The shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary sparked a great deal of public awareness and led to an unprecedented debate regarding gun violence. According to the U.S. Secret Service, there is no profile for a school shooter. However, since shootings tend to be planned in advance and oftentimes youth tell others of the plan, a threat assessment approach was recommended. After Sandy Hook, millions of TV viewers were tuned into various politically motivated mass media debates. Media bias in favor of the NRA's view of the Second Amendment (as protecting individual gun ownership) was so pervasive that even many gun-control supporters seemed unaware that the federal high courts never found a gun law to have violated the Second Amendment. While it well known that guns do contribute to the many fears of students today, this behavior in America's neighborhoods cannot be ignored. Impact of gun violence has a devastating and long lasting effect on community. As victims and families recover, basic research continues in search of answers. Motivation for shootings is hard to pin down, however gender is the single most obvious variable when it comes to gun violence in America. From an early age, boys learn that aggressive behavior is an acceptable norm and fighting is essentially a male gender role. Young men are taught by watching TV or from social media that sports figures who are involved in violent crimes usually end up with lucrative contracts and regarded as sports legends. Throughout adolescents boys are guided by various agents of socialization, from family to school, media and peer groups become keys to a young man’s social stability. As boys mature they eventually develop their own gender expressions evident in the ways they dress, act or ... ... middle of paper ... ...nger know how to leave and report without fear. The shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary were horrifying and sparked a new public debate and awareness about gun control. While guns have a say in the fears of students, gang activity in America's neighborhoods cannot be ignored. Impact of peer pressure, gang membership and power associated with gun violence has a devastating and long lasting impact on community. While the motivation for mass school shootings is hard to pin down, gender is the most obvious variable when it comes to gun violence. Socialization is a lifelong process which includes learning new norms and values. For some of these youths gang becomes an alternative way to transition from adolescence to adulthood. Lack of availability of socially tolerable rites of passage from childhood to adulthood is not a good justification for the development of gangs.
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 United States will not soon forget the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut that came just two weeks before Christmas last year. This tragic event resulted in the death of twenty students and eight adults. Although the event shocked the nation, rampage shootings are nothing new. Over the years, many families have lost loved ones to these horrific events. As a result, these mass shootings such as the one that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary caught public attention leading to a push to find the cause of these events. Out of this research a variety of possible causes came to light consisting of arguments stating that high school bullying, availability of guns, mental illness, violent movies and video games are the cause of mass shootings. However, these researchers and debaters tend to ignore the role of massive media coverage in the increase of copycat shootings in the United States.
School shootings seemed like a new phenomenon, but they occurred for the majority of American history. The first school shooting occurred On July 26, 1764, when a Lenape Indian shot and killed nine children and the school master of the Greencastle, Pennsylvania school (Galvin): as noted in Appendix A. Since 1764, the number of school shootings rose exponentially. In the 1990’s, eighty-six school shootings occurred and between 2000 and 2014, 110 shootings transpired since 2000 (Killam,2008). The development of semiautomatic weapons lead to an increase in deaths. A study conducted in 1990 found through the years of 1986 to 1990; 71 people died, 201 wounded, and 242 people held hostage by school shooters(Galvin). While the area a school serves as one factor in the number of violent acts committed per year, school shootings have not been connected to this. The schools in Chicago dealt with more violent acts, but Sandy Hook Elementary, a small city school had relatively few violent acts committed by students.
It is a sad time in American history when one can easily recount recent school shootings in their own area. This ease stems from a sharp increase in the number of firearms brought into elementary and middle schools across the country, with an intense focus on the issue beginning after the shooting of 20 children from Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Most school shooters are male, white, and often upper middle class. They are also more, often than not, under some type of mental stress that is causing them to create this type of violence in our communities. In fact, many school shooters are never suspected of doing any harm to their peers and teachers until it is much too late.
In recent years the school shooting activity shows alarming rates. As reported by Duplechain and Morris (2014), more than 350 documented school shootings happened from 1760 until 2014, from those 190 happened from 1990-2014 alone. The numbers are staggering and even more staggering is to find out some of the details of those shootings. School shootings perpetrated by underage people even a student from the school that completed their killing rampage committing suicide. Although, it might seem that the problem comes from the accessibility to guns people could have, the reality is different. In most cases mental instability can play as a key element, while bullying and media coverage can also act as important factors. This paper will explore some of reasons behind school shooters from the past, and it will demonstrate how accessibility to guns had nothing to do with the outcome of their behavior, by responding to the following questions.
