Firearms in America

i remember when i was younger when i was

in elementary school to middle school

i would always watch the news with my

parents before going to bed at night

before going to school in the morning on

the news i would constantly hear about

stabbings homicides

shootouts robbery and assault or theft

and it always made me very sad and

frustrated

i was scared that one day it could

probably be me

or a loved one getting shot stabbed or

assaulted

i wasn’t too worried though because i

lived in a safe community

then one day when i was watching the

news i remember hearing about mass

shootings at school

this really affected me since i realized

that this can happen anywhere at any

given time

i remember i would always play out in my

head what i would do at school if there

was a mass shooting

i would find my brother go to the

kitchen

take the knives and escape out of one of

the rescue windows

where i can run to the parking lot and

find a car that i can hotwire

i told my brother this and we made a

plan if it ever happened

as i got older and as i saw more gun

related violence on the news

i would constantly ask myself when am i

when am i going to be the next person

whose life is tragically taken by gun

only to be forgotten until the next

victim

but i think the question that is even

more important

than that is when is this going to

change

before i can answer that question i need

to paint a small

yet broad picture for everyone the most

common gun

used in mass shootings is the ar15

it has been used to commit attacks in

sandy hook elementary in connecticut

the pulse nightclub in orlando florida

the shootings in las vegas

and the school shooting in parkland

florida just to name

a few of the many mass shootings that

has gone on

in recent years in the us the ar-15

can be manipulated to mimic

military-grade guns

by adding attachments to it these

attachments make the gun

a very desirable weapon for killers to

use

because it can kill so many people the

craziest part is

is that these attachments are easily

accessible to anyone in the us

why would these attachments be so easy

for anyone in the us to buy

why would someone even need a military

grade

gun even crazier than that

is that these mass shootings in which i

mentioned a few of them

were only mass shootings that were

carried out

with only the ar-15 there are many other

mass shootings that are carried out with

different weapons

not to mention that mass shootings are

only one of the many gun violences

that go on in america there are so many

avenues of gun violence

and there are so many different guns on

the market that are easily accessible to

people

yet there’s nothing being done to

alleviate gun balance

we are kicking the can down the road

people are getting shot every day

and there has still yet to be a solution

to the problem because

the government is not addressing it why

isn’t the government doing anything

about gun control

before i answer that question i think

it’s important to

further understand how big a problem gun

violence

is and why gun reform is needed

recent studies show that about 80 of all

firearm deaths worldwide occurred in the

united states

as far as the different types of gun

violences that are happening in this

country

a few big ones are suicide

domestic violence mass shootings and

robbery and assault

according to data from the non-profit

gun violence archive

at the end of 2019 there were 417

mass shootings there are more mass

shootings than days in a year

however mass shootings only account for

small percentage of gun deaths each year

with this data it is basically telling

us that mass shootings

are the least of our problems although

mass shootings are happening every day

the most lethal gun violence which is

suicide

makes up two-thirds of all gun related

deaths

with an average of 63 deaths each day

and in 2019 there were at least 15 292

gun related homicides

resulting in about 41 deaths each day

the other gun violences

i mentioned are all in between the death

rates of

mass shootings and suicide although

these are very different scenarios of

gun violence with different motives of

taking a life all types of gun violence

can all be prevented

in the same ways the ideal solution to

gun violence can be solved in five big

ways

the first way gun violence can be solved

is by banning attachments that can be

put on an assault rifle

like i said earlier these attachments

can be put on rifles

in order to mimic military grade rifles

if these attachments are banned it would

make it harder

for killers or mass shooters to kill

a mass amount of people in a short

amount of time

the second way gun violence can be

solved is through laws that

gun owners need to know how to properly

handle a gun

people who are not thoroughly trained on

how to properly handle

a gun will end up hurting either

themselves

or other people an overlooked way that

they can end up

hurting people is by leaving it out in

the open

or by not keeping the gun in a isolated

safe secure place for example

a person would probably leave a

gun somewhere out in the open if someone

comes across that gun

they can take it and use it to

potentially

hurt others especially if a family

member is mentally ill

or is a criminal the third way gun vines

can be solved

is through universal background checks

and psychology exams

if there are universal background checks

in psychology

exams existing criminals and mentally

ill people

won’t be able to obtain a gun this will

effectively limit

gun violence since criminals and

mentally ill people

won’t be able to inflict violence on

others with guns

this will also effectively eliminate the

mentally ill from

