Introduction
Injuries or deaths caused by firearms are an ever increasing concern to public health in the United States. Reports of school shootings, homicides, and suicides committed with firearms are a gripping trend that are seen all too often in news headlines. Although each has its own unique set of challenges to curbing incidence rates, there is one type of shooting that is particularly troubling. Accidental shootings remain a significant problem, primarily among young children, and are more easily prevented than one might realize. According to an article from the New York Times, an estimated one-third of American children live in homes with firearms, according to public health research, and 43 percent of these homes have at least one unlocked firearm lying about as an invitation to accidental mayhem (“Children at Gunplay,” 2014). In the paper, I will discuss the prevalence of firearms, the incidence rates of unintentional shootings, and preventative measures that can be implemented to decrease the occurrence of unintentional shootings.
Prevalence of Firearms
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According to Alpers, Rossetti, and Salinas (2015), 49.1 percent of households in the United States reported to have owned one or more guns in 1973. In 2012, the number of households that reported owning one or more guns dropped to 34.4 percent (Alpers et al, 2015). Although the proportion of households that report owning firearms continues to decline, how many firearms do private individuals truly own in the United States? The estimated total number of guns (both elicit and illicit) held by civilians in the United States is 270,000 to 310,000 (Alpers et al, 2015). These figures include handguns, shotguns, and rifles, with handguns being the largest percentage of guns
More than 20,000 children and youth under the age of 20 years old are injured or killed by guns in the U.S. The easy accesses kids have to getting their hands on guns are a major reason why firearms are the second leading cause of death among the youth. The majority of deaths by guns in the youth are homicides. About one-third of them are suicides. Seven percent are unintentional. People living in urban areas such as, older teens, males, African American youth, and Hispanic youth are more likely to be involved in gun homicides. People in rural areas like males and Caucasian youth are more likely to commit suicide. There were 2,711 infant, child, and teen firearm deaths. That’s seven deaths a day.
Guns are not the trouble, people are. The United States is #1 in world gun ownership, and yet is only 28th in the world in gun murders per 100,000 people. The number of unintentional fatalities due to firearms declined by 58 percent between 1991 and 2011 Based on these facts, one can see the guns not the causes of gun violence. moreover, civilians who get permits take gun safety courses and have criminal background...
As McMahan points out, “When more citizens get guns, further problems arise: people who would have once got in a fistfight instead shoot the person who provoked them; people are shot by mistake or accident.” (McMahan, 1) One of McMahan’s premises wraps around the analogy of comparing private gun possession to the nuclear arms race. Throughout this article, McMahan shows that either everyone will have guns (criminals and private citizens), or nobody will have guns. He demonstrates that when guns are found in every household, gun control can do little to restrict access to guns from potential criminals.
Some of the deaths that were caused by gun violence was dealt to small children.Having a firearm in your home can cause a great risk if you have a child in your home because a firearm can be accessed by a child.In many situation the child is playing with firearm without adult supervision and end up either wounding themselves or end up dead. According to CNN “Guns kill Nearly 1,300 US children each year.”Also when a firearm is easily accessible a child will often grab a hold of it and it could be a possibility that they can take it to school there were some cases where a kid took a firearm to school and opened
School shootings have altered American history greatly over the past two decades. From 1997 to 2007, there have been more than 40 school shootings, resulting in over 70 deaths and many more injuries. School shoot-outs have been increasing in number dramatically in the past 20 years. There are no boundaries as to how old the child would be, or how many people they may kill or injure. At Mount Morris Township, Michigan, on February 29th, 2000, there was a 6 year old boy who shot and killed another 6 year old girl at the Buell Elementary School with a .32 caliber pistol. And although many shootings have occurred at High Schools or Middle Schools, having more guns on those campuses would not be a good environment for children to grow up in. However, on a college campus, the pupils attending are not children anymore; the age range is from 17 to mid 20’s. Therefore they understand the consequences associated to the use of weapons and have gained more maturity. In April 16th, 2007, at Blacksburg, Virginia, there was a shooting rampage enacted by Sung-Hui Cho (23 years, from Centreville, VA) who fired over 170 rounds, killing 32 victims, before taking his own life at the Virginia Tech campus. Colleges and Universities would be a much safer place, for student and teacher, if guns were permitted on campus for self-defense purposes.
