Issue of Gun Violence and School Shooting

Gun Violence

Gun violence -death, injuries, school shooting, nightclub shootings, etc. – seems to be all you hear about. Ever since the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, gun violence has peaked, as stated in “Promising Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence”(Section I: Gun Violence in the United States), that focuses on the reasons and data surrounding gun violence and how to control it.

In a study done by Pamela Behrman, professor in the Department of Psychology, said, “…in 2016 alone, 446 children (aged 0–12) and 2,072 teenagers were injured or killed in gun violence incidents…”. Many of these deaths have happened in places where kids and people should feel safe. For example- school. School shootings have increased over the year, guns are taking our once safe place and turning it into a place where you fear your safety. People need to think about how this will affect the future and find a way to bring back our safety.

School Shooting

School shootings have increased drastically within the last few years. Did you know that “From just January 1st to February 18, 2018, there were 30 mass shooting in the US”,18 of which was school shootings, Kathleen Rest, executive director of UCS (Union of Concerned Scientist) who works to solve world problems. As of December 10th, 2018, there has been a total of “94 school gun violence incidents” , as said in a report called “2018 Was by Far the Worst Year on Record for Gun Violence in Schools” by German Lopez, a writer who focuses on justice, guns, and drugs. School shootings are affecting students. They are taking away the feeling of school being a safe place.

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Gun Control

The High School Parkland shooting that happened on February 14th, 2018, in Florida, that left 17 dead and 17 injured, has led to people demanding new gun control and laws. Tom McCarthy, a national affairs correspondent for Guardian US. who writes about politics, states that he thinks there should be “stricter background checks for gun purchases.” And teachers should be armed. These are some of the discussions that have been floating around.

Some people say that guns need to be banned, some say they do not, and some just want stricter laws. Actions that should be put into effect is, background checks, age limit rise, banning of bump stocks, and arming teachers.. As of right now, background checks are not very firm in their checks. In addition to that, the federal law only requires background checks for guns sold through licensed firearm dealers. “About 1 in 5 gun sales today are conducted without a background check.” said by the Brady Campaign, the oldest and boldest organization in the gun violence prevention movement. It should be required for all gun dealers to go through thorough background check of the buyers, even if they are a private dealership.

Gun violence, especially school shootings, have a big effect on the people. People are being traumatized by shootings, even if they did not witness it. Kids, who once felt safe in school, are now scared and fearful that their school will be the next vicum of a school shooting. “‘children exposed to gun violence may experience negative short and long-term psychological effects, including anger, withdrawal, post traumatic stress, and desensitization (emotional responsiveness to a negative or positive stimulus after repeated exposure) to violence’- James Garbarino” Julie Collins, CWLA’s Director of Standards for Practice Excellence, used this quote to further support her claim that gun violence has a social, emotional, physical, and mental health impact, especially on children and youth.

The Future

There is no clear evidence that can predict the future. We can follow along in other countries footsteps, like Australia and the UK who have passed tighter gun laws and have banned automatic and semiautomatic, and suicide and homicide rates went down considerably. As a result of these laws being passed, there has only been 1 mass shooting in the UK and none in Australia“What would happen if the US applied a gun amnesty” by Jaya Harrar, an editor at Lawyer Monthly). But it has to be remembered that the United States is bigger than any other and the citizens have more rights, such as the second amendment, which says the citizens have the right to bear arms. With this being said that means there are more guns. “For every 100 US citizens, 90 of them own guns as related to a country like Yemen who has 55 guns to every 100 citizens” (Jaya Harrar). This shows that even if we tried the same solutions as other countries we will not get the same results, simply because we have more people and guns in the US. Nonetheless, there are still implements that could be considered and put into action to help decrease, and potentially, end school shootings and gun violence in general.

• Solution 1: ban automatic guns.

Automatic guns are guns that shoot more than one bullet per trigger pulled. These are the most used for mass shootings. Banning these might not stop the problem but it will make it more difficult to get.

• Solution 2: More thorough background checks.

As of night now the federal law only requires background checks for guns sold through licensed firearm dealers. “About 1 in 5 gun sales today are conducted without a background check.” said by the Brady Campaign. If it is more strict, criminals might think it a waste of their time to spend getting a gun. There is still the problem that places like the black market or illegal

• Solution 3: Arm teachers with guns.

