In the year 1364 the first firearm was used, it was not considered a gun but a “head cannon”. 96 Americans are killed each day by guns, 36,000 a year, 13,000 of them are gun homicides, 22,000 are gun suicides, 67 percent of those lives are suicidal. In America, at least 114,994 people are shot per year. Every person who gets killed by a gun two more lives get injured, approximately seven children and teens are killed because of a gun every day. United States has the highest percentage of gun-related killings at 64%(2016) than England at 4.5%(2016), Canada 30.5%(2016), and Australia 13%(2016). Out of 100 American residents at least 90 of them own a gun, Americans also own 265 million firearms. 133 million of those firearms are gun owners who own 8-140 guns that is 3 percent of the gun owners, they are considered ‘super owners’. At least three million of the gun owners carry a loaded handgun on a daily basis and at least nine million of them carry it on a monthly basis, the gun owners who are most likely to carry it are men. The second amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791, that was 229 years ago. The most common gun used in 1791 was a brown bess flintlock and it could fire four bullets in one minute. In the year 2018, the most common gun is an assault rifle. It can fire at least 600 rounds per minute, that is way faster than a brown bess flintlock from 1791. The second amendment is not a bad thing because it happened when guns were not as fast and massacres were not happening as usual as they are occuring at the moment. Now, in America if people are hearing about a school shooting or a massacre it is not shocking, but normal. It has come to a point were people are scared to go to places that they should not be afraid to go. Gun control is not trying to make the second amendment disappear, but it is trying to make it better because guns have improved dramatically since the day the second amendment was ratified. In Australia on April 28, 1996 a man killed 35 people and injured 18 with an assault rifle within weeks of the massacre the prime minister banned semi-automatic and other military-style weapons across the country. Since then there has not been one massacre in 22 years. Do Americans care more about guns than the lives of others? It seems as Americans do not even want guns to be banned but when the topic of gun control comes up they assume that their gun rights are going to be revoke. Gun control is not trying to take the second amendment away but what it is trying to do is make it more safe for everyone in the country and for a gun cannot land in the wrong hands like it has happened plenty of times. It is trying to prevent people who have mental health issues to get their hands on a gun. To get a gun is simple and easy, you have to pass a background check and be 18, anyone can get a gun if they wanted one. When someone with mental health issues gets a gun it does not end up good for everyone’s safety.
II. Gun Control
Gun Control is a ‘law’ that restricts or regulates the manufacture, sale and the possession of firearms by civilians. Gun control is trying to prevent people who are not mentally stable to get ownership of a gun or for the people who do not pass the background check. Not only are they trying to prevent the mentally ill to not get their hands on a gun for the safety of everyone but for their own safety. Gun control is trying to prevent certain weapons to be released to the public such as assault rifles or military style weapons and they want to limit the number of bullets a firearm can hold, it will be less than 15 since 15 is considered ‘high-capacity’ for handguns. This ‘law’ wants background checks from every person who is purchasing a gun even from a private or unlicensed seller which is going to be rigorous. Lastly they want the age limit of gun ownership and possession to change to 21, they want to add 10 percent tax on all firearms sales, and increase spending for mental health programs. What gun control is not trying to do is take the second amendment away from everyone, they are trying to improve the second amendment for the safety of everyone in the United States. The rate of shootings and massacres will go decrease if this country improves the law and if gun control is added.
