Views on Homicide Control in Us

There is a reason why guns have been used in wars for years, it is because they are extremely lethal and good at one thing, killing. The topic of gun control has been debated about for years and there is no perfect solution to trying to save people from being killed or injured by a gun, but giving people more guns isn’t going to do any good. Each year the US has tens of thousands of gun-related deaths whether it’s mass shootings, other homicides, or suicide, the point is that we are losing lives to these lethal weapons. We need a ban on guns or at least stricter gun laws to let people feel safer and not be afraid to go to school. If we can accomplish this then there will be fewer and fewer gun-related deaths each year. The second amendment allows the right for people to bear arms Mass shootings are some of the most horrific events to happen in human history.

According to ABC News, a mass shooting defined by the FBI is “... an in which four or more people, not including the suspect, are killed” (Keneally). Since 1982 there have been over 70 mass shootings in the US (Chuck). From those shootings, 82% of the guns used to commit this horrible crime have been bought legally (Chuck). If there were to have been no way for these people to get access to these guns legally, there would have been significantly fewer shootings. In an article written by Dylan Matthews, he states “Mayors Against Illegal Guns, analyzing FBI data, found that fewer than 1 percent of homicide victims in 2010 were killed in incidents where four or more people died.” This information illustrates how mass shootings, with how much harm they cause, are only one percent of all gun homicides. The amount of violence that comes from guns in the US is unimaginably terrible. According to EveryTown over 100 Americans every day are killed and injured by guns and it doesn’t only affect the victim, but also their friends and family.

EveryTown states that “Access to a gun increases the risk of death by homicide by two times” and “The U.S. gun homicide rate is 25 times that of other high-income countries.” (“Gun Violence in America”). Every year almost two-thousand children die due to gun homicide which mostly occurs at home and is usually connected to family violence. According to the CDC, the second highest leading cause of death for teenagers in the US is homicide. Every year preventable deaths are caused by a combination of violence and extremely lethal weapons. According to “Medical News Today” suicide is one of the top ten leading cause in death and makes 1.6 percent of US deaths killing over 40,000 people a year (Nichols). Everyone goes through hard times and some resort to suicide to solve their problems which is not the path anyone should ever try to take. Although firearms are only used 6% of the time in suicide attempts, they make up over half of all suicide deaths in the US (“Firearm Suicide in the United States”).

The article “Firearm Suicide in the United States” proclaims “Of the most commonly used methods of self-harm, firearms are by far the most lethal, with a fatality rate of approximately 85 percent. Conversely, less than 5 percent of people who attempt suicide using other methods will die, and the vast majority of all those who survive do not go on to die by suicide.” This shows that, although guns are not that common in most suicide attempts when they are used the individual will most likely die than doing anything else to attempt suicide. Guns should never get in the hands of mentally ill people due to what the gun could do to not only the individual, but the other people around him. Some people that advocate for less gun control laws explain that guns are a tool people use for self-defense. They say that they need guns to be able to defend themselves from threatening situations. The NPR states that only 48% of gun owners own a gun primarily of self-defense purposes.

While almost half of gun owners say they own their gun mainly for protection, Samantha Ralphelson shows that between 2007 and 2011, in less than 0.9 percent of crimes people tried to defend themselves with a gun (“How Often Do People Use Guns In Self-Defense?”). For every justifiable homicide where a citizen protected themselves, there are around 36 criminal homicides (Gun Control - ProCon). If only half of all gun owners mainly use their weapon for protection, and there are 36 times more criminal acts with guns than self-defense acts with guns then we shouldn’t allow this kind of access to guns. Guns are dangerous and giving people easier access to them isn’t going to solve or help anything, if we want to make an impact and try and do something to help our country, we need to push harder for stricter gun control laws and maybe even a gun ban. Guns are giving people with mental-health issues a more lethal way to commit suicide which also has a huge impact on friends and family members. Guns are also ending the lives of children and is a big contributor to why homicide is the second leading cause of death for teens. Kids are scared to go to school after school shootings and mass shootings are getting worse and worse. Why do we need guns if all they’re going to do is damage our society.

 

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