America, standing in fear, waiting for another mass shooting to break out in front of their eyes. More than 3,000 American Citizens die from gun violence each year (USA Gun Violence Stat.). Sadly, a fraction of the lives lost are mostly due to school shootings. This year alone, 52 school shootings have occurred, leaving 30 dead and 53 injured (52 School Shootings). From the mass murder of Columbine High School and Virginia Tech University to the well known Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, it becomes clear how ordinary people turn into brutal killers. The causes of these horrible tragedies are the availability of guns, media, and mental illness. Most of us know that America is the land of the free, where everyone is able to practice …show more content…
The questions on these forms are quite simple,by merely asking if one has either any mental illness or have committed any type of felony. If someone was not able to buy a gun, there are several different ways to obtain one. The current restriction on obtaining firearms are not tough enough to prevent mass shootings like the one’s in Sandy Hook or Virginia Tech. There are around 270 million to 310 million guns produced in America(Guns, Hundreds..). The more restriction on gun laws there are, the more harder it would be for someone to buy a semi-automatic weapon and shoot up a school. The availability of guns the main reason that many people die by guns here in America more than any other place. Consequently, our media, which provides us with important information or gives us entertainment, also takes part of the violence of school shootings. Violence media and entertainment might not affect some, but psychologically damage others. From video games to the local news, we see violence in forms, bringing fear, entertainment, and awareness. After the Sandy Hook attack drills were taken place in elementary and …show more content…
In their condition, they have no idea of their judgement and don’t know what they have done. On April 16, 2007, Cho Seung-Hui carried two semi-automatic pistols and fired close to two hundred rounds, killing thirty-two people and injuring scores more in the deadliest shooting rampage in our nation’s history. After careful research, Cho Seung-Hui had been ordered by a judge to undergo outpatient treatment after he was diagnosed in December 2005 as “mentally ill and in need of hospitalization.”(Lillian, “Guns and Grief”) Due to the violence in media and Cho Seung-Hui’s illness people lost their lives and left loved one’s behind . After the massacre he decided to end his own life. Media, especially video games, are a main factor when it deals with the mentally ill.Schizophrenia is a disease in which a person cannot tell the difference between reality and fiction. With violent video games, mentally ill people might get confused between reality and video games. With this they might be mistaken for killing people and killing themselves, and to know they are not going to
Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, Adam Lanza, Steven Phillip Kazmierczak, and Seung-Hui Cho all have a few things in common, they are all school shooters that have killed and injured a combined total of 149 human beings and are or were believed to be avid violent video game players, who also committed suicide immediately after carrying out their attacks. To the public, school shooters seem to share a direct connection to playing violent video games and that playing them leads to violent behavior. Violent videogames have become a highlight in the media and national debate for this very reason but, there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of a causative connection between participants of violent videogames manifesting violent behaviors. The media provides biased information that misleads citizens into believing that said link is well established and accepted. I argue that parents should make responsible and well informed decisions in regards to their child’s videogame activities in spite of the lack of scientific research.
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.
There have been many horror stories in the news about mass shootings at schools. The public, and even the president of the United States, is asking if anything can be done to prevent these tragedies. There are many theories on why students kill their peers at schools; these range from increased violence in video games and movies to bullying troubles at school. Almost always, the perpetrator suffers from some form of mental illness (Khadaroo). Because of this, motives for these crimes are extremely difficult to discern. Although the theories for the causes of this dilemma are tenuous at best, the effects are very perceptible. Can anything be done to prevent these massacres? School shootings are a complex problem that cannot always be prevented, but there are a number of actions we can take to reduce the frequency and extent of the damage caused. These actions include placing more restrictions on firearms, creating detection programs for shooters, hiring more counselors for unstable students, and placing guards or police in schools. School shootings are a serious problem, and a solution is needed in order to prevent these calamities.
