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Gun reform thesis statement
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Essays on mass shootings cause and effect
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The Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013, introduced March 21, 2013 was a reaction to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that had occurred on December 14 the year prior. The horrific mass murder at the School in Newtown, Connecticut resulted in twenty children and six adult dead, leaving the entire country in horror and shock. In the wake of this tragedy, there was a fierce public outcry to curb gun violence. The shooter, 20 year old Adam Lanza, known for having a history of mental health issies, shot his mother before going to the local elementary school and open firing upon students and faculty. After killing 26 student and faculty, he committed suicide. The majority of the public was devastated by this horrific event, and President Barrack Obama publicly and passionately declared that the time for comprehensive Gun Control Reform was long over due. The Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013, also known as Senate Bill 649 was a bipartisan compromise to expand background checks for buyers at gun show and on the Internets and to ban assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines. The bill was generally quite well received by the public, with polls showing support for expanding gun background checks to be between 83 to 91 percent, yet ultimately the Senate still failed to pass it. The failure of this seemingly straightforward and popular bill can be explained due to a combination issues, including collective action problems, the rules governing the Senate, inefficacy of the President in using his informal powers of persuasion, and the powerful efforts of anti-gun control interest groups such as the National Rifle Association.
One explanation for the popular Bill’s failures was a coordination problem on the part...
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Sandy Hook is an elementary school in Connecticut that was invaded by a shooter, Adam Lanza. Twenty-eight people were shot and killed, twenty of them being children between the ages of five and ten. Before Lanza arrived, he shot and killed his mother who was a teacher at this school. The article was published the day of the shooting to the Washington Post. The article was written announce what had actually happened during this tragic event. The article was directed towards parents with kids and adults to inform everyone on the catastrophe and to hopefully make schools as safe as they could possibly be. Additionally the author also states that this is not the right time to try and discuss the gun control laws.
Although the families of those affected and the American people watching at home believed in the security of our Nation during the Sandy Hook school shooting, we as a Nation have not put in the recognition needed to see the restraint that has blinded us from noticing we aren’t doing enough for the safety of our children when it comes to gun violence; therefore, President Barack Obama wants the American people to see this as it is and to begin to resolve this issue, beginning with gun control policies.
A growing number of publicized tragedies caused by gun violence have caused a great stir in the American community. Recently, President Barack Obama has made proposals to tighten the regulation of and the restrictions on the possession of weapons in America to lessen these tragedies. Should the legislative branch decide in favor of his proposals, all American citizens who do or wish to own the type of weapons in question or who use current loopholes in existing policy would be directly affected. His proposals, which are to “require background checks for all gun sales, strengthen the background check system for gun sales, pass a new, stronger ban on assault weapons, limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, finish the job of getting armor-piercing bullets off the streets, give law enforcement additional tools to prevent and prosecute gun crime, end the freeze on gun violence research, make our schools safer with new resource officers and counselors, better emergency response plans, and more nurturing school climates, [and] ensure quality coverage of mental health treatment, particularly for young people,” have been cause for a large amount of recent debate (whitehouse.gov).
The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms, but only in cases of self-defense and hunting for food. However, the use of guns has drastically changed since 1791 when the amendment was implemented. Today, guns are not solely used in their intended ways. Since 2010, over eighty-seven school shootings have occurred within American grade schools, high schools, and universities, resulting in approximately 107 injuries and 109 murders of innocent students. The two most deadly shootings in the world occurred in the United States: the Virginia Tech University Massacre which left thirty-two dead and Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting which left twenty-eight dead. Each new shooting prompts a debate about gun control laws and leaves citizens wondering about the accessibility of guns; any United States citizen over the age of twenty-one that does not have any previous felonies is able to easily receive a gun license. Forty-nine out of the sixty-one school shootings that occurred between 1982 and 2012 legally obtained firearms. The statistics become even more outstanding: seventy nine percent of all shooters have been diagnosed with a mental illness or disability, including the Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook shooters, Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza. Cho and Lanza were diagnosed with mental illnesses and disabilities, depression and autism, respectively. Even so, they were still able to acquire the guns they needed because extensive mental health background checks did not and still do not exist; Cho purchased his own weapon and Lanza stole his mother’s guns. Although the case studies of Lanza and Cho are only two out of the many school shootings, they should be considered prime examples to illustrate the necessity to add stri...
8. Siddiqui, Sabrina. “Assault Weapons Ban, High-Capacity Magazines Measures Fail in Senate Vote.” Huffington Post, 17 April 2013. Web. 4 Feb. 2014. .
