Ways to prevent Gun Violence

Gun violence is something that haunts American life and culture. While the statistical likelihood is that many of us will never encounter gun violence, the rising prevalence of mass shootings in the country and the news make gun violence a common thought in the American mindset. It is an unfortunate part of our reality that even in schools and colleges, the threat of guns and gun violence in the form of mass shooting, homicide, and suicide is real. Gun Violence recently across the world has been taken to a whole other level and it is unacceptable.

When discussing gun violence, whether in political debates, in the news, or just in a regular conversation, we tend to separate different types of gun incidents as though they are different from each other. Mass shootings are usually looked at differently from suicides by guns, which are discussed differently from murders, which are seen as different from accidental shootings. However, they all share the same common threat: people being harmed or killed by guns.

The next step we turn to is PREVENTION. Prevention is a task that nobody really knows the answer to however, it is something people are working for in order to find the best alternative. Many laws and procedures were put into place to help prevent and decrease gun violence. For example, stand your ground laws, gun control laws, and the NFA. Also, in addition to laws put into place, there are many organizations that include a wide variety anywheres from gun laws and policies to suicide prevention and counseling.

To start off, there are thousands of different gun laws and restrictions out there to help prevent gun violence. One example of a gun safety law is the extreme risk law which allows families, household members, or law enforcement officers to proactively save a loved one’s life by petitioning a court for an order temporarily restricting a person’s access to guns if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others. So far, 17 states plus Washington DC have passed extreme risk laws. Studies show that since those states passed the law, Gun Violence has gone down significantly.

A stand-your-ground law is another gun law that establishes a right by which a person may defend one's self or others against threats or perceived threats, even to the point of applying lethal force, regardless of whether safely retreating from the situation might have been possible. This gives people the right to protect themselves against attackers and fight for their safety. To some people, this doesn't help prevent gun violence, however the big picture to this is that it give individuals the opportunity to feel safe and protected at all times.

In addition to gun laws and organizations, their are other organizations such as The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline which is an organization available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. In 2017, almost half of the nation's 47,173 suicides involved a firearm. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that about 60% of all adult firearm deaths are by suicide, 61% more than deaths by homicide. This is one of the main reasons why we are using organizations such as The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to help prevent Gun Violence because if we can help those in distress or suicidial crisis, we are also decreasing Gun Violence at the same time.

To sum this all up, Gun Violence plays a big toll on all of our lives and is something that we shouldn't have to deal with, or worry about as much as we do. Therefore, that is why the government is enforcing many laws and organizations to help prevent it. Like stated earlier, there is no answer to how we are going to stop Gun Violence from happening, however these laws and oragnizations are meant to hopefully help stop it as much as possible.

How Gun Violence impacts more than just the scene of the crime.

What is it going to take to stop Gun Violence?

For those of you that don't know, which im sure you all do, Gun Violence is a major problem in today's society. All over the news and social media, you always see and read about the shootings and threats going around this wonderful world we live in. However, I am sure none of you have ever realized the impact that Gun Violence has on those involved. Gun violence has impacted the world physcially, emotionally, and mentally, and has been brought to the attention of those who weren't even involved.

This is shown with school shootings, mass shootings, or even random attacks. According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks shootings in the US, there were 340 mass shootings in 2018. This is an absurd number of attacks that has affected too many harmless victims. To put this into perspective, the US has had nearly as many mass shootings as days in the year in 2018.

To start, all across the world, survivors and witnesses are all scared and traumatized for life after witnessing something so devastating. The main focus is mass school shootings. For students, School massacres leave deep emotional scars and can affect academic performance, such as decreased school attendance and lower test scores. Afterwards, any student that was involved, tries to define a new sense of normalcy, all while struggling with grief, guilt, PTSD, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Children, parents, and school staff are all affected by a school shooting. These affects could be behavioral, physical, or mental. Studies show that any kid who witnesses a school shooting has a striking 77% chance of suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), (Takeda, 2012). When it comes to parents, they are mostly affected psychologically. In a study on five school shootings that have happened in the past, they came to the conclusion that school staff who have witnessed a school shooting would suffer from several negative long term consequences that include illness, divorce, PTSD, and maybe even career change. This might not seem like a big deal to some people, but for most it really touches home and makes you wonder what we can do to prevent this.

The affects from Gun violence physically, can all basically be seen from the stats themselves. According to the Gun Violence Archive, in 2018 there were 14,789 deaths, 28,233 injuries, 670 children injured or killed between the ages of 0-11, and 2,869 teens 12-17 killed or injured. To me, I think those numbers speak for themselves on the such negative impact Gun Violence has on our society. Not to mention, people forget about all of the lives that have gotten touched from those 28,233 injuries or deaths that were involved.

This topic has been brought to the attention by many through the news, word of mouth, and most importantly social media. The biggest area where the attention of gun violence was brought to was on twitter and facebook. People started using the hashtags #gunviolence, #endgunviolence, #todayistheday, #NomoreNRA, and many more to help put and end to it. All of these users who put in there opinion have been impacted by those killed or injured. Some may have been affected more than others but the point that I am trying to get at is that there are so many innocent harmless people out there who have to deal with the physical, mental, and emotional effects of Gun Violence in today's society.

The question that makes you wonder, is how are we going to stop this from happening? Of course there is no written law or beaten path to take , but we need to come up with something to stop this. Some people think we need to ban all guns for purchase, hire armed guards, or even enforce more harsh penalties to make others see what the consequence is. These however, are all ineffective solutions which are difficult to implement, as such there is no easy solution.

When will people learn?

I know for many of us, we just look at it as apart of society and being apart of the world we live in. But have you ever realized the impact that it has on other kids, students, families, teachers, and even communities? I sit here and think to myself what is it going to take to stop people from the violence and to start thinking about others before they act. My thoughts are just look at it as if it were your own family suffering over something they had no control in. Would that change your decision or change the way you act?