Essay on Gun Control: Literature Review

Crime is a phenomenon of organized social life and is the open rebellion of an individual against his social environment (Gabbidon and Greene, 2018). Talking about crime with adolescents in the community is a tough topic to swallow that no parent wants to think about. Your teen may never experience any serious problems first hand but, they’ll most likely have friends and classmates who do. Arming and having more experience with the facts can be the first step in reducing your teen’s risk. Early intervention is the key to helping your teen, ignoring problems that teens go through may get worse. Crime rates take place in many perspectives such as gun violence mental illness, drugs and alcohol, family structure, and nevertheless gun violence. Gun violence is a key topic in today’s society, our youth are getting killed every day due to gun violence.

History Behind Gun Control

Gun Control was not a major issue in the first two centuries in the United States. Gun control helps protect citizens to buy, possess, and use firearms. According to Otfinoski (2014), colonists used muskets and pistols to hunt for food. They also used guns to protect themselves from wild animals and in their conflicts with Native Americans and rival colonists from other European nations. In 1968 the Gun Control Act was passed which stated that it was a federal law in the United States signed by President Lyndon Johnson.

In 1934 Congress passed The National Firearm Act. The Act required makers and sellers of guns to pay a tax fee for each weapon sold (Otfinoski, 2014). President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Firearm Act which was a major piece of gun control legislation. Although a lot of Americans supported these federal gun laws, many others were opposed to them. Many believed that all new laws violated the Second Amendment. Throughout much of American history, gun control measures, like many other laws, were used to oppress African Americans (Winkler, 2011). After the American Civil War, the North allowed soldiers of any color to take their rifles home. Even African Americans, who had not served in the war, could purchase firearms in the North (Winkler, 2011).

The Effect on the Second Amendment

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution needs “A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” (U.S. Constitution). As we know guns were used to protect and to hunt, it was not an overall reason why the 2nd Amendment has become a controversial amendment in recent years. Nelson (2019) stated the Second Amendment was meant to help the people protect themselves from a tyrannical government. Some believed that the Second Amendment does not relate to them, but more so to the military, law enforcement, or trained militia. The militia was a group of local men who could act as a military force in times of emergency.

A “well-regulated” militia was one that was trained organized, and disciplined (Nelson, 2019). There are many Americans who believe that gun control means that citizens have the right to own a handgun. In 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm for lawful purposes and protects individual’s right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in militia, to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes and as self-defense within the name (District of Columbia V. Heller, 2008).

Crime Rate

Children who roamed the streets needed to be brought under supervision control. For young people, the term crime, deviance, and delinquency collide to attract critical attention to a much wider set of problem behaviors than is usually afforded to adults (Munice, 2009). Running away from home and congregating in groups are usually considered to be problematic when committed by young people (munice, 2009).

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Gun Violence

Crime rate and gun violence is an important and controversial issue facing our youths today. Guns have always been a part of the American culture, even before we became the America we know today. Gun violence is a major problem that American citizens tend to lack in today’s society. The increase in youth homicide was predominately due to a significant increase in the use of handguns, which converted ordinary teenage fights and other violent encounters into homicide (Blumstein, 2002). Also, Blumstein (2002) stated the increase in violence in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s was due primarily to an increase in violent acts committed by people under age 20.

Brock (2013) stated, that the majority of the youth murdered are killed with a firearm and nearly half of youth suicide deaths involve the use of a gun. Efforts to end youth gun violence must focus on accessibility and prevention. In 2010, there were 2,711 infant, child, and teen firearm deaths. On average there were seven such fatalities daily and 52 weekly. Between 1981 and 2010, 112,375 infants, children, and teens were killed by firearms. This is 25,000 more deaths than the number of soldiers killed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, combined (Children’s Defense Fund, 2013). Violence using guns doesn’t have any boundaries and now it is a major concern in cities towns and suburbs. People are afraid to walk anywhere because our neighborhoods are becoming more of a “war zone”. Our laws state that they prohibit the sale and possession of minors, and teenagers can still get a hold of guns if they want to. Suicides at School are less than 1% of student homicides and suicides take place at school, on the way to or from school, or at a school-sponsored event (Robers, Zhang, & Truman, 2012).

Years ago, Gun Violence was just something to read about. Gun Violence is usually involved in large cities involving gangs, criminals, or a group of drug dealers. Then, it didn't touch people's lives as much but, that is no longer true. The Children’s Defense Fund’s publication, Protect Children, Not Guns 2013, analyzes the latest fatal and nonfatal gun injury data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for children and teens ages 0-19 (Children Defense Fund, 2013). A study conducted by the Children’s Defense Fund and released in June 2006 revealed that in 2003 there were 2,827 gun deaths among children and teens in the United States. Brock (2013) stated the overwhelming majority of Americans agree we can and must do better. Polls show the vast majority of Americans, gun owners and non-gun owners, Republicans, and Democrats support universal background checks as a first step to making American safer for our children and for all of us.

Mental Illness

Underwood and Washington (2016) stated that the Juvenile (detain, probation, youth correction facility, etc.) system is currently faced with the task of providing mental health assessments and treatment services for its youth, as there is greater reliance on the juvenile system to do so. There will always be mentally ill people and there will be a few whom is violent. Estimates reveal that approximately 50 to 75 percent of the 2 million youth encountering the juvenile Justice System meet the criteria for a mental health disorder (Underwood and Washington, 2016). Children and adolescents are usually to respond to threats aggressively and unexpectedly especially with the cause of PTSD.

Teenagers in a rural community are mixed differently than the ones who tend to live in the suburbs. In the community, you will see more teens who believe that they are natural protectors based on the family structure that they live in. The relationship between adolescent depression and adult crime may be influenced by a host of factors, and failing to control for these factors will bias the estimated effect of depression on crime stated Anderson, Cesur, and Tekin (2012). Parental divorce and a father's involvement have been linked to teen savers' mental health and youth behavior. Children with favors who have been incarcerated are not only more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms but are themselves more likely to commit when older (Anderson, Cesur and Tekin, 2016).

Otfiniski (2014) states that the new law did not stop two high school students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, from attacking their fellow classmates at Columbine High-school, in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. After the shooting, it impacted a lot of lives. The House of Representatives voted down a bill requiring a background check for sales at gun shows and child safety trigger locks on guns. Sources believed that this tragedy took place because they were being bullied but, that was not the case. Harris and Klebold write diaries and first want to set off bombs at the school and kill everyone inside until they discover a malfunctioning issue. These are kids with serious psychological problems and were not ordinary kids who were bullied into retaliation (Langman, 2014).