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School shootings cause and effect essays
School shootings cause and effect essays
Cause and effect of school shootings
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On December 14, 2012, an armed gunman went to an elementary school in a small town called Newtown, Connecticut and opened fire. That gunman successfully claimed 27 lives including his own. On that day not only did he kill innocent children, he successfully influenced our countries homeland security in unimaginable ways. Adam Lanza’s actions posed a threat to our homeland security; however, at the same time it opened up the American public’s eyes and led to changes and solutions to active shooters and lone wolf criminals in the United States.
Adam Lanza left his house early in the morning on December 14 armed with multiple guns. After shooting his mother four times in the head while she was asleep, he then headed to the elementary school nearby his house, where it was a normal day the school was conducting its usual morning announcements. The schools exterior doors were locked down at 9:30am. Sometime after 9:30am Adam arrived at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and forced his way into the school by breaking the glass on front door with his gun. He mainly targeted two first-grade classrooms close to front of the building, where he shot twenty students between the ages of five and six and also six adults. After authorities made their way into the school, he realized that he was discovered and he fled to a nearby closet and shot himself in the head (Altimari 2013).
Threat
The biggest threat to our homeland security after this incident was 27 innocent lives were massacred by LEGAL weaponry readily available for anyone to get their hands on. That led to the American public asking many good questions about homeland security including, are we [Americans] being too lenient and making it too easy for bad guys to obtain guns? Since it is easy for bad guys to legally get guns, are we just making it harder to protect the homeland? If we strengthen gun laws, how can we justify
The deadliest school shooting to have ever happened in the United States at a high school or grade school, happened less than two years ago. On December 14th, 2012, Adam Lanza, who was twenty years old at the time, shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, four times and then brought firearms to his former grade school Sandy Hook Elementary, and fatally shot twenty children and six adults. Then the shooter put his own gun to his head and fatally shot himself. All of the children were between the ages of six and seven years old, and all six adults who were shot and killed were females who worked at the school. Lanza's father believed that if he were there himself, his son would have had no trouble shooting and killing him too. He also theorized that Adam shot his mother four times for each of them; himself, his mother, his father, and his brother. After the tragedy, the school was torn down and many gun-control debates heated up and schools greatly improved their security to prevent anymore potential attacks. To this day, the motive of Adam Lanza, is still unknown but the effects are still felt in the world today.
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...
The Boston Massacre is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The fatal incident happened on March 5 of 1770. The massacre resulted in the death of five colonists. British troops in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were there to stop demonstrations against the Townshend Acts and keep order, but instead they provoked outrage. The British soldiers and citizens brawled in streets and fought in bars. “The citizens viewed the British soldiers as potential oppressors, competitors for jobs, and a treat to social mores'; (Mahin 1). A defiant anti-British fever was lingering among the townspeople.
On March 5, 1770 a fight broke out in the streets of Boston, Massachusetts between a patriot mob and British soldiers. Citizens attacked a squad of soldiers by throwing snowballs, stones and sticks. British Army soldiers in turn killed five civilians and injured six others. The presence of British troops had been stationed in Boston, the capital of Province of Massachusetts Bay since 17681. The British existence was increasingly unwelcome. The British troops were sent to Boston in order to protect and support the crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation.
Over the last decade or so, the United States of America has been shaken by an epidemic of terrifying mass shootings, devastating slayings of unexpecting victims, and unnerving annihilations of the innocent. There is no specific target, no explicitly sought-out group, nor definite individual. From a classroom of first-graders, to a crowded movie theatre, to a U.S. Naval yard, the location seems at most, random, other than that it is almost always a public place. The perpetrators responsible for these horrific murders also vary, and often surprise those who thought they knew them. However, while the occurrences of mass shootings are unpredictable and always shocking, most have one thing in common: the use, or rather misuse, of assault weapons-automatic or semiautomatic military style rifles. To ensure the safety, security, and well-being of the people of the United States, the government should ban assault weapons.
On December 12, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School was invaded by an unstable, armed man. Earlier that year the principal of the school, Dawn Hochsprung, implemented a new security system that required all visitors to buzzed into the school by visual identification. Many schools have also put in similar security systems to have school doors locked at all times during the school day, helping insure students’ safety. For Sandy Hook this minor security system would not be enough. When the gunman arrived to the school, he shot his way through the front do...
