By: Kendjana Adolphe
According to everytownresearch.org, 96 Americans are killed every day, and a hundred others are shot or get injured. Over the years, gun violence became more prominent in the United States. With already 307 cases of mass shootings registered by gunviolencearchive.org in 2018, the majority of deaths are not from mass shootings. More than 60 percent of people who died from guns committed suicide. Every year, America registers more than 10,000 gun deaths and more than 30,000 injuries caused by a firearm.
According to the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, the right to keep and bear arms is protected. Therefore, U.S. citizens, permanent resident aliens and some non-immigrant aliens are eligible to possess a firearm. But what are the consequences?
One-third of gun deaths are homicides. Such cases are more prevalent in racially segregated neighborhoods with a high rate of poverty. Most of the gun homicides are registered in only 127 cities which represent a quarter of the American population; black American are mostly the victims.
Assaults with guns are only increasing. 75 percent of non-fatal injuries are caused by guns during an attack. Once again, black males are the most registered victims.
The second leading cause of teenagers and children deaths in America is firearms. About 1,600 kids and teens die every year because of gun homicide. A lot of cases of children dying under the age of 13 are due to domestic violence.
In America, about 50 women are killed with a gun every month, and many others are injured. Access to a gun in a household facing domestic violence makes it very likely that a woman will be shot and get killed.
To many people, having a gun gives a sense of security. On Oct. 1, 2015, Chris Harper-Mercer, a 26-year-old student at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, shot an assistant professor and eight students, eight more were injured. After the tragedy, locals said that they would feel safer if they had guns in their possession. J. J Vicari, 19 and student at the same college said, “It’s opened my eyes, I want to have a gun in the house to protect myself, to protect the people I am with.” Other students said that the security guards should carry a gun, while other ones believe that America should have stricter gun laws. Tons of massacre could be avoided that way. So what is the solution to this violence? Should everyone have guns and protect their self? Or should America have stricter gun laws?
As shown previously, guns are dangerous items that could easily damage human being lives. Therefore, the best option would be to establish stricter laws. But let’s dive into that option and see if it is indeed the best one.
Many Americans can buy a firearm within an hour. To purchase one, the buyer needs to pass an instant background check that considers convictions, domestic violence, and immigration status. Licensed firearm dealers are not allowed to sell or deliver a handgun to anyone under the age of 21, as for long guns such as rifles and shotguns, not unless the person is 18. Many states have other buying restrictions: longer waiting period and expanded background checks. But about one-third of American gun owners don’t do a background check to get their gun, because federal law does not require one when buying from a private seller.
Stephen Paddock, 64, committed the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter in the history of the United States. On Oct. 1, Paddock opened fire from his hotel room onto a crowd of thousands of people attending the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas. 58 people died, and 851 others got injured including over 400 by gunfire. The Las Vegas shooter had no criminal record; he purchased his guns and ammunition legally. According to a gun dealer, he passed a background check before buying some of his weapons. Therefore, there was no sign that this man would ever perpetrate such crime. Some people are asking for stricter gun laws such as requiring a background check on every single gun sale. What if the purchaser is not a criminal, but still attempt to commit suicide, or a mass shooting? Should we then say that guns are the problems? That is indeed the opinion of Igor Volsky, founder of gun downs, a group that is trying to take a stronger position concerning gun violence. He said, “It’s not enough to just limit the kind of people who own guns. You have to go after the guns themselves. Guns are the problem.” Volsky does not say that America should ban guns completely, but he believes that there should be fewer and that they should be harder to obtain.
Australia is one of the countries with the least record of gun violence. In April 1996, an Australian man killed 35 people with a semi-automatic gun at Port Arthur, in Tasmania, Australia. Right after the tragedy, the authorities took major decisions not to let this happen again. They banned rapid-fire guns to lower the mass shooting rate. On top of it, they paid citizens to sell their guns back to the government. Following this massive change, the gun deaths were cut in half. The number of suicide by firearm was reduced to 0.8 per 100,000 people in 2006 compared to 2.2 in 1995. Firearm homicides decreased to 0.15 per 100,000 in 2006 compared to 0.37 in 1995. Since April 1996, the deadliest mass shooting in Australia occurred in May 2018, when a family of seven was found dead with gunshot wounds. After such results, Simon Chapman, Professor at the University of Sydney said, “Australia’s experience shows that banning rapid-fire firearms was associated with reductions in mass shootings and total firearm deaths.”
With a population of 127 million people, Japan rarely faces more than ten deaths yearly. They established a rigorous set of tests to possess a fire gun. To buy a gun in this country, the people must attend a full-day class, and pass a written exam. They also need to achieve at least 95 percent accuracy during a shooting test session. The intended buyer will then pass a mental health screening that will take place at a hospital. To finish, a background check is done where the government looks into the buyer’s criminal record and asks questions to his family and friends. The person has to go into the same process every three years. Japan thinks that fewer guns can only reduce the number of gun deaths, which has worked for the country.In 1987, Michael Ryan killed 16 people in Hungerford, UKand since then the country banned the use of all modern semi-automatic rifles. In 1996, Thomas Hamilton killed 16 school children and their teacher. That massacre led the country to ban handguns, leading to a five year-imprisonment for the possession of one. In the UK, it’s hard to get a license for a gun. The individual needs to convince the government that he will use the firearm for good reasons. As a result, 39 fatalities from guns has been recorded in 2008-2009, the lowest in 20 years.
After consideration, America might need to start thinking about banning firearms on the territory and makes it harder to get, to reduce gun deaths as demonstrated by Japan, UK, and Australia.