III. History of Gun Shootings
The first gun shooting happened on July 26, 1764 by four persons in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. They killed one adult and nine or ten children, only two children survived. Mathew Ward was the first child to cause a school shooting in Louisville, Kentucky on November 2, 1853, he killed the schoolmaster. On June 8,1886, Ms. Emma Connelly became the first female shooter by shooting one of her students at her Sunday school. Edwin Bush was the first suicide that took place at Potsdan Normal School in Watertown, New York on April 12,1887. On April 9,1891 marked the first mass school shooting when a 70 year old man named James Foster shot five male students with a shotgun at St Mary’s Parochial School in Newburgh, New York. Since the year 2013 there has been 300 school shootings in the United States at least an average of one shotting per week. In the year 2017, 65 shootings were reported at schools and universities.The first deadliest school shooting is Virginia Tech(2007) where a senior killed 32 people and injured 17 others and proceeded to kill himself. The second deadliest school shooting is Sandy Hook(2012) where 20 year old, Adam Lanza killed 27 people including 20 children and injured 2. The third deadliest school shooting was Majority Stoneman Douglas High School(2018) where Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and injured 14. There has been 21 shootings in the year 2018, there has been 19 weeks in the year 2018, at least more than 1 school shootings has occured this year. 19 years ago Columbine was the deadliest mass shootings with 13 people dead, now it is not even in the top 10 deadliest mass shootings. The top 10 deadliest shootings are The Harvest Music Festival(2017) 58 killed, Pulse nightclub(2016) 49 killed, Virginia Tech(2007) 32 killed, Sandy Hook(2012) 27 killed, First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs(2017) 26 killed, Luby’s Cafeteria(1991) 23 killed, McDonald’s in San Ysidro(1984) 21 killed, University of Texas(1966) 18 killed, Stoneman Douglas High School(2018) 17 killed, San Bernardino(2015) 14 killed and Edmond, Oklahoma(1986) 14 killed.
IV. NRA- National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association is a group that was founded by William Conant Church and George Wood Wingate in 1871, it was designed to help promote rifle shooting on a ‘scientific basis’. The National Rifle Association has a budget of about $250 million per year, and has more than 5 million official members and about 17 million Americans identify themselves as members of the National Rifle Association. Nikolas Cruz the school shooter of Douglas High School, was a member of a competitive shooting club at his school, the program was supported by a grant ($10,827 non-cash grant) from the National Rifle Association Foundation. This program allowed students to practice their shooting and students claimed that Nikolas Cruz enjoyed shooting and assault rifle, they claimed it was ‘therapeutic’ for him. During this program, the people that set the program up and the National Rifle Association failed to do background checks of the people who would be in the program. They gave people who did not have a background check military style weapons and they taught them how to shoot a weapon that can harm another person badly and that is what happened on February 14, 2018. Nikolas Cruz was not mentally stable therefore should have not been in that program or should have not been handed a weapon in the first place.
V. Background Checks
Background check is the process of looking up criminal records, commercial records, and financial records of an individual. The FBI checks 52 background checks every second. Whenever you want to purchase a gun there is a background check that has to be processed, this informs if you are allowed to carry or have a gun or if you are not allowed. When you go to a private or unlicensed seller they lack a proper background check and just give anyone who is willing to pay the price a gun. For this reason the public should not have an assault rifle or any military style weapons because just about anyone can get one even if they are mentally ill. Also, you do not know who is getting the weapons it can be a person who just got out of prison for committing a felony. Each year 20,000 lives are lost because of firearm suicide. Mentally ill people should not be gun owners because they are not in the right state of mind. Mental illnesses are health conditions that involve changes in emotions, thinking and behavior, it is associated with distress and problems. Veterans who have PTSD(30 percent) should not be able to get a gun because veterans who have PTSD are not in the right state of mind and have been through all the training. Ivan Antonio Lopez was in the military and had PTSD but was still allowed to purchase a gun. Just before he shot and killed three persons he was in the psychiatrist for depression and anxiety. They are trained to kill and have experience with firearms such as military weapons. Christopher Dorner was a police officer who was trained to kill and did just that with military-style weapons, he killed five persons during his killing spree and wanted to kill more. Stephen Paddock was among the 3 percent of gun owners who have 8-140 guns. He was the Las Vegas shooter and killed 59 lives, if he had a good background check this shooting would not have taken place or more lives could have been saved. When they lack background checks it gives criminals the freedom they should not have been given in the first place or it gives them the incentive to do more gun related crimes. Seung-Hui Cho the Virginia Tech shooter should have been prohibited from purchasing a weapon. In 2005 the Virginia court declared him a danger to himself and sent him to a psychiatric treatment. If the background check was done correctly 32 lives would have still been on this earth. Devin Patrick Kelley killed 26 people but before that was convicted of assaulting his wife and breaking his infant stepson’s skull in 2012, but passed a background check 2016 or 2017 and lastly murdered 26 persons on November 5, 2017. The system failed those lives and the lives of their loved ones for allowing someone who is mentally unstable or a criminal to purchase and carry a gun.
