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Gun control in school shootings essay
Gun policy changes after school shootings
Gun control in school shootings essay
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Imagine that you are a student in school, wake up early, get dressed, get to school, the bell rings, and the day goes on, it’s your daily school routine. One day you do your daily routine, but this day is different; the school is chaos, students running for safety, hiding behind classroom doors, and teachers trying to protect the students because there is an active shooter in the building who just wounded and killed your fellow classmates and teachers. On February 14, 2018, Stoneman Douglas High School experienced the third deadliest school shooting since 2007 at Virginia Tech University. A total of 17 student and teacher lives were lost, and others being scared for life. Some argue to say the best way to prevent this from happening is letting …show more content…
Most school shooters typically are unstable teens who have suffered through hardships in life. They want revenge for what society has made them suffer and go through. They believe this gets attention and they will no longer be looked down upon. Mental illness is a problem that people overlook and laugh at those who have suffered from it, instead of helping them cope with it. More attention needs to be on those who suffer from it because someone with mental illness could be relentless and cause harm to others as it has happened. Armed Guards on …show more content…
Since, Columbine, the fourth worst shootout in history, several studies have been published examining the issue of violence in schools. The National Research Council suggested increased gun possession will not lower violence; increasing the presence of guns may backfire, no matter how well-intentioned. If a child witnesses someone being injured by a firearm—can affect a child’s mental health. Research published in the Journal of Police Crisis Negotiations looked at various approaches to school security. They found the placement of school resource officers to help deal with bullying, racial tensions, disrespecting, gangs, lowered violence and gang problems on high school campuses. Although Columbine, itself which had armed guards on campus when the shootout happened, there are outliers; the Pearl High School shootout in 1997 was curbed by an assistant principal with a pistol in his truck. Michael Queen (2013), an administrator in West Virginia, says he’s seen crime drop on his campus since implementing an armed police officer. The officers conduct anti-gang and anti-drug workshops and Queen (2013) says he would like to see more armed officers in schools. He thinks that arming teachers, however, would be a mistake. Still, across the United States, teachers are lining up to take firearm training. In 2016, a South Carolina legislature introduced a bill to allow teachers to take guns to school. Those who are
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.
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.
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
Since 1980 till now, there have been many school shootings. Many innocent lives have been taken. Schools have become less safe. People blame either bad parenting or video games. Bullying is another factor as to why students end up shooting at schools and then ending their own life. It is so tragic and must be stopped.
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.
The first school shooting dates all the way back to the 18th century (List). School shootings are becoming a devastating epidemic throughout the United States. Why do the teens resort to such violence? Maybe its because they are bullied and they feel there is no where to turn. The violence that the teens display is typically blamed on and is explained to be caused by many different events or factors, bullying being one of the main factors that cause school shootings. Bullying isn 't the only factor though. Relaxed gun laws, the wild west, mental break downs or illnesses, violent video games, and many other factors can be what cause school shootings to happen so often.
This paper is to make you aware of the tragedy that happened in 1999, in Columbine, Colorado. There were two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who though they had masterminded one of the most devastating act of terror in the world at Columbine High School, by setting bombs throughout the school, but when the devices fail to explode they had to result to using weapons. Eric and Dylan are two different people with two different personalities who did not share the same motive for destruction and hurting people. The boys was described as Dylan being depressed and suicidal while Eric was homicidal, cold and calculated. Many people would say that Eric and Dylan are psychopaths, because they killed all those people without a reason. Per
Although most security measures passively make schools safer, it is not nearly enough to prevent an individual who intends on creating mass violence from completing his or her task. State representatives, national organizations, school staff, and parents need to come together to figure out the most reliable ways to prevent an active shooter situation from occurring in their schools. One solution that has been active is many schools have partnered with local law enforcement agencies to provide a police officers to patrol school grounds....
Based on Reason-Rupe Poll conducted in Dec. 2013, among 1,011 interviewees, who are being asked about which provided measures might have averted the Sandy Hook shooting, top three options are better mental health (27%), better parenting (22%), and employing armed school officials on site (20%). Because prospective culprit who would commit school shooting cannot be easily recognized, better mental treatment and parenting for possible wrongdoers seem to be unfeasible in an effort to avoid such crime. The poll reflects that putting armed guards in schools is acceptable and functional, as compared to the other factors, in dealing with gun violence in schools. Moreover, the Daily Caller, a news agency, quotes from Robert Curran Sr., chief information officer for IT, “They’ll [armed guards] be able to respond immediately to armed threats and be a deterrent to anyone planning an attack, [...]” (Campbell) In other words, Curran believes that the presence of armed guards in schools serves as a firewall to lower the risk of gun violence. Curran is surely right about the advantage of patrol officers on campus, because the critical time that armed security staff can save is critical to the lives of those endangered children and adults in a shooting
“10 Ways to Put Brakes on Mass Shootings in Schools” by Nicole Saidi is an article that discusses ten ways to reduce mass shootings without necessarily discussing how effective gun control laws are. She does, however, mention the need for an increase of firearm regulations, but her main focus is on other proposals that do not get brought up as much. For example, Saidi suggests the media to pull away from reporting on violent events. She believes that exploring the reasonings behind the motives of these mass shooters may provide a solution to prevent them.
In my perspective, this article changed my world view on how providing health care won’t necessarily stop shootings from happening. An example given in the article was of how many of the past shooters were unable to recognize their problems. This would led to them not looking for the help they needed. “ Because they blame the outside world for their problems, mass murders would likely resist therapies…” These mass murders always blame their problems on others which is why they commit these crimes.
Nikolas Cruz a nineteen year old guy have went to South Florida High School to threat the citizens. His violets are really out of control right after his mother’s death last year in November. The law enforcement have been warn to Cruz about his behavior. On Thanksgiving day Nikolas have worked at the Dollar Tree store. When the Sheriff office had fine out that Nikolas was hiding a gun before he has his job. My opinion is that Nikolas behavior is a extreme true because he had choose to threaten people in a ridiculous way if the cops won’t turn him in very sooner before it’s too late. Citizens needs to be safe away from Cruz before things will happen.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” (Ross, p. 507-509). Principals need to start thinking back to the tragic school shootings, especially in Connecticut to prevent from happening again. If they would of taken the proper amount of practice in preventive strategies they outcome may have been different. When something is planned or strategized with enough time the outcome is better than just by practicing the skill once a year. Teachers need the practice to gather the students as quickly as possible in order to prevent having another tragic outcome like Connecticut teachers did. Staff needs to take action now. There might be other ways to prevent this shooting from happening, but until legislators don’t have a clear point to address districts need to use what they have in order to prevent and for now all they can use is the common sense of teachers and how to implement it properly with enough time put into
The United States has the highest number of school related shootings. The optimal solution, Armed teachers. Staff members and teachers could stop an armed gunman inside a school in a blink of an eye. The armed gunman wouldn’t see teacher carrying firearms coming and here’s why.
The United States is one of the only countries with the continuing problem of mass murder. 58 people lost their lives and more than 50 were injured when a man opened fire at an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas on October 1st, 2017 (Hanley 6). This is one of countless massacres that have occurred in the United States. It is no surprise when one turns the TV on in the morning and a “News Flash” story pops up on the latest shooting. Gregory Kate of USA Today states that there has been greater than 200 events of mass murder in the past 10 years. It is no secret that guns are an easily accessible weapon in the United States, and in numerous other countries that is not the case. Most people can obtain a firearm with a simple, online background check on a computer. Within minutes the check is completed. Kate states the only people to be declined would be: "felons, fugitives, drug addicts, the mentally ill, illegal immigrants, some legal immigrants, people