Every day, nearly seven people die due to gun violence, and not
mention nearly 2,647 people die annually due to gun violence (Ross 1). Gun
violence is defined as violence which is committed with the use of a firearm
weapon. Firearms were associated with nearly 68% of all murders. One of the
most infamous gun violence attacks to take place was the Sandy Hook Elementary
Shooting where twenty kids and six adults perished on December 14, 2012 (1).
Now we are going to explore why these events take place, what has been done to
prevent it, as well was provokes a human being to commit such violence.
Mass shootings have been around for quite some time, but random
public shootings are on the rise. The people who commit these heinous crimes
are known as mass murders. A mass murderer is defined as one individual that
kills at least four or more people in a 24-hour period. The earliest known mass
shooting to take place was committed by Ernst August Wagner in 1913 Germany
(Donohue 1). Wagner stabbed his wife as well as his four kids, then drove to Mühlhausen
An Der End, Germany (1). He then opened fire on approximately 20 people,
killing nine, he then went on to burn down several buildings within the city
(1).
In America, there has been two trends of mass shootings. From 1930
to 1960, most mass shootings were family related homicides and felony related
killings (Ross 1). From 1960 to present day, most mass shootings happened in
public places, killing unknown bystanders (1). Recently from 2000 to 2010,
there have been over 84 active shooter situations across the country (1).
In a large majority of mass shooting cases, the person who commits
the murder is often aggravated, whether it be from family troubles, bullying,
or being fired from a job (Ross 1). Whatever the cause might have been, easy
access to obtain a firearm whenever the perpetrator is in the heat of the
moment is what causes them to lean more towards handling the situation with violence.
Here's how things mostly play out, within a few hours of receiving the bad
news, the perpetrator starts shooting, mostly due to the fact they couldn't
process the news clearly (1). In other cases, it's only minutes after receiving
the news, some perpetrators go home or to their car and grab whatever firearm
they can get their hands on and then start shooting (1). People who are
depressed or emotionally unstable should have zero access whatsoever to
firearms (1) . It is becoming more and more notice that men are unable to
manage their emotions in a healthy and civilized manner (1). Thus, causing
mostly men to snap with rage which then influences them to pull the trigger.
Don't let this for you though, almost anyone can commit this type of crime, not
just men.
Not only do mass shootings effect communities, they also have a
nationwide effect on society. A recent Arizona State University study found
hard evidence that school shootings and other types of mass shootings are in
fact contagious (Gregoire 1). The researchers
analyzed over 176 mass shootings in the United States from 2006 to 2011, as
well as school shootings between 1997 through 2013 (1). The researchers found
that mass shootings were increasingly more likely to occur if another mass
shooting that occurred in the previous 13 days received tons of media attention
(1). The findings showed researchers that mass shootings tend to happen in a
cluster like a mass suicide cluster, “Apparently due to the [media] coverage
planting the seeds of ideation in at risk individuals to commit similar acts,”
the study stated (1). “People had suspected for a long time that mass killings
were contagious” said Sherry towers, a research professor at Arizona State
University and the studies lead author (1). “Our study was the first to use a
contagion model to quantify how much contagion there actually is in these kinds
of tragedies." (1). Towers and her fellow researchers also discovered that
states with higher gun ownership had higher chances of a mass shooting occurring
(1). Sadly, Towers study is one of the only few studies conducted to study the
true causes of mass shootings, due to a federal ban placed on funding for
firearms research (1).
As a citizen of the United States, it is rather shocking that there
is the federal ban placed on funding for firearm research. This causes our
nation not to know a lot about gun violence. Our ignorance about the situation
can be blamed on the National Rifle Assn (NRA), as well as the federal offices
the NRA has scared away for the past 20 years (Hiltzik 1). Due to a research
funded by the CDC, which suggested that having fire arms in a home can increase
the risk of homicide, the NRA drove Congress to strip the CDC of their funding
for gun violence research (1). The CDC then lost nearly $2.6 million (1). But
they didn't stop there, Congress also passed a law that for banned the CDC from
spending funds in order to, (get this) ADVOCATE OR PROMOTE GUN CONTROL (1). “If
research on cancer stopped for a single day, there would be a huge protest. But
this research has been stopped for over 20 years", said Mark Rosenberg,
former head of the CDC (1). Wow! Sounds like the NRA is a bunch of cold hearted
people who do not care about the safety of our country! They won't care unless
one of their own was to be killed due to a mass shooting.
