Gun Prevention

Veit

Hannah Veit

Ms. Beskau

Honors Lit. and Comp. 9B

11 February 2015

Gun Prevention

“In 2011, more than 33,000 Americans were victims of gun-related deaths” according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (Wilson). This is just one of the many detrimental ways that guns have impacted our world today. In a world without guns, there would be more peace and order in our society. If they had never been introduced to our civilization, many things would be different. Guns have had a very important yet negative effect in our world’s history because they have been violently encouraged the media, have an easy availability for underaged youth, and have caused many deaths to occur for children.

Guns have been around for a long time and have had a huge negative role in this world’s history. A newer study done by researchers has said that “more than 8.5 million guns are produced in the United States each year” (Reich, Culross, Behrman). This allows for there to be many firearms for the majority of the public to use. As of right now, there are “more than 310 million guns in circulation in the U.S. which is almost one firearm for every man, woman, and child” (Reich, Culross, Behrman). This shows that too many guns have excessive availability in our world. Because of the availability they have, a new statistical analysis has shown that “61% of deaths are caused by guns each year in the United States” (Judy). This proves that the amount of guns can be related to the amount of deaths occurring in the United States. The gun has been around for many years, and it has had a negative impact in our world’s history.

As time goes on, the media is starting to show up more and more in children’s lives with gun violence. Not many people stop to realize that the new first-shooter video game or TV show they’re engrossed in could be the reason why so much brutality happens with guns in our world today. As reported by “Children, Youth, and Gun Violence”, “more than 1,000 studies have documented a relationship between violent media and behavior likewise” (Reich, Culross, Behrman). Children are very capable of bringing these actions into their own lives. For example, they will be awarded with points at the end of a video game, making them feel accomplished as if they were doing the right thing. This also does not help the children as they grow older and believe that these violent actions are considered “OK” because of how they were brought up through the influence of the media. A physiatrist with SSM Health Care, Dr. Saaid Khojasteh, believes that “the more we see violence in the media, the higher the chance of childhood suicide or homicide” (Bernhard). This explains how children can become so easily calloused to the idea of murder or suicide because they are exposed to it relatively every day through the media. To sum up, the gun-violent media of our world has had an iniquitous influence in our lives.

The United States gives too much availability for its citizens to own guns in our world today. Although many believe that guns don’t have an impact on our country’s safety, it has been proven that “the U.S., with the most guns per capita, has the highest rate of deaths from firearms, while Japan has the least amount of gun ownership with the lowest rate of deaths from firearms” (Riczo). When these numbers add up, it shows that the United States has allowed for itself to become a very insecure country because of the death numbers. However, these facts aren’t only from adults because children have gotten caught up in the wrong use of guns as well. As stated by “Children, Youth, and Gun Violence”, “out of the youth living in America ages 12 to 17, 833,000 admitted to carrying a handgun in the past year for inappropriate reasons” (Reich, Culross, Behrman). This should show that children have too much availability to guns in their living environment and that they should be watched over as much as the adults are. All in all, guns have too much availability in our world today.

In our world, too many children’s