VI. Background of shooters and motives
Every person or shooter has a motive behind what they have done no matter if it is because of their past or because they were being harassed or attacked. Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Adam Lanza, Gary Scott Pennington and many more all have two things in common they are school shooters and they were bullied, all of them seeked revenge but not all of them turned the gun to their bullies. Every shooter wants to attack because they are hurt and angry, they may be angry with themselves or may be angry at the person or people they are shooting at. The main thing all these shooters have in common is that they are all men. These shooters may have went through mental illness, bullying, bad past, or they have a criminal record. Almost 50 percent of the shooters had a domestic violence record on their background, these killers enjoyed seeing others hurt and liked to attacked the people they claimed to love. 31 percent of the killers end up killing themselves after they killed ‘enough’ people. In Dylan Klebold’s journal he said he was cutting himself and wanted to die, his mother things and claims that one of the biggest reason he wanted to harm all those people was for him to take his life away. 61 percent of the killers had mental illness either it was depression, anxiety, or PTSD.
VII. Bullying
Bullying is unwanted aggressive behavior among others or when someone with superior power forces someone else to do what they want. Many of the shooters were anti-social and some were even bullied. 54 percent of the shooters were bullied in High School and seeked revenge. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are known school shooters, their motive came from all the harass and bullying that they would receive from the ‘jocks’ at their High School. Eric and Dylan were outsiders and kept to themselves, they would wear black trench coats and were anti-social at their school. About 71 percent of the school shooters have felt that they were being attacked or bullied. High schoolers who are bullied are more likely to take a gun or knife to school than those who are not being bullied. Adam Lanza the shooter from Sandy Hook who killed 26 people was bullied by his classmates in High School. Lanza thought by killing the children he was ‘setting them free’ from this world and the society. By the society he meant how society pressures everyone to be or act a certain way. Bullying does not only occur at school but it can also happen at a job or a place you may have felt ‘safe’. Jiverly Wong is a shooter that killed 13 people because he felt disrespected and attacked, he was taking English classes and felt that people were ‘bullying’ him because of his ‘poor’ English language skills. Vester Lee Flanagan alleged that he was a victim of racial slurs and bullying in 2000 and 2012, in 2015 he killed a reporter and cameraman then shot himself. Not only did some of the shooters get bullied but the shooters are also the cause of bullying by being a bully. 42 percent of the killers have a domestic violence record and killed a family member or a significant partner.
VIII. Conclusion
654 years ago the Second Amendment was ratified, it was the right to bear arms. In 2018 that amendment exists, meaning nothing has changed right? Wrong, a lot has changed since this amendment was ratified the main thing that has changed is that school shootings are still occuring. School shootings or massacres are almost normal in America they happen weekly and daily, this is not something that should be normal. Back in my elementary days I remember going under the desk for fire drills or earthquake drills because that is something that is normal and it is something that we have no control over. Now we have to take school shooting drills because it has become something that is ‘normal’. School is already a place where students do not want to go and now these school shootings have made it a place where you do not feel safe. A teacher carrying a gun would not make it better and help at all because teachers are also humans with emotions. A teacher may one day get mad at a student and would threaten the student with their weapon and that is not what students should feel. Students should not be afraid to go to school because they fear for their life. Not only should students not be afraid but the parents should not be afraid to send their child to school. Gun control is trying to make everyone feel safer it is not trying to take the second amendment it is trying to fix it. The amendment was ratified 654 years ago during that time you could fire 4 rounds per minute, in the year 2018 and assault rifle can fire 600 rounds per minute. An assault rifle should be ban to the public and should only be provided for the military because an assault rifle can really put many lives in danger and has proven that countless times. If we were to have gun control the crime rate will decrease, it will make it harder for the people with mental illness to get their hands on a weapon. We have learned a lot from the past but we have yet to learn about all the massacres and shootings that are happening around us, many lives have been lost let us not lose more than we have already.