First Amendment Rights of Public School Students How the judicial branch rules in cases relating to the 1st and how they relate that to all the rights of public school students. This includes anything from flag burning to not saluting the flag to practicing religion in school. The main point of this paper is to focus on the fact that schools have a greater ability to restrict speech than government. Research Question Does government or school districts have the ability to restrict free speech? This is a very important question because this gives great power to one over the other.
Separation of church and state is an issue in the forefront of people’s minds as some fight for their religious freedoms while others fight for their right to not be subjected to the religious beliefs of anybody else. Because public schools are government agencies they must operate under the same guidelines as any other government entity when it comes to religious expression and support, meaning they cannot endorse any specific religion nor can they encourage or require any religious practice. This issue becomes complicated when students exercise their right to free speech by expressing their religious beliefs in a school setting. An examination of First Amendment legal issues that arise when a student submits an essay and drawing of a religious
The school locker is usually the only private space available to a student in the environment of the school. So it focuses many of the main issues involved in privacy of the students. The 4th Amendment of the US Constitution states “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,papers,and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized.”
On April 16th, 2007 Cho had created one of the most deadly school shootings in America. ( "Virginia Tech Shootings Fast Facts." CNN.) It was unfathomable to think that in the close future, America would encounter many more detrimental school shootings. This is including the shooting of elementary students in Newtown, CT where Adam Lanza had shot and killed 27 children and faculty. Lanza had been known to have significant health issues that had kept him from living a normal life. (Sanchez, Ray, Chelsea J. Carter in Atlanta, Yon Pomrenze in New York, and The CNN New York Bureau Staff. ) Both of these shooters had killed themselves shortly after their attacks. School violence has become a nation-wide issue.
The United State of America, established by the Founding Father who lead the American Revolution, accomplished many hardship in order to construct what America is today. As history established America’s future, the suffering the United State encountered through history illustrate America’s ability to identify mistakes and make changes to prevent the predictable. The 2nd Amendment was written by the Founding Father who had their rights to bear arms revoked when they believe rising up to their government was appropriate. The Twentieth Century, American’s are divided on the 2nd Amendment rights, “The right to bear arms.” To understand why the Founding Father written this Amendment, investigating the histories and current measures may help the American people gain a better understanding of gun’s rights in today’s America.
"How the Gun-Rights Lobby Won After Newtown." PBS. PBS, 10 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
In the article “Gun Control Can Prevent School Shootings,” Bennett shares the effects of gun violence in the past, present, and future. The Sandy Hook shooting occurred on December 14, 2012 when twenty children and six adult staff members were killed. Barely a month after the shooting, eleven of the families affected by the shooting went to meet privately with Joe Biden, and members from the Congress and cabinet. Bennett stated, “They were preparing to wade into some of the roughest waters in American politics: the gun debate.” President Obama gave a speech in Connecticut vowing to fight for change. And as Bennett put it, “Members of Congress started acting as parents instead of politicians.” Bennett explained to the families that they couldn't get rid of assault weapons or high capacity ammunition magazines, no matter how bad the shooting was. The families got angry and stated they did not want to know what they couldn't do, but what they could do to honor their children.
America will never forget the atrocity that is Sandy Hook. Once known as a peaceful school, Sandy Hook Elementary is now known as the site of another school shooting, one which resulted in a young adult slaughtering twenty children and six adult staff members (Chaney and Robertson 74). The perpetrator, Adam Lanza, shocked the small town of Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012. He acted on his frustrations; murdering his own mother and slaughtering innocent children and civilians. Bewildered, the nation began the attempt to search for clues explaining the perpetrator’s motives. As typical, investigators concluded that Lanza was another troubled young mind; he had a variant of Down syndrome which socially alienated him, and his single mother, an active gun enthusiast, seemed to only make matters worse by allowing Lanza to preoccupy himself with shooting range practice and video games.
Students’ rights in schools are limited or just taken away. Kids are forced to do whatever the officials at their school, either the principal or the teachers, tell the students to do. One of the main right that gets taken away or limited is students’ first amendment rights, which is the freedom of expression. Students can gets suspended by just doing things the staff at the school does not like, including saying things that they don 't like or supporting a religion that the school does not support. Also, if something is said about the school or the people attending the school is said on social media that student can also get in a lot of trouble. Students should be able to have more first amendment
The debate over gun control in America has constantly been brought up over the years due to gunmen killing large amounts of people in shootings. From Columbine to Sandy Hook, or the shootings of the two reporters in West Virginia, these public shootings are occurring everywhere. Lawmakers and civilians alike are pushing for increased gun control in hopes of preventing the same tragedies. Anyone that has been affected by the shootings has been pushing Congress and state governments to force new sanctions on the government. Over the past three years, Congress has shot down all the laws despite the large amounts of public support.