Did you know that to this day, gun deaths are one of the leading causes of death in all of America. Shootings could be on purpose or on accident, however it is still never ok. Getting shot can change the lives of not only the victim, but also their family and friends forever. Surviving a bullet shot is highly unlikely, depending on the location of being shot, but nobody should ever have to be in fear for their life. A bullet can do some serious damage to the human body, some may even have to lose an arm or a leg. It can also depend on the kind of gun used, different weapons have bigger bullets, shoot faster, harder, or even more accurate. Gun violence laws should be revised to reduce the amount of deaths and the risk of death for America lives.
There is no doubt that guns were originally made to kill people in war hundred of years ago. However using them on innocent or out of rage on people is not right, there can be many other ways to solve a problem rather than taking a life. A two year old in Maryland, Tyree Flint, “had found a handgun...in a bedroom while others people in the home were sleeping” (Penzenstadler). According to KMGH, a 2-year-old pulled down a loaded 12-gauge pump shotgun from a towel rack and shot himself in the head.” Recently on May 5 2019, 1 student dead and 8 injured at Highlands Ranch School in Colorado, “Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said the suspects – a juvenile and an adult...authorities recovered three handguns and a rifle.” Known as the worst High School shooting in American history, “In February 2018, a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL left 17 people dead and 14 wounded. The teen shooter used an AR-15 semi-automatic style weapon,” 3 months later on May 18, 2018, at Santa Fe High School “a teen shooter used a shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver that he took from his father to kill 10 people and wound 10 others” (Mitros). In Southwest Washington, twenty eight year old Ryan Matthew Addison was shot on August 11, 2015, “authorities say a suspected gang member from Virginia mistakenly believed Addison had killed one of the alleged gunman’s friends” (Hermann).
Coming home from work and finding out your child has found your gun and shot themselves is devastating, whether accidentally or suicide. How do they find the gun in the first place. Going to an event or party, and a shooter comes in with an assault rifle, holding the trigger spraying bullets left and right. There is nothing to do except wait until cops come or a bullet hits you. There are people out there in the US that get so angry at one another, they will have a shootout in a neighborhood. Weather its a group of people or just two people, they wouldn't stop until somebody dies. Nobody should ever experience being shot or in the middle of gun fire.
Not all laws in the United States are the same for owning guns, each state has their own set of laws that they must think works best for their state. According to SafeHome, the highest rate of firearm ownership in the United States is Alaska, “with nearly 62 percent of adults owning a gun” while delaware has a firearm ownership of nearly 5 percent. The leading cause of firearm deaths are actually suicide, “almost two-thirds of all gun-related deaths in the U.S,” and then homicide with nearly 33 percent. The state with the highest suicide rate is Alaska while, “Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Jersey have the lowest firearm suicide rates,” and the state with the highest murder rates are Louisiana and Mississippi at nearly 9 percent, while the lowest murder by firearm is massachusetts.
All of the states in the United States support owning a firearm, however some states and their laws are just not good enough to prevent and reduce gun violence while some states do have good laws to owning a firearm. According to the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, “Approximately one of three handguns guns is kept loaded and unlocked and most children know where their parents keep their guns.” Children and guns should net ever be together, they could accidentally cause a disaster around the house.
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Gun violence costs a lot of money, according to Groundswell it costs the United States $229 billion dollars per year. “that’s $55 billion more than Apple’s annual revenue—and Apple is the second-most profitable company in the world.” but also “President Obama in 2014 sent Congress a proposed defense budget of $495.6 billion” Out of the $229 billion dollars per year spent on gun violence, “Gunshot wounds cost $2.8 billion per year in hospital bills, while long-term prison costs for people who commit crimes using guns total $5.2 billion per year. Lost wages and economic contributions from both victims and imprisoned perpetrators amount to an annual cost of $49 billion, and losses in quality of life are estimated to cost $169 billion” (Heinrich).
Pew Research Center has surveyed U.S. adults in what they view of guns and gun ownership. Gun owners have a different view of gun rights in the United States compared to people who don't own guns (see fig. 1). There are a few reasons that people own firearms, “67% cite protection as a major reason. About four-in-ten gun owners (38%) say hunting is a major reason, and 30% cite sport shooting. Smaller shares cite a gun collection or their job as major reasons” (Igielnik). However according to Gun owners they will usually have their gun close at hand, “About four-in-ten gun owners (38%) say there is a gun that is both loaded and easily accessible to them all of the time when they are at home. And about a quarter of handgun owners (26%) say they carry a gun outside of their home all or most of the time” (Igielnik). However, according to Vox, “Owning a gun or having one readily accessible makes...for increased odds of suicide among persons with access to firearms” and “is true for accidents.” Twenty six percent is a lot, people don’t realize that guns are all over the place wherever they go because according to Center for Injury Research and Prevention, “There are more than 393 million guns in circulation in the United States — approximately 120.5 guns for every 100 people.”
This famous phrase, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is “used by gun rights supporters to emphasize the human role in gun violence rather than the gun itself” (Ingraham). However, a gun cannot work unless somebody's pulls the trigger. It can’t be the guns fault, its whoever does the action of the shootings and killings. Yes, people kill people, but if one can obtain a gun so easily, why haven’t there been stricter gun ownership laws.
There is no doubt that it is even possible to ban all guns in America to prevent more gun deaths, however the government can pitch in and help reduce the amount of gun deaths per year. Such as increasing the legal age to buy a gun. The legal age to buy a gun in the United States is 18 years old, pretty much a high school senior and a big topic about guns is the fear of school shootings. According to the Sanders Institute there should be more restrictions on “access to assault weapons” and “access to high capacity ammunition magazines”. There have been many
stories in the United States where assault weapons are the main cause of mass shootings. Universal background checks should be more strict “While federal laws require licensed gun dealers to perform background checks, federal law does not require unlicensed sellers (like private sellers, and those who sell online and at gun shows) to run background checks.” which can give anybody at any age an easier chance of obtaining a firearm, “A 2017 study estimated that 42% of US gun owners acquired their most recent firearm without a background check.” Without a background check, their history could be filled with bad behaviour and who know what they could do next with their possession of a firearm.
Even though there is no way to ban guns, there are many different ways to reduce gun violence. Accidental gun deaths in the house can be easily prevented by being more responsible by putting a gun in a safer place. Congress can easily help gun violence by, banning assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines, which would reduce the amount killed in mass shootings drastically. People need to realize that the life of a human is very precious. They need to understand how hard it is to lose a loved one because of either an argument or an accident.Now is the time to revise gun violence laws before more innocent people get killed.
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