The Boston Massacre was and is still a debatable Massacre. The event occurred on March 5, 1776. It involved the rope workers of the colonial Boston and two British regiments, the twenty-ninth and the fourteenth regiments. Eleven people were shot in the incident; five people were killed and the other six were merely wounded. The soldiers and the captain, Thomas Preston, were all put on trial. All were acquitted of charges of murder, however the two soldiers who fired first, Private Mathew Killroy, and Private William Montgomery, the two soldiers were guilty of manslaughter. The causes were numerous for this event. There had been a nation wide long-term dislike towards the British, and a growing hatred towards them by the people of Boston. Even before the two regiments were sent in to monitor Boston there was a growing feud before the two sides.
Do you remember the conflict that America had in the Persian Gulf a few years back? An incident occurred there where a man drove a truck loaded with explosives into the building where more than 100 Marines were stationed. He blew up the building, along with the Marines. The incident was published by the AP Press soon after. Now do you remember the bombing just four years ago, in Oklahoma City? Suspects Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols drove a Ryder Van loaded with 4,800 pounds of fertilizer and fuel oil to the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where it subsequently exploded, killing 169 people and injuring some 500 others. Of course you do. While both were massive acts of violence involving American citizens, the impact of such acts is always felt the most when it happens right here at home.
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.
On December 14, 2012 Alex Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15, he killed twenty, first graders and six adults. (Fired Up) Alex Lanza did not have a permit to carry a concealed handgun; there is no knowledge if he had proper training. (Clint Best) After Lanza committed this horrible act of violence people started to push the gun control laws more furiously. Lanza was thought to have asperger’s syndrome but this was never confirmed. Lanza opened the door for many gun lobbyists and vice versa for the gun control advocates.
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.
There is one reaction that is always to be expected after a mass shooting, and that is the call for an increase in control. This can be defined in numerous different ways, and can include a great deal of different aspects. People who call for an increase gun control in the wake of mass shootings are, in general, people who believe that more guns means more crimes. Gun control advocates cite studies that state, “Higher gun prevalence is associated with an increase in homicides, and suicides, and possibly even more residential burglaries” (Ludwig 17). Often times, after mass shootings, those in favor of more gun control look to countries like Australia, Canada, Great Britain and Japan, and their strict gun policy and cite this as the direction
Throughout history, events are sparked by something, which causes emotions to rise and tensions to come to a breaking point. The Boston Massacre was no exception; America was feeling the pressure of the British and was ready to break away from the rule. However, this separation between these two parties would not come without bloodshed on both sides. The British did not feel the American had the right to separate them from under British rule, but the Americans were tired of their taxes and rules being placed upon them and wanted to succeed from their political tyrants. The Boston Massacre would be the vocal point in what would be recognized, as the Revolutionary War in American history and the first place lives would be lost for the cost of liberty. Even though the lives were lost that day, eight British soldiers were mendaciously accused of murder when it was clearly self-defense. People who are placed in a situation where their lives are threatened have the right to defend themselves. History does not have the right to accuse any one event those history may have considered the enemy guilty when they are fighting for their lives.
One of these major incidents occurred in the past few years was the Sandy Hook School Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. 20 year old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 kids and six adults school faculty members and ultimately committed suicide by shooting himself (Flegenheimer, 2013). Another shooting occurred in a Colorado movie theater, where James Holmes shot 70 people that led to 12 deaths in July 2012 (CNN Library, July 2014). On February 26, 2012 an incident occurred between a Floridian resident and neighborhood watch coordinator, George Zimmerman, who reportedly shot and killed a sixteen year old boy, Trayvon Martin in self- defense (CNN Library, February 2014). However, many people feel that the shooting was uncalled for because Martin was unarmed and he was walking in the same gated community he was currently living with his father. These stories are just a few that calls to attention the importance of personnel gun restrictions needed in this country. After reviewing these incidents, now the real question is, "Could these incidents and other countless of gun related criminal acts have been avoided if there was just an increase of firearm restrictions
On the morning of December 14, 2012 at approximately 9:30 am, tragedy broke in the small town school of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut. The lives of 27 innocent people were taken. The gunman Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 schoolchildren, 6 adult staff members and his own mother’s before turning the gun on himself. This incident has since been branded the second deadliest mass shooting, next to the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre. The tragedy ignited a very controversial debate about the regulation of guns more known as gun control. The argument of gun control circles around the impact of passing laws to regulate the sales and possession of firearms. Gun advocates argue that the passing of gun control laws will be a violation of their second amendment rights, which protects the rights of an individual to keep and bear arms. Those supporting gun control are in favor for the instituting of policies that make the sales and possession of firearms even stricter, perhaps the ultimate banning of guns. Should we wait for horrific tragedies to pressure lawmakers to pass gun control laws or should they be already be enforced to protect the people and make society safer? Gun control laws need to be enforced on the account that guns are becoming more and more accessible; it will ensure the safety of our citizens and will perhaps decrease gun violence.