Ever since guns were created the rate of deaths has increased significantly. I believe that guns shouldn't be allowed. Every day, "100 Americans are killed with guns and hundreds more are injured". As the years pass the guns get more advanced, it makes it easier to kill people. In the article Everytown For Gun Safety, they have gathered data from accidents, they have collected the average death per year which in total is 36,383. It's broken down into sections which are suicide( there was 22,274 death), homicide (there were 12,830 deaths), unintentional (death 487), shooting by law enforcement(496) and some were underdetermined (295). The percentage of suicides is 70% and the rest goes to 30%. With the average of Injuries per year is different, it's broken down to Assualt (76,258 injuries), unintentional (18,362), self-Harm(4,149) and Shooting by law-enforcement( 1,350). The number of injuries is more than deaths.
Gun suicide is a very big issue in the United States, "Nearly two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides. The U.S gun suicide rate is 10 times that of other high-income countries". There are more injuries than death but the number of deaths is increasing throughout the years. In class, we watched a document showing the evolution of the guns(making them more portable). For example, when the rifle was only able to shot one bullet at a time and then you have to reload v. the revolver it was able to shot 6 shots without reloading. Once the Tommy gun was created in 1919, gangs started to use them, and they were one of the guns caused that increased the death rates.
https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-america/
Nice post! I think its interesting that you brought up suicide as an example of increased gun violence. This is something that wasn't talked about during the time our class spent discussing gun violence, and based on the statistics you provided, seems to be a sizeable problem. It wasn't something that came to mind when we discussed gun violence, but it is another issue in america. However, regulating guns (especially the ones that resemble assault riffles) probably wouldn't do much to aid this problem. Solving the issue of suicide is going to take a different kind of change and a reduction in the stigmatism of mental health issues, with a focus on helping people. However, I do think it is important that you brought it up in your post, because it is a problem, and with the increase availability of guns, can become a larger problem.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Annabel that a gun ban wouldn't be very successful because most of the guns used for suicides are handguns. However, even if guns were heavily restricted or even banned, it still wouldn't completely stop all gun violence. It would only create a greater underground market for guns and potentially increase gun violence.
ReplyDeletePersonally while I don't like the idea of guns, I don't believe that guns should be banned completely. It's interesting that you bring up suicide because I doubt background checks or an assault rifle ban would effect that statistic at all. I can't even think of any legislation that's been proposed that would prevent gun suicides. I wonder what we can do to address that issue at a legislative level.
ReplyDeleteNice article, although I don't necessarily side with guns and the idea of a weapon that can be used to kill people. I don't think a complete gun ban would really help. There will still be guns getting exported illegally as well as gun shows because you can't really shut down guns and expect crazy gun fanatics to comply. Like any other illegal thing there will still be people who find their ways around the system. Giving criminals more of a buzz in committing gun crimes because of how prohibited they will be. According to an article I read on a UN crime rate report countries with little to no gun restrictions have very low crime rates. And then when compared to a place like Chicago with strict gun control, there's very high crime rates. So I wouldn't say banning guns completely will solve our problem, but that isn't to say we should abolish our gun control laws.
ReplyDeletehttps://people.howstuffworks.com/strict-gun-laws-less-crime1.htm
I agree with Oliver with saying that banning something only makes people want to do it more. In a comment for a post about abortion, I used the example of Prohibition and how it actually made drinking more dangerous. For this post, I am comparing how gun bans and Prohibition actually make guns and alcohol more wanted. This is because it gives people the thrill of doing something wrong. Ultimately, gun bans would just reinforce the problem. I also agree with Annabel because I liked how you incorporated suicide but I also think the best way to prevent this is with therapy and with addressing mental health. This is also true for school shootings and probably even some mass shootings. One main example of this was the Parkland school shooting. The shooter had had mental health issues that hadn't been addressed and maybe if they had, the shooting could have been stopped. I'm not sure exactly how we can address all these mental health issues, but I believe it is a start.
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https://www.heritage.org/public-health/commentary/the-role-mental-illness-mass-shootings-suicides
I found your article interesting and the statistics supported your point of view. Some of the people have mentioned that banning weapons won't just get rid of deaths and I completely agree with it. Something else that I want to mention is that there is multiple countries who allow guns to the public but their death rates are significantly less or non-existent. Is our government and the other countries government is what makes the difference between the death rates?
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