Mental health is huge problem in the United States, especially when it allows certain individuals to have access to firearms. Politicians should aim to work more on keeping guns out of the hands of those who seek to harm others, not the law abiding citizens. But this is no easy task. In the CNN article, The real gun problem is mental health, not the NRA, the author, Mel Robbins, points how the mental health problem is to blame , not the gun. Robbins states "Next time there 's a mass shooting, don 't jump to blame the National Rifle Association and lax gun laws. Look first at the shooter and the mental health services he did or didn 't get, and the commitment laws in the state where the shooting took place." (Robbins) Like the first article, the author uses the ethical approach. How can we just sit by and let this keep happening? Many people seek help for mental illness and do not get the proper help that they deserve. If the proper steps were taken, some of these tragedies could have been prevented. The background check system should be a little tougher than it currently is. This is something that many law abiding gun owners agree on. Especially when it comes to the mental health part. Giving a mental health screening to somebody before getting a firearm would almost certainly help. However, no system is perfect. It would have its flaws. Not only is mental
Gun violence has been and continues to be one of the major problems in American. The U.S. has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world and consequently the highest rate of gun violence and fatalities compared to other developed countries. In a study by the University of Sydney it is estimated that there are 270,000,000 to 310,000,000 guns in the United States. According to the same study in 2010 there were 31,672 fatalities caused by firearms and on the following year the number went up to 32,163. Homicides resulting from guns are high in the United States and they are claiming more than eleven thousand lives every year (Guns in the United States: Firearms, Armed Violence and Gun Law). According to Vision for Humanity, an initiative for the Economics and Peace, the United States is ranked 99 out of 162 countries in the 2013 global peace index, homicide rates and violent crimes are among the various criteria used to determine the ranking (Vision of Humanity). Mass shootings at work places, schools, shopping malls and places of worship are happening in an a...
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...
Violence in the United States is a major problem, but our politicians only want to focus on gun violence, and some of them believe the solution to ending gun violence is by preventing law abiding citizens from exercising their second amendment rights. Guns are easier to commit a crime with than other weapons, or without a weapon at all, but with an estimated 270 million guns the hands of citizens (11 facts), if they were the problem we would know it by now. It is undeniable that guns are responsible for a high amount of crime, but we already have tens of thousands of gun laws in the United States (How many gun laws are there?), that haven’t been able to curb gun violence. If the current laws were working, then maybe there would be a reasonable
Written on December 15, 1791 was the second amendment of the constitution. It states 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."(Cite)? United States citizens have used guns for various reasons that include protection, hunting, and sporting reasons. The topic on gun control is a very complex topic that is discussed daily. It is such a big issue that it has both the democrats and republicans firmly established in their positions. One of the main reasons this has been such an important topic in recent years is because of all the murders and massacres that have happened recently in the United States. As our newly nominated president, Donald
Sandy Hook, Colorado Movie Theater, Columbine, and Virginia Tech all have one thing in common they known as mass shootings. Mass shootings are defined as the study of having four or more victims and do not include gang killings or slayings that involve the death of multiple family members. In Jen Christensen’s article, “Why the U.S has the most mass shootings” published by CNN, she discusses a recent shooting and ties it into mass shootings. Jen Christensen is a producer/editor with CNN’s Health, Medical and Wellness Unit. She has also earned the highest awards in broadcasting; Peabody and DuPont are some, as a producer. Prior to CNN, she was an award winning investigate producer with WSOC-TV in Charlotte, N.C. She has launched and managed an award-winning
Eighty-nine people die from gun violence in the United States every day according to the Brady Campaign , from school children to victims of domestic violence to people going about their daily lives. As we mourn the lives of those killed in incidents of gun violence across the country, we need to take action. We should all do everything in our power to keep tragedies like this from happening again. When it comes to addressing mass shootings, we need new answers
With the media shining so much light upon this topic, it is evident that mass murders in the United States of America are more frequent and deadly. In fact, studies have found that the USA has more mass public shootings than any other country (Christensen). These numbers have only been increasing in the past decades. This is shocking because the USA holds only 5 percent of the world’s population, but as a nation, contributes to 31 percent of mass murders (Christensen). Although these murders continue to be a rare phenomenon, weak gun laws, the need for fame, and issues with societal views are the main causes of the increase in cases.
Gun safety is a subject that has been a main topic in the past few years among many, especially within politics. It is something that has become a substantial topic in the past few years due to many shootings and accidents that have occurred with today’s youth. It is a topic that needs to be addressed.