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
next
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
a
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
do
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
us
so this leaves us all with one question
when will it be me thank you