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...
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
by President Reagan). This banned automatic weapons with magazines for 10 years but that expired in 2004 and was never put back into action(Gun Control Laws). Though many attempts of gun control have failed there is even more of a push for a reform now. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is a major foundation that supports the second amendment and has a lot of pull when it comes to political parties. The NRA is wealthy and has overturn and won many cases against guns. According to Megan Cassella “Fifty percent of those surveyed said they supported Obama 's executive actions”(Cassella). Almost all that were supporting the democratic party supported this idea of tightening gun laws, while nearly seventy-two percent of republicans opposed stricter gun laws. There is .
Gun rights are the source of much controversy in today’s society. People have been skeptic after the multiple shootings that happened in the past few years. Recently, the NRA has been under constant threat by Congress. Background checks are not effective as planned. In order to keep the gun rights, changes need to be made in order to prevent gun control from being created.
The US constitution clearly states and has stated for the last 225 years that, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” There was controversy over this amendment, up until 2008 if this meant that a United States citizen had the right to own firearms for protection or only for those of a militia to be armed and maintain, it was decided then that the second amendment protected an individual 's’ rights to own firearms unconnected to any militia. With that being said for 225 years, Americans have bought, sold, and shot firearms. Americans shoot guns for a recreational sport every single day. Every day 91 Americans are killed
Growing up in Brooklyn, NY I keenly became aware that in my own neighborhood there were educational disparities, street violence, and police brutality. Due to the widespread presence of these issues while walking home from school or going grocery shopping with my mother, I also learned there was internal conflict between the people that lived in the community and those who were appointed to represent them- the congressional representative of my district. My premature awareness of these issues caused me to question who had the ability to solve the problems of my community? I discovered that the television show “Law and Order” offered a possible answer. As the youngest child of my household, my older siblings affinity for the show naturally steered
According to the Second Amendment in the Constitution, the citizens have the right to possess and bear arms. This is still a big issue in today 's society as we are in the 21st century the use of guns has changed significantly. The fact that crime has increased and that the right to own a handgun has been a hot issue have made many Americans question whether gun and crime are directly related. The issue of gun control, in an attempt to reduce crime rates in The United States has also been a topic of discussion that seems to have many people divided on the issue. Even though many people believe gun control violates the right to bear arms which is in the constitution, Americans know that more strict rules need to be put in place to because of
In today’s society media plays a major role in the perception we have of how certain issues in our society are improving, worsening, or staying the same. One hot bed issue over the years has been that of random shooting and gun control. It seems a few times a year there is a very high profile random shooting spree in schools or other public locations that draws the entire county’s attention for a week or two. During this media fallout many different strong viewpoints come out as to why gun control is not doing enough to protect ourselves from these atrocious crimes or that it is not the gun control that is the issue, but better yet the people committing these crimes that are the problem. Many reporters and news outlets quite often take a stand on gun control during this time and create a bias against guns and the right people should have to possess them. The following will compare and contrast opposing media outlets and their biased reporting on gun violence and how the general public perceives this based on what information is presented the news. The sources will be analyzed on the placement of articles, headlines, visuals, what information is included and omitted, and organizations attached to the news. NBC and Fox news will be the sources of the gun control issues. Recently a random shooting in an Indiana grocery store took place that served as a news item on both NBC and Fox internet websites.
“The more energy they have to gin up to execute their plan, the harder it will be to do so” (Newman). When “Would be shooters” are faced with a challenge they most likely don’t go through with their plan. The dedicated shooters are those who intend on finding guns and shooting people, those who have the drive. “Totally dedicated shooters” are the type of people who wont give up whether the guns are accessible to them legally or illegally. Dedicated shooters have a plan of action and intend on going through with it. These types of people likely suffer from mental illnesses. “The abnormally high level of school shootings in America is not solely a gun issue a mental health issue, or a media issue, but rather a problem caused by a combination of mental illness problems, social inequality, gun control policies, and the structure of schools”(Gupta, 2016). Structural inequalities in the United States cause stress, which lead people to turn to radical measures. Factors such as economic change, racism and social changes cause constraints on behavior. Mental health is also a leading factor to school shootings. “Metzl and MacLeish’s research shows that up to 60 percent of mass shootings in the United States since 1970 involved shooters displaying symptoms of mental illnesses—including paranoia, depression, and delusions—and the evidence suggests that