Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays about firearms in classrooms
Arguments for guns in school
Essays mental illness and mass shootings
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essays about firearms in classrooms
Gun Control in Schools
The deadly shootings at some schools in the United States are spurring the debate on gun control in schools. The recent shooting at a Florida high school has influenced the country to make far-reaching proposals pertaining to the security of learners. The debate on whether students should be permitted to have guns in schools or not is an important one as it is evident no one wants to see young people perish as a result of misuse of guns (Ramer; McCowan). Pro-gun groups hold that the weapons are not the problem and consider that the country should expand gun ownership rights in schools. Opponents, however, say the number of violence involving guns is directly proportional to the number of guns in the hands of the public
…show more content…
According to these individuals, guns are needed in schools as they are the right tools for keeping the institutions safe. As such, they are calling for the expansion of gun rights to allow teachers and other staff members to be armed to be able to protect themselves (Yu). Therefore, they consider that people are always willing to break the law so denying schools the right to own guns equal to putting them in the harm’s way. Pro-gun Americans also contend that mental illness is to blame for the many school shootings. The government, for example, after the Parkland shooting reported that the suspects were mentally ill. According to psychologists, mental disorders can result in such unfortunate acts (Merino 25). Poor health is, therefore, one of the possible causing of the shootings. Some individuals, especially the liberal ones, on the other hand, are of the view that people are not to blame for the killings. They hold that school shootings are taking place because almost everyone has direct access to a variety of weapons including guns as most states have lenient gun regulations (Yu). The supporters of guns call for stringent laws and, therefore, blame the government for failing to enact the right set of
...gun provided a convenient way for crime; people could get any dangerous weapons to endanger the safety of others. In the article, “At Least 9,900 People Have Died From Guns In The U.S. Since The Newtown Shooting: Slate”, Dominique Mosbergen pointed out that the number of mass shooting kept growing because of the lax gun control system. For example, 20 year old, Adam Lanza took several legal guns and went to Sandy Hook Elementary School after killing his mother. Besides that, he only spent five minutes to murder 20 children and six adult members of staff (Mosbergen). This school shooting in the United States completely shocked the whole world. At this point, many people had focused on the regulatory issues of guns. Mosbergen stated, “As the nation mourned in the wake of that unthinkable tragedy, many citizens and lawmakers raised their voices to demand” (Mosbergen).
One of the biggest debates in education is how to respond to gun violence in schools. According to BBC, “There were 64 school shootings in 2015” (BBC). One response to the rise in gun violence in schools is to arm teachers. Even our President has mentioned “giving a bonus” (Davis 2) to teachers that The fact that the idea of arming teachers is even being discussed is disappointing. Bringing more guns into a school is not the answer to gun violence. Most people that defend the idea that guns will “help” keep schools safe have basically three points: (1) teachers will be trained in gun safety, (2) it helps deter potential school shooters, and (3) it will make the students feel more safe. Even though there is some truth to those points, I think that the cons of arming teachers vastly outweigh the pros of arming teachers.
In this article Emmett Tyrell informs us about gun violence in schools and what the NRA has proposed to stop the gun violence, and mass shootings across America. While the gun control debate rages, many schools have become war zones, and all school zones are vulnerable. The National Rifle Association's has come up with a 225-page report contains dozens of recommendations to improve safety in our nation’s schools. The NRA’s National School Shield program will train and enable school personnel to carry firearms to protect our nation’s children.
Still, the problem with school shootings unfortunately goes far deeper than just the lives lost. Mental health and educational issues both play a role in the outcomes of school shootings: “Several studies demonstrate that school shootings have detrimental effects on the mental health and educational outcomes of surviving youth”
In society today, whenever and wherever a tragic school shooting occurs, politicians and social media pounce on their chance to do something on gun control across the nation. Although the guns were the weapons during the shooting, they are not the cause of the shootings. Instead of gun control, everyone should be focusing on how to help the shooters who showed signs of mental illness. After all, a sane person would not go buy a gun with the intent of murdering several people; only a mentally ill person who became aggressive would go out and buy a gun for that purpose. Therefore, everyone should be trying to prevent the real cause of school shootings from occurring to prevent another tragic event from happening again. The main reason why school shootings, like the Virginia Tech Massacre, occur is that the shooters were mentally ill or depressed; the tragic events can be avoided if they got the psychological treatment they needed before they became too unstable. An overall solution to this is to raise awareness of depression and its warning signs in order to prevent another outbreak of depression-related violence from happening in the future.