June 12th, 2016, Omar Saddiqui Mateen opened fired
inside Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando, Florida (CNN). 49 people were killed
and over 50 were injured (1).
April 16, 2007, Seung Hui Cho opened fire at Virginia Tech in
Blacksburg Virginia (CNN). 30 people were killed on campus, he then killed
himself (1).
December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza open fire inside of Sandy Hook
elementary school in Newton, Connecticut (CNN). 20 kids, ages six and seven as
well as six adults were killed that day (1).
Imagine if one of your loved ones were killed in a mass shooting,
you would want the government to do something to prevent these kinds of things
from happening ever again, such as implementing stricter gun control, right? Now
think about how the people who lost loved ones due to the violence, how do you
think they feel about the fact that the government has done almost nothing to
promote and implement stricter gun control. Enough is enough, more needs to be
done to prevent these acts of violence from occurring ever again. Our voices
need to be heard, not another person should have to die due to this kind of
violence.
The New York Times conducted
a survey asking people what they believe should be done to help prevent mass
shootings (McCarthy 1). Many of the participants called for bullet control.
Bullet control focuses on controlling ammunition sales as well as high-capacity
magazines, as a way to put a stop or attempt to stop some mass shootings from
ever happening (1). Many people liked the idea of bullet control, such as
Mitchell of Princeton, New Jersey “for now, gun control is a lost cause… The
only short-term solution is stopping Internet bullet sales and regulating store
sales. Not easy, but easier than full scale gun control." (1). “Have a
national registry that can keep track of how much ammunition individuals are
buying and raise red flags when sales in excess of norms are spotted,”
suggested Dara Stillman of Denver, Colorado (1). Though bullet control is a
great first step towards preventing mass shootings, more needs to be done to
prevent these kinds of horrific things from happening ever again.
Another great solution
towards preventing mass shootings is to stop selling assault rifles all
together. Many of the participants of the New York Times survey suggested there
should be better than laws governing the sales of all assault rifles (McCarthy
1). No one needs a gun that can shoot rapidly as well as inflict the amount of
damage it does. The only people who should possess such a weapon are the brave
men and women who are deployed in the army protecting our country and using the
gun for a real cause, "nobody can justify a need for any civilian to have
these types of weapons," said Barbra Orcutt of Flagstaff, Arizona (1). It
is ridiculous that regular civilians can purchase a weapon as such destruction,
and it is an outrage! These types of weapons should not be allowed on the
market, end of story.
One final solution to help
prevent mass shootings is better background checks. In more developed
countries, such as Germany, Finland, and Italy, citizens must go through strict
background checks before purchasing a firearm weapon (Palazzolo 1). In Germany,
in order for a civilian to buy a gun if they are under the age of 25 they have
to complete and pass a psychiatric test, a test that 21-year-old Dylann Roof
would've failed, which would've saved nine precious lives (1). In Finland,
citizens are only allowed to buy firearms but only if they are members of
nationally regulated firearm clubs (1). They must also pass an aptitude test,
as well as have an interview conducted by the police (1). In Italy, in order
for a civilian to obtain a gun permit, citizens must state a strong reason as
to why they need to possess a gun (1). They also must complete an extensive
background check that highlights over their criminal record as well as their
mental health record (1). These are all fairly easy solutions for our country
to follow and put in check, but the question is why is our country so hesitant
to do so, how many lives need to be taken in order for our country to open
their eyes and see the problem?
