Stuff

Violence is everywhere. In all countries, cities, towns, and villages there is always some form of violence. It does not just take place in major cities as much as we all would like to think. However, there is a certain level of violence that is just not acceptable and it should not be tolerated. We happen to be living in one place where violent acts and deaths are among the most prevalent in the world: The United States of America. This is confirmed and elaborated on in essays published in Linda McMeniman's From Inquiry to Argument. Such essays include "Kids and Guns," "Violence is a Public Health Problem" by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George WillÐ'--who argues that violence is a treatable health problemÐ'--and "How We Can Tune Out Children from Television Violence" by Myriam Miedzian, author of Boys Will Be Boys. She believes television violence is strongly related to real-world violence. After reading these three articles, the reader will find they all have a very obvious common ground: Violence is an enormous problem in our society and something needs to be done to control it.

George Will makes a strong point in "Violence is a Public Health Problem" that shows just how much of a trouble violence is in the modern world. One startling fact he provides is that in 1990 in Texas and Louisiana, "the leading cause of death by injury was not motor vehicles but guns." Can he be on to something? Sure seems like it. In 1952, accidents involving motor vehicles killed 155,075 Americans. In 1989, a drastic decline to 45,555 Americans due to technological advances in building cars, safer roads, and licensing laws. At first glance that appears to be a marvelous accomplishment, which it is. However gun violence has made up for it. This following paragraph from this essay puts it in perspective:

"About one-third of the 150,000 deaths per year from injuries are from suicide or assaultive violence. The U.S. homicide rate for black males 15-24 is 17 to 283 times greater than the male homicide rates in 17 other industrial nations. Homicide is the second-leading cause of death by injury among ages 1-19 and the leading cause of deaths for blacks, male and female, 15-34. Furthermore, 2.2 million Americans suffer non-fatal injuries from violent and abusive behavior."

A cause for this rise in homicides and other violent acts could be found in and editorial that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer entitled "Kids and Guns." Obviously, given the title of this editorial, the reason for this rise in fatalities can logically be linked to firearms. Over the past few decades guns have become extremely powerful, more accurate, technologically advanced, and unfortunately more abundant and easily accessible. Also as implied in the title of this article, a downfall to guns being more accessible is that children can too easily acquire them. This is a sure-fire shocker:

"Pollster Louis Harris interviewed a cross section of 2,500 youths ages 10 to 19 about gunsÐ'--whether they have them, use them and how they feel a bout them. Nearly on in 10 said he or she had fired a gun at another person. Even more startling, 59 percent said they could get a firearm if they wanted one, and 36 percent of those said they could do so in an hour or less." (Kids and Guns, 212)

These numbers are quite frightening; one in every ten kids has fired a gun at another person? Only in America.

Children, as we all know, are easily influenced. There is no greater influence, not just on children but Americans in general, than television. What some would consider the downfall to today's youth and society as well. But is there a correlation between the countless accusations that violent TV programs promote violence and violent acts themselves? According to Miedzian's essay "How We Can Tune Out Children