The Second Amendment and Gun Violence

What does a gun sound like? You should ask the thousand's of people that die every year from gun violence. People die every year due to gun violence, death rates have gone up since 1984, when the first deadliest shooting occurred 21 were killed and 19 were injured. Gun violence has an immense impact on America. Gun violence leads to homicides, suicides and accidental shootings. Guns have always had an impact on us ever since the 21st century.

Gun violence is a leading issue in the United States, 43,723 incidents have happened since the beginning of 2018. This includes mass shootings, accidental shootings, self defense, suicides and more. 2,664 of these were children 17 or under either killed or injured.

Gun control would help reduce these numbers if they enforced them. The government should enforce gun control on guns because guns are a threat in many ways. It contributes to gun violence like homicide, suicide, mass shootings and more. Federal prosecution has increased since 1993, new laws are needed to help keep gun control from spiraling. If there were more gun control laws that would reduce gun violence, making death rates drop dramatically there would be no violence. If there is more gun control kids would be safer in schools and public places. If there was better gun control less school shootings would happen, drive bys would decrease, and their lives would be spared. School shootings have spiraled since the 19th century. The first ever school shooting was on November 12th, 1840 in Charlottesville Virginia at the University of Virginia. A former student John Anthony Gardner Davis was fatally shot by Joseph Semmes, and later died.

Millions of kids newborn to 17 years old have died due to accidental shootings since the 19th century and the numbers are increasing due to the fact that most families still own guns. The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence has proven that 50 percent of families keep loaded guns in the household. Guns in a household can contribute to domestic violence with a gun in the house the odds of homicide increases 5 times. Within one month at least 50 woman where shot or injured by their partner. Women who are in a domestic relationship are often threatened by a gun to control their lives and to make sure they do not leave, even if they would never pull the trigger.

For example, Marissa Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot at her husband after he threatened to kill her. Alexander had fired warning shots because of Florida's stand-your-ground law, A law that allows people to defend themselves with force when their life is in danger. She believed if she fired a warning shot this law would protect her from her abusive husband, however at the time warning shots were not part of this law nor legal.

The stress of domestic violence that the woman go through cost us economically. Guns have affected the economy in various ways making taxpayers suffer when there is an accident or purchase of a gun. Without Medicaid orMedicare, most people would go bankrupt for their own health. The total cost of gun violence is 229 billion dollars and Medicare cost a total of 251 billion. That's 700 dollars for each taxpayer a year, paying for the bills of each incident, suicide, homicide, and the medical cost.

Some people, however, may disagree with the argument that guns should be less controlled. They believe guns should be less controlled and used more often to help citizens protect themselves from the dangers of the world. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. That if you put tighter gun control on guns it does not change on how they value human life. That guns are not the problem but the people. Some people might say that guns are a big part of a person's daily life. Especially when it could cost their own life. When a person feels like they are in danger they are most likely to do whatever it takes to make the threat disappear. For example, when someone breaks into your home a gun is very handy for self-defense. Or when you are walking home alone on a late night and feel someone walking or following right behind you. It's a time like this is when a handgun is most convenient. People should have the right to own a handgun for self-defense. If you take away the second amendment you will only take away our sense of safety. That gun control will not decrease the death rates at all but make the mind of a killer more creative. Knives, vehicle attacks, and homemade explosives will do as much damage as a gun would.

Gangs are also the cause of gun violence gang violence accounts for half of violent crime inAmerica. There are almost 33,000 active gangs inAmerica. The NRA (National Rifle Association) supported gun control when the Black Panthers in the 1960s of California decided to retaliate against police brutality by patrolling the city with guns. Although Ronald Reagan who was an NRA member passed a bill to ban open carry the bill did apply to everyone in California, but it was mostly directed to the black panthers. The way the Black Panthers viewed the second amendment made them innovators they did not think of the right to bear arms in their home but to protect themselves in the street.

Racism is also a reason why people view the second amendment differently. For example, Philando Castile who was only 39 years old was pulled over and shot by officer Jeronimo Yanez within 40 seconds of pulling Philando over he shot Philando 9 times for the possession of a firearm with registration. Witnesses were his 4 year old daughter and his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds. It took 40 seconds to take his life and to traumatize his girlfriends and their daughter as they watched him die. 91 percent of colored people are more targeted than white people.

Over 300 million guns are spiraling around america. (Guns In America, By America) Even with tight gun control applying it to everyone is not the best and easy way it would take time to apply the law to everyone. For example if America was to attempt a buyback they would not be able to collect guns from everyone. A buyback is when the original seller buys back their own product. In fact America would most likely only get guns that no one wanted or broken guns. To attempt a buyback with guns would be economically impossible. Australia was able to operate a buyback with guns and payed everyone for returning the guns the only difference is they have a lower percentage of guns in their country, the number of guns they have as of 2017 is 3,573,000. America has 86 times more guns then that.

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