committing suicide through gun violence

furthermore

background checks of the potential gun

owner can help to identify if there is a

criminal or mentally ill person

in the family with this information the

gun owner

will be able to be conscious of how he

or she

handles the gun at home research shows

that keeping a firearm at home

increases the risk of homicide by a

factor of three

and that more guns lead to more suicides

if the person knows how to handle a gun

and keep it in isolated safe place

gun violence will decrease the fourth

way gun violence can be solved is by

having uniform gun laws throughout the

u.s

considering that gun reform takes place

if there are uniform gun laws

every state would have the same

consistent procedure

in obtaining a gun which means that the

license would be

legitimate in 36 of the 50 states in

america

there is no legal requirement for gun

registration

no gun permit needed and no gun license

necessary to purchase and own a firearm

which means that anyone in the u.s

can buy a gun even if they don’t have

the best intentions

if gun laws are consistent throughout

the us this will

ensure that every gun owner is

legitimate

the fifth way gun bonds can be solved is

by fixing modern policing

there are many police officers who are

racist or even become a cop

to become a criminal if psychology exams

or simulations are done this can weed

out

any of the police officers who pose a

threat to society

to add on to that the education that

these police officers receive

should be better in order to approach

certain situations

differently for example a cleveland

police officer shot and killed a 12 year

old boy named tamir rice

because he was playing with a toy gun in

a park

although the kid pointed a toy gun

that was painted black at the police

officer

if the police officer was able to survey

the area

better rather than just pull up and

shoot the kid this outcome would have

been

different and maybe tamir rice would

still be living today

although these ideas can help reduce gun

violence in america

these solutions won’t fix themselves

because there’s a bigger problem

many people here in america think that

the issue of gun control is something

that can be easily fixed however gun

control is a

tough topic to be solved since there are

many

obstacles in the way to answer the

question i posed before

about why the government hasn’t done

anything about gun violence

is because politicians are lobbied by

gun manufacturers

which means that they don’t want gun

reform because gun reform

would make it harder to buy guns which

would ultimately

lose money for goodbye manufacturers for

example if they were background checks

these background checks would decrease

profit in two big ways

background checks would be able to

identify mentally ill people and

criminals

because of this information they won’t

give the guns to them

and sales would go down and the second

way is that without

criminals and mentally ill people posing

a threat to society

this would decrease the demand for

people to own guns

for self-protection therefore cutting

off more sales

these gun manufacturers are not

protecting the people of america

they are doing whatever they can

possibly do

so they can get as much profit as they

possibly can

they care more about money than people’s

lives

moreover there has been controversy that

the second amendment

conflicts with gun control

however they can coexist the second

amendment says that we have a right to

bear arms

because it is necessary to the security

of a free state

simply put people can own guns because

it is necessary for self-protection

however not all people who own guns

have that same motive long story short

there is not a simple answer to the

problem

of gun violence in this country after

much thought about what we can do

to not become victims of gun violence

i came up with one simple thing we can

to save ourselves all we have to do

is be proactive one way we can be

proactive

is by developing a run hide fight

mentality

which will help you already make a

decision

so that when a crisis hits all you have

to do is act

if you can identify your surroundings

such as entrances

exits windows planters walls

or pillars this information can help you

know what to do

if an active shooter walks through that

door

by identifying it exits entrances and

windows

you can have a plan as to where you will

run

by identifying planters pillars and

walls

you can use that as possible cover from

bullets

with that being said we need to be

proactive not

just in the moment of a shooting

but actively in peaceful protests

and by writing to and supporting those

in power who can make

change possible we need to be serious

about voting in politicians

who are committed to gun reform and who

are willing to change the laws

only when we choose people to run the

government who put lives before

guns will our country become safer

think about it like this we are all just

waiting for the next victim to get shot

it could be you it could be your mother

it could be your friend

it could be your grandfather it could be

your brother heck it could be your whole

family

but the fact of the matter is is that it

can happen anywhere

at any time by any person and the sad

reality is

is it that it could have been prevented

but the constant inaction of gun reform

by the government will only lead to more

gun related deaths

and without knowing it we are all

playing a waiting game

we see the gun violence that goes on in

america every day

on the news in front of our faces like

we are just waiting for it to happen to

so this leaves us all with one question

when will it be me thank you