Informative Essay: Guns and Teen Violence and Death

Andy had access in his own home with plenty of ammunition. The result is a breeder of violence has been released to the rest of America's children ("Tragedy at Santee" 2001). "Threats of school violence surfaced in New Mexico on the wake of recent school shootings in other parts of the country" ("Several New Mexico Schools Threatened With Violence" 2001). Personally my heart breaks with the news that the schools my friends and family, work and learn in are filled with the fear of being killed.

Just the thought of it is frightening. I'm sure we all remember the Columbine High school shooting that was so terrifying, the whole country was in shock. Not too long ago, there had been another shooting in Santana High school which shook us a bit but not as much as Colorado's Columbine incident. There have been many other incidents like these that haven't gained much recognition. But why do these teenagers rebel?

More and more people who are carrying guns around schools today are getting caught and having them taken away. Since schools have gotten metal detectors and scanners, they have cut down the rate of having handguns in schools by nearly 58%(Glazer 5). Security experts have reported that there is no evidence that a metal detector will solve the problem of violence in schools, even though it offers a highly visible symbol to the community (Apfel 22). Even if the schools with all the gun violence in their schools do put in metal detectors at the front entrances of schools, their are many ways kids can sneak in weapons to school. In 1990 congress made it a felony to bring a gun within one thousand feet of any school under the "Gun-Free School Zones" provision of the 1990 crime prevention package.

“Almost twelve kids lose their lives every single day because of guns” (Capps). Most recently, two young boys were shot as they were leaving a high school football game. Soon, another year anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting will arrive. In this incident, two students opened fire on their classmates in Columbine. I cannot imagine the horrors of my fellow students being killed by guns!

(Robertz) Another shooting took place on January 2014 when a twelve year old seventh grader shot two classmates and was eventually taken into custody. (14 January 2014) On November 8th, 2005 Kenny Bartley was accused of bringing a gun to his high school and when confronted by his principal he shot his assistant principal and killed him. (Becken) On February 3, 2014 in Moscow a teenager stole two of his father’s rifles and held 20 of his student’s hostage. He killed one police off... ... middle of paper ... ...ration drills for shooting events. So in case of a situation like this our teachers and students will be more prepared and have somewhat knowledge of what and what not to do.

Lanza killed twenty children and also killed six teachers. After killing the most people, he thought that he could, he took a fatal shot to the head that he caused by himself. The second most recent school shooting that was all over the media was in April of 2007. This shooting took place at Virginia technical institute. A senior, Seung-Hui Cho, walked onto campus with sinister intentions.

Young adults are not just creating this school violence, kids as young as twelve are committing acts as dangerous at their own school shootings. In Sparks Middle School in Nevada, twelve-year-old Jose Reyes had taken his parents hand gun with him to school. He had shot 2 children and killed a teacher that was also a war veteran. He then turned the gun on himself ("US School Violence Fast Facts." CNN).

Although violence in schools is nothing new, multiple shootings are. According to the 1999 Annual Report on School Violence, the number of such shootings increased from one in 1994-95 to five in 1997-98. Tragically, the epidemic of violence continued, and in December 1999, one television newscast called a shooting in Oklahoma the ninth nationwide since 1997 (NBC Evening News). The most serious incident occurred on April 20, 1999, when two teenagers in Littleton, Colorado killed fifteen of their classmates (Health and Administration Development Group 6). Why so many children committed mass murder in so short a time is a mystery.

There are a plethora of likely causes for school shootings, some more plausible than others. People believe that anything from video games to mental disorders to bullying to attention, and many others, could be the main reason for why people decide to shoot up schools. You can’t point to one thing and decide that is why the shooter attacked, it will usually be several factors that affect the shooter that they end up breaking down and think gun violence is perfectly fine. School shootings have been a part of America’s history since 1700’s when four Lenape Indians went into a school in Greencastle, Pa., and killed the teacher and up to as many as 10 children (Epstein, 2012). Since that day school shootings have become almost a regular occurrence.

The fact that I cannot remember too much more of this story is an example about how we have become desensitized toward violence in schools. I think that every other day we hear instances of this type of horror. Obviously the one that stands out in my mind is the Columbine tragedy, but in between the huge stories, are the instances that are just as tragic but get less press. So many times we hear of children bringing guns to school, teens that play around with guns that don’t belong to them, and someone gets hurt or even dies. In the summer before I was in eighth grade a boy in the class ahead of me was killed by a gun when he and his cousin were having target practice.