Many factors, both internal and external, preventable and unavoidable, contribute to why school shootings occur so often in the United States and why we are forced to record more gun-related deaths than any other country. To prove that the number of mass shootings in recent years is genuinely affecting society, it is necessary to analyze statistics. Between 2013 and 2015, a non-profit organization that advocates for gun control named Everytown for Gun Safety, tracked 254 school shootings in the United States. After research and analyzing the data, the following statistics came to light. It was found that 53% of the 254 shootings occurred in
A stronger focus on gun control in the United States involving restriction or even an outright ban of guns could serve to help the problem greatly. In 2015, 13,286 people were killed by firearms in the United States, with 26,819 suffering from non-lethal injuries (qtd. in “Guns in the US”). Taking away guns, the means that many urban criminals have to commit their crimes, would be very beneficial to cities. Recent studies found that the most effective way of reducing gun crime is to lower the amount of guns available in circulation.
As Hemenway mentions this in his book, despite the second amendment most Americans prefer uncompromising gun control laws as well as registration of firearms (152). This tells us how the public is threatened by the fact that anyone can commit mass murder any time. In addition to this, lack of trust among the members of the society creates less communication and more stress. Most people believe that financial benefit from the gun market has tied up the lawmakers. According to nbcnews.com, NRA (National Rifle Association) spends millions of dollars on senates and house races, which enables the association to control and silence the politicians.
According to the CDC, “Guns are responsible for over thirty-three thousand deaths in the United States annually. Gun Control is a set of laws that controls the use of guns by civilians. The Gun Control Act was signed as October 22, 1968 but was updated in 1993. As of February 23, 2018 seventy percent of people favor stricter gun laws and twenty-seven oppose of them. I believe that the Gun Control Laws should be stricter here around the United States because almost everyday something bad is happening by the use of a gun.
However, doing this will not stop felons from procuring and committing gun-related crimes. For example, take a look at the United Kingdom. Once they banned guns, there was a large spike in murders, reaching as high as 1.97 homicides per 100,000 people. The murder rate then began to decline around 2003-2004 as a result of increased police force, but has only reached a number below the pre-ban’s 1.3 homicides per 100,000 people 1 time. This shows that while a ban may limit gun violence, perpetrators will find other ways to commit crimes, such as bombings and driving vehicles through crowds.
⅔ of gun control deaths every year are suicides (Leah Libresco, “Gun Control is not the answer”). That means that people may not need to ban guns. Society needs to recognize that people are suffering, and lend a helping hand. I think that gun control is necessary because it causes many deaths, it could lower domestic abuse, and they don’t really have a big use in everyday society. First of all, guns cause way too much death.
As said by Steven H. Gunn, a member of the board of directors of the GVP in Salt Lake City, “But a gun in school is far more likely to lead to the harm of an innocent individual than to the protection of innocent people…. A teacher could begin returning fire to a person who is attacking the school and in the process, kill children.”, Teachers having guns can cause more people to get hurt than would have if they didn't have a gun. With all the people running around, what's to say that the teacher will be able to pick out the person that is doing the shooting, and if they pick wrong, it will just be shooting a innocent person and causing harm to a family and they will also have to go to court and many other legal things. It's just not worth
The United States should ban the private ownership of handguns because they can be used to commit suicide, can be easily concealed, and can be easily stolen. Suicide is a huge problem, and the availability of handguns makes it worse. Suicide is the second largest cause of death, and the majority are committed with a handgun (Gale 3). The gun homicide rate is less than the gun suicide rate (Gale 3). There are more people killing themselves with easy to obtain handguns than people killing
Gun Control Did you know that about a dozen of school shootings have already occured since January 2018? “Statistics show that more Americans want stricter and better gun laws to provide safety for communities and neighborhoods.” (When the People Choose Gun Control). This country has had difficulty with guns and the restrictions that are causing many deaths. Guns in America need to be controlled because children have too much access to guns, there is too many shootings, and gun laws in states are too lenient. Since the American Revolution, the right to bear arms has been an incremental part of the American experience.
Arms trade supporters may believe that they need to trade and give weapons to militaries and forces to help stop crime, but actually, at the same time they are also increasing the crime rate. Weapons can just as easily kill a civilian as it can a criminal. Weapons are meant to be used as a threat or to harm someone, that is a weapons main purpose, this is why traded is simply not a good idea. “Firearms were the 12th leading cause of all deaths, representing 1.3% of total deaths topping liver disease, hypertension, and Parkinson’s disease, as well as deaths from fires, drowning, and machinery accidents.” (Gun Control) The problem being, when weapons are traded not enough precautions are taken. Even professional groups such as Oxfam International are critical of governments who they say have let the flow of weapons get out of control and fall into the hands of criminals.