psychiatric attention that they would not have committed these horrific mass shootings crimes.
Ready, Aim, Fire Through the past several years, the United States has experienced many different events changing the way people look at the world. Through this same time, it seems as if there has been an increase in the death toll to the lives of American citizens. From the bombing of the World Trade Center in 2001, to the Sandy Hook Shooting, the rate of mass killings in the U.S. looks to be at an all time high. President Obama and many other politicians believe that the answer to stopping all of these acts of terrorism is the further restriction of firearms in the country. The fact of the matter is, the further implication of restrictions to the right to keep and bear arms is not the key to stopping these mass murders.
On October 2, 2015, President Barack Obama once again addressed the nation after yet another shooting, this one being in Oregon. Obama made such claims that this gun issue was becoming “routine” in the nation. With this massacre, along with other prime examples such as the Columbine, Aurora, and Columbia shootings, the nation continues to split down the middle with varying causes, outcomes, and solutions, even though there has yet to be a solid beam of hope to help. However, until the country can find a way to agree on anything, the President may be correct in his accusations.
In the wake of the latest mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon; which claimed the lives of ten students and wounding nine others, anti-gun advocates have called for stronger background checks on firearm purchases and ammunition in an effort to reduce further mass violence. During a press conference president, Obama spoke to the American people saying, “the routine nature of mass shooting violence in America will continue unless the country’s politics change.” Anti-gun advocates claim firearms are the main source of gun violence and mass shootings in America, the only measure that has the greatest potential of reducing and eliminating mass violence is implementing stricter gun control laws. We have seen the highest
While opposers of gun control legislation believe that an increase in possession of guns reduce crimes and violence, statistics have revealed a strikingly positive correlation between possession of guns and violent crimes. The U.S. may only have 4.4% of the world’s population, but it has 42% of all civilian owned guns (Kodjack). There is a gun for almost every citizen, with “approximately 300 million firearms held by citizens in their homes” (Kodjak). These statistics have created great suspicion about the reliability of legislative regulations in restricting the citizens’ ability to obtain firearms, and reducing gun violence. Critics of the NRA’s activities have identified loopholes, or ways to illegally get by, certain gun laws.
One of the arguments Obama makes in his speech targets the need for laws regulating gun safety. He begins by stating that thoughts and prayers are not enough. This is because they do not represent the grief and anger, that demand to be felt, nor do they change anything. He feels it has become routine when one of these shootings occurs and that we come to give a cavalier response. He feels we should politicize it and make changes to laws to make them safer, since it should not be that easy to get a gun in the United States.