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.
Many people believe that these shootings have occurred is because the availability of weapons in our society. This is not true. Guns have been in our society for hundreds of years. Before 1968 anyone could buy a gun through the mail with cash, and a hand-written statement that they were of legal age and without criminal record. (Bridgeman 14a) Yet in 1968, students didn't go to school and try to commit mass murder.
Most children that take guns to school are doing so because they either think it makes them look cool to their peers or they are being bullied by others. A lot of these thoughts come from our society, such things as TV and video games. Secondly, gun activist aren 't the only ones supporting gun safety being taught in schools. after all the events not only in recent years, but as of today, school districts and state legislatures across the country are pushing for firearm safety in school.
Will gun control stop harm or protect citizens? Today, the opinions of Americans vary on whether guns harm or protect citizens. However, gun control is not a new controversial issue. In 1924, U.S. Senator, Robert La Follete, said, “Our choice is not merely to support or oppose gun control but to decide who can own which guns under what conditions.” This proves that gun control has been a concern to Americans since the mid- twentieth century, and possibly even earlier than that. Even with the U.S. laws limiting the access of guns, it has not stopped the misuse of guns. Thirteen school shootings have been recorded in the United States within the first six weeks of 2014. Gun control is an effort to stop crimes by limiting who can access guns. Guns are very powerful weapons that have a great impact on society. They can change a family’s life forever. The destruction they cause cannot be reversed or taken back, and one trigger could take a person’s life away. For these reasons, government interference is needed to restrict the harm guns can cause. The U.S. government should place more limitations on guns because of the carelessness and misuse of guns, which has led to an increasing number of crimes and violent actions against the innocent.
“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
Argument Essay Outline I. Introduction After the shocking massacre in Sandy Hook Elementary school, Connecticut, people nationwide had been focused on the debate over gun control. Statistics from “Poll: Support for tighter Gun Checks Ebbs” published by The Wall Street Journal shows that over half of the people support stricter gun controls. President Obama has recently announced twenty three mentioned major executions in his speech: “Now is the Time” to prevent more gun violence. Despite the concern of the people, articles such as “One Year after Newtown, Congress Still Stalled on Gun Control” from the CBS news shows that the Congress had been reluctant on passing such regulations.
As time goes by, cultures change, and people change. Gun laws have become very strict and a person must have a legal permit to carry a weapon in a public facility. Unfortunately, the misuse of guns have become a problem in America. School shootings have become more rampant. Even though we should all have the right to protect ourselves, we should limit the access of guns on our school campus. When children are not properly taught at home, it puts them at a greater risk to become a problem in the school setting. If a troubled child or an adult doesn’t have access to weapons at home, they could very well target those who do have access to weapons, especially those on campuses. Kids are shooting each other and they are also, sadly, doing the most disturbing and heart breaking thing a child can do, and that is to commit suicide.
America is no stranger to gun violence and the numbers of crimes committed with guns seem to be growing every year. School shooting are a crime that has been around for a long time but has grown in the number of offences especially in recent years. So the question most people ask is how do you reduce the number of crimes committed with fire arms? One of the first things authorities can do is to identify and categorize what type of people are committing these crimes. If you know what kind of people are likely to bring a gun to school and kill classmates and teachers, then there might be a way to put some preventative measures into place. Three common adjective you will hear to describe someone who is a school shooter, are loners, mentally ill and racists or bigot. Over the next few paragraphs we will look at the traits associated with those kinds of people.
On the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the 16th of April 2007, there was a shooting. A student named Seung-Hui Cho opened fire tragically killing 32 students and wounding countless others before later committing suicide. Said to be “the deadliest shooting in the United States” (Fact). In 2011, 1,410 weapon violations occurred on-campus, and 16 murders were reported afterward that year.
“There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th U.S president. In Us, since 2013, there has been more than 300 school shooting. Since the 1999 Columbine shooting, more than 187000 students have been exposed to gun violence.