Although, mass shootings do
take place in the countries stated before, but they do not have as many mass
shootings as the United States does (Donohue 1). The amount of mass shootings
that take place in the United States is sky high compared to the other
countries, such as the ones we discussed previously. One country that the
United States needs to take notes from is Australia. Australia has not had a
single mass shooting since 1996, THAT’S TWENTY-ONE YEARS (1)! In all of Australia's
history, they have only had thirteen mass shootings, THIRTEEN (1)! The line was
drawn when 35 innocent civilians were shot dead in Tasmania, the weapon used by
the perpetrator, was of course an assault rifle (1). During the aftermath of
the massacre, Australia put tougher gun laws into play, as well as banned a
wide variety of firearms, such as semi-automatic firearm weapons (1). Australia
also started a gun buyback program, which significantly reduced the number of
guns on Australian soil. The actions that Australia put into play had positive
effects with both suicide and murders (1).
The best solution to solve
our nation’s mass shooting problem is to act and follow in Australia's
footsteps; they seem to know what they're doing considering the fact they
haven't had a single mass shooting since 1996 (Donohue 1). Our country also
needs to have better background checks put into place to prevent unstable
people from getting their hands-on fire arm weapons; our country also needs ban
assault rifles, as well, because there is no need for any civilian to have such
a weapon. Though it might be ‘tough’ for some people to give up their firearms,
our government needs to keep in mind that the greater good of our country is
more important than someone's love for a gun. Our country also needs to
establish a buyback program to push civilians to sell their firearms back to
our government, thus reducing the number of fire arms in our country. All of
this can be easily achieved, but only if our country can come together and
realize that this will help both our country as well as our local communities,
thus giving our children a safe place to grow.
Camus’s beliefs about the
acceptance of absurdity relates to my topic because even though all of these
mass shootings are absurd, our country just accepts them and continues on with
their lives. We just accept what's going on, and we do nothing about it, and we
just continue to live our perfect little lives while people are being killed
all around us. Though the shootings are
absurd, Camus probably would've taken his own advice and would have just lived
his life, accepting everything that was happening around him, thus achieving
freedom. If Camus were to have seen the outcome/results of my epidemic topic,
he would probably would have told me not to get so hung up in trying to fix the
absurd but instead accepting it in living my life to the fullest, thus achieving
ultimate freedom.
In conclusion, this is an
important topic that should not be overlooked, hope that topic opens people’s
eyes to the horrors of gun violence and how devastating this epidemic truly is,
let us hope our government establishes better gun laws for the sake of our
country. Another person should not have to die because of these mass shootings,
our government needs to step up and do something about it! Because like it or
not, every day nearly 7 people die due to gun violence, as well as the 2,647
people who die annually due to the violence (Ross 1).
Work Cited
CNN. "Deadliest Mass Shootings in US History Fast Facts."
CNN. Cable News Network, 28 Feb. 2017. Web. 09 May 2017.
Donohue, John. "How US Gun Control Compares to the Rest of the
World." The Conversation. The Conversation, 10 Apr. 2017. Web. 04 May
2017.
Gregoire, Carolyn. "Here's What We Know About The Contagion Of Mass
Shootings." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Dec. 2015. Web.
09 May 2017.
Hiltzik, Michael. "The NRA Has Blocked Gun Violence Research
for 20 Years. Let's End Its Stranglehold on Science." Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2016. Web. 09 May 2017.
Lemiux, Frederic. "How Can We Reduce the Number of Mass
Shootings?" Opinion. Opinion, 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2017.
Mccarthy, Diantha Parker and Ryan. "How to Stop Mass Shootings
in America: Times Readers Respond." The New York Times. The New York
Times, 10 Dec. 2015. Web. 04 May 2017.
Palazzolo, Joe, and Alexis Flynn. "U.S. Leads World in Mass
Shootings." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 03 Oct.
2015. Web. 04 May 2017.
Ross, Pete. "These Are
the Actual Reasons Mass Shootings Occur." Observer. N.p., 15 Aug. 2016.
Web. 04 May 2017.
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