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Gun violence tends to happen in every country but recently it has been occurring more frequently in the United States. No other country has even half the number of gun deaths as the United States and none come close to half of the number of firearms that circulate and flow within our boarders yet there seems to be no urgent emergency in trying to stop this national threat. We need to make a change and fast because according to the American public health association, “Every day, 100 Americans are killed with guns and hundreds more are shot and injured. The effects of gun violence extend far beyond these casualties—gun violence shapes the lives of millions of Americans who witness it, know someone who was shot, or live in fear of the next shooting”. Yet the people that are against gun control choose to believe that their second amendment right is way more important than the lives that are lost. I ask myself where is the empathy? Why can't they see all the harm that is done to not only those that were directly affected but to the people around them such as family and friends. They are not going to be able to go back and live their lives before they lost someone to gun violence. I believe that having stricter gun laws will be able to solve such heinous acts from occurring because having better background checks, red flag laws, and the banning of assault rifles will be the key components in stopping gun violence.
For starters, we need to realize that gun violence is not unavoidable but one of the main reasons why gun violence is so high is because there is easy access to firearms. One way we can put an end to that is by having better background checks which will now be taken more serious due to the Fix NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) act of 2017. As stated by Beth Baumann, “this act makes it mandatory for all federal agencies to report criminal convictions to the Attorney General, so that those convictions are put into the background check system”. The Fix NICS act makes the background check more accurate since the system will be updated twice a year allowing for fewer mistakes from happening. According to Daphne Marvel, “this aims to prevent what happened at Sutherland Springs, Texas in which the failure of not conducting a proper background check leads to a shooting at a church in which 26 people were murdered”. If the background check would have been up to date it would have shown the domestic violence case in his records which would have prevented him from getting a gun.
Furthermore, I believe another great method to prevent gun violence would be the California policy of Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO), which is also known as the red flag law. The law was signed in 2014 and went into effect on January 2016. The reason why the red flag law would make a great impact on preventing gun violence is that it allows the police or family members to petition a court to recover someone’s guns, magazines, and ammunition in emergencies for up to three weeks, though a judge can extend the confiscation up to a year. The red flag seems to be effective since Tara Law from the LA Times states that “21 cases of the mass shooting were prevented because of the red flag law. One, in particular, spoke about a car dealership employee who had told a co-worker he was going to shoot his supervisors and other employees if they were to fire him so the co-worker notified the police and with a judge’s permission the police were able to confiscate four weapons and one other gun”. This is a great example of how gun violence was prevented. This law also focuses on people that are possibly at the highest risk of harming themselves or others which I believe is such a great thing because suicide alone makes up overall two-thirds of gun deaths.
Lastly, I’ll like to discuss the various ways of how the banning of assault rifles would prevent further gun violence. But before we get into that I’ll like to go over how 25 years ago there was already an assault rifle ban (1994), which didn’t allow the manufacturing or sale of semi-automatic weapons or magazines that could hold ten rounds or more to civilians. Sadly, the bill had to be renewed every 10 years but because at the time of the renewal the house and senate were mostly made up of Republicans, who were against the bill it wasn’t able to pass for renewal. But while the bill was in effect it was able to reduce the number of mass shootings. Which leads me to my point of why we need an assault rifle ban. Nowadays there’s a mass shooting every now and then but if they were to reintroduce the assault rifle ban (1994) it will help decrease mass shootings because past shooters prefer to use an assault rifle since it is able to hold 30 bullets in a magazine, the ammunition travels three times the speed of sound, and because of the high velocity the bullet goes and gun powder it contains it tends to explode once it makes contact with something. So, if this ban were to pass it would make it harder for people in general to have access to these dangerous weapons and according to Joe Biden who articulated the 1994 ban states, “Assault weapons — military-style firearms designed to fire rapidly — are a threat to our national security, and we should treat them as such, anyone who pretends there's nothing we can do is lying — and holding that view should be disqualifying for anyone seeking to lead our country”. This statement reinforces why assault rifles should be banned especially when this year alone there has been so many mass shootings.
In conclusion, I believe that having stricter gun laws will be able to stop gun violence from occurring because having better background checks, red flag laws, and the banning of assault rifles will be the key components in stopping gun violence. The reason for that is because these restrictions make people do everything legally. There would be fewer weapons on the streets that are being sold illegally which would prevent people from buying them and using them to hurt themselves or others. Even though many people who are against gun control will disagree with my following statements either because they say it violates their second amendment or because they say it gives too much power to the government. They should be considerate and try to at least understand that this isn’t a personal attack towards them, but instead an attack towards gun violence.
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