Today in the United States many people argue over the fact of guns being legal or illegal. There are people using guns for personal safety and there are others who use them for crimes, as well as for other situations. Firearm deaths in the United States have slowly been decreasing from year to year with all these bills getting passed to promote a safer country than ever before. Guns are the main weapon for youth suicide, school shootings, and for committing murder. In 2010 there were 2,711 infants, child, and teenage firearm deaths. As in school shootings and in committing murder, studies show shooters often had multiple, non-automatic guns, shootings were planned, most youth tell before shooting, shooters have a history of being bullied or threatened, shooters have mental issues, and shooters have done suicidal gestures before (Gun Control with School Shootings). Although there are people who use guns for murdering, there are also those who oppose guns being used without the proper requirements. 85% of all respondents to the survey supporting requiring states to report people to national background-checks systems who are prohibited from owning gu...
“A handgun ban is not realistically enforceable. Confiscating guns would require house-to-house searches and alienate the very individuals whose compliance is essential to the success of any regulation. If gun ownership were prohibited, organized crime would step in to provide the firearms that will continue to be procured with criminal intent” (Done Kates). Over the past decade, the media has reported an increase in the severity of violent crimes as individuals have killed and hurt many others, including kids. Since 2006, there have been over 200 mass murders in the United States.
Through the year’s shootings have increased by a significant amount. Individuals are becoming affected on a regular basis and are concerned about there safety. Parents are worried for there youth getting assaulted, sexually violence, tormented, kidnaped, murdered on the other hand, now there ending up to be more stressed for there child getting shot. Guns have been around for hundredths of years, both world wars were succeeded with guns, hence, guns were served to defend its nation through history. In Western society citizens purchase guns for self preservation. Unfortunately, they are utilized in opposing ways, the majority of crimes are involved in gun shootings; this is an essential issue in America. Most agree that gun violence will have
Violence related to guns is a prominent issue in America. Guns are a means to an end; meaning guns have played a strong role in suicides, murders, and injuries. In the past decade there has been an average of 400-500 thousand incidents of firearms per year (Gun Violence). The number of injured people from firearm incidents in the United States per year for the past decade is 400-600 thousand people (Gun Violence). These statistics are absolutely shocking to anyone. The amount of violence and crime that comes from guns is enormous. It is imperative that proper gun control is put into place by means of background checks and proper training. It can almost be certain that the number of incidents of accidental discharges from children and the number of victims affected by gun crimes in general can be highly reduced.
Currently with easy access to guns, gun violence occurs all too commonly on our streets, in our schools and workplaces. A child or teen is killed or injured by guns every 30 minutes. (3) Young children and teens have become insensitive to this gun culture, and in many neighborhoods, children expect to die violently, probably by being shot. Despite living in the world's richest, strongest, freest nation, children often do not have the freedom to believe one day they will ...
There are gun control laws to try and reduce the number of violent shootings that occur. They are trying to put limits on weapons that Americans can own. The government is trying to take our guns away mainly because of people that are criminally insane. Most of the people who commit crimes don’t even have the weapons legally. If the government takes away the rights of people who are allowed to have firearms in their possession, it will most definitely cause an outrage. Most people believe that the people should be more capable of maintain proper use of the firearms instead of having them all taken away. Taking the firearms from Americans away would cause a lot more problems than there actually are. The people will be upset with the government taking firearms away because of the horrible people who harm innocent people using them. So they will do anything to their capabilities to keep them.
Over the last decade, gun control has been one of the hottest political topics nationwide. Those who support gun control believe that stricter gun laws reduce crime, while opponents of gun control believe that firearms are essential for self-defense. Both sides possess passionate views, and are usually unwilling to compromise their beliefs. What exactly is gun control? Gun control is a series of laws that limit the availability and ownership of privately owned firearms. Cliff Stearns, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, claims that “Our society is a violent society. However, the innocent deserve access to the tools they need to defend themselves.” Gun laws should be relaxed in the United States because the 2nd Amendment prohibits the government from infringing on the right to keep and bear arms, a well-armed general population would deter the government from becoming abusive in the future, and finally, because access to firearms make it easier for people to defend themselves and their families.
Alpers, Philip and Marcus Wilson. 2013. Guns in the United States: Facts, Figures and Firearm Law. Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. GunPolicy.org, 14 March.10 April 2013.http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states
Gun Ownership and the Gun Control Index. Atlantic Economic Journal 36.4 (2008): 497-98. Print. The. Home Is Where The Gun Is.
Gun Violence is one of the United States most serious crime problems. The total cost of gun violence in the United States, including medical, criminal justice, and other government and private costs, are at least 6 to 12 billion a year (Cook, P. J. & Ludwig, J., 2000). The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) mission is to track firearms. It reported that firearms sells have risen since 2005. According to the A...