In Texas one in every 7 schools have armed teachers in the schools. Over 170 schools in Texas have armed teachers, stated by Jacob Carpenter who is a K-12 Education Reporter. This could help eliminate the potential shooter once he is in the school. If teachers were armed, they could shoot and kill or harm the shooter, stopping the attacks.

Counter Argument

Yes, it is said that guns cause the violence, but in reality it is not the guns that are the problem. It is the people. There is no reason for our guns to be taken away or restricted. The people that have guns are doing it for self-defending rights. You will be taking away people’s defense. “Removing guns would leave people who are potential victims of violence unable to defend themselves against stronger, more forceful attackers – David Yamane” Rachel Nuwer quoted this in her article talking about what would happen if all guns just seemingly disappeared.

Conclusion

Gun violence is one of the most talked about problem in the US right now, school shootings especially. It is taking away our once safe places and turning it into a place of fear; students wondering if their school is next. Sadly, there is no way to see in the future or see how potential solutions would pan out. The US could follow in the steps of the UK, Australia, etc. but, the US is very different from these states and there is still the concern of violating the Second Amendment. There are no foreseen perfect solution, but we can start small. Ban automatic guns, that are used in most of the attacks and strengthen the background checks; make it harder for criminals to get their hands on them but still letting the good, sane people have their guns for safety.

Works Cited

1. Bilchik, Shay. “Section 1: Gun Violence in the United States.” Promising Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence , Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1999, p. 3.
2. “Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.” Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence |, www.bradycampaign.org/our-impact/campaigns/background-checks.
3. Carpenter, Jacob, et al. “Armed Teachers? In Some Texas Classrooms, the Answer Is ‘Yes’.” HoustonChronicle.com, Houston Chronicle, 24 Feb. 2018, www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Armed-teachers-In-some-Texas-classrooms-the-12704933.php.
4. Collins, Julie, and Emily Swoveland. “The Impact of Gun Violence on Children, Families, & Communities.” CWLA, www.cwla.org/the-impact-of-gun-violence-on-children-families-communities/.
5. Gun Violence Archive. “Gun Violence Archive 2019.” Gun Violence Archive, Jan. 2019, www.gunviolencearchive.org/
6. Harrar, Jaya. “What Would Happen If the US Applied a Gun Amnesty?” Lawyer Monthly | Legal News Magazine, 22 Oct. 2018, www.lawyer-monthly.com/2017/11/what-would-happen-if-the-us-applied-a-gun-amnesty/.
7. Lopez, German. “2018 Was by Far the Worst Year on Record for Gun Violence in Schools.” Vox.com, Vox Media, 10 Dec. 2018, www.vox.com/2018/12/10/18134232/gun-violence-schools-mass-shootings.
8. McCarthy, Tom. “What Gun Control Proposals Are Being Considered – and Will They Succeed?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 Feb. 2018, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/27/gun-control-proposals-florida-school-shooting.
9. Mervosh, Sarah. “Nearly 40,000 People Died From Guns in U.S. Last Year, Highest in 50 Years.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Dec. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/gun-deaths.html.
10. Nuwer, Rachel. “Future – What If All Guns Disappeared?” BBC News, BBC, 18 Apr. 2018, www.bbc.com/future/story/20180417-what-would-happen-if-all-guns-disappeared.
11. Pamela Behrman, Colleen A Redding, Sheela Raja, Tamara Newton, Nisha Beharie, Destiny Printz; Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) position statement: restore CDC funding for firearms and gun violence prevention research, Translational Behavioral Medicine, Volume 8, Issue 6, 21 November 2018, Pages 958–961, https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibx040
12. Rest, Kathleen. “The Disturbing Facts of Gun Violence Research in the US.” Union of Concerned Scientists, 1 Mar. 2018, blog.ucsusa.org/kathleen-rest/the-disturbing-facts-of-gun-violence-research-in-the-us.
13. Yu, Winnie. “5 Real-World Issues That Worry Young Kids.” Parents, Parents, www.parents.com/kids/health/5-real-world-issues-that-worry-young-kids/.