Gun violence has been the center of conversation in politics and among the public now more than ever because of the increase in school shootings, mass shootings, gun-related murders and suicides. Today’s generation has to practice drills of hiding in the corners of classrooms or closets and being as quiet as possible in case the day comes when they are the victims of such a tragedy.
The first recorded school shooting in the US to happen on school grounds was in 1764 when the schoolmaster Enoch Brown and ten kids were killed leaving only two
survivors in Greencastle Pennsylvania. From 2000 to 2010 there were 147 deaths accounted for because of school shootings. In 2023 alone, there were 349 shootings and 249 victims, in 2024 there have been 243 shootings and 181 victims so far.
Recently there has been much debate in our political world about guns which has sprung controversy. According to the Gale article, “The Relationship between Gun Control Strictness and Mass Murder in the United States: A National Study 2009-2015 by Scott Lewis”,“Gary Kleck noted that findings about the efficacy of gun control to reduce violent crime is inconclusive. Similarly, John Moorhouse and Brent Wanner found that state data provides no evidence that gun control reduces crime rates, even three years after the control policies were implemented.”
2021 put a spike in gun-related murders and suicides in the United States and the death toll that guns hold grew exponentially as more men, women and children fell victim to a bullet.
According to the “Pew Research Center”, “About eight-in-ten U.S. murders in 2021 – 20,958 out of 26,031, or 81% – involved a firearm. That marked the highest percentage since at least 1968, the earliest year for which the CDC has online records. More than half of all suicides in 2021 – 26,328 out of 48,183, or 55% – also involved a gun, the highest percentage since 2001.”
Gun violence was declared a public health crisis by the US Surgeon General Vince Admiral Vivek H. Murthy. Recently the majority of Americans who own a gun are a small percentage, and those who
do own one disagree with having strict gun laws implemented.
The “Pew Research Center” says “For instance, 71% of gun owners say they enjoy owning a gun – but just 31% of nonowners living in a household with a gun say they enjoy having one in the home. And while 81% of gun owners say owning a gun makes them feel safer, a narrower majority of nonowners in gun households (57%) say the same. Nonowners are also more likely than owners to worry about having a gun at home (27% vs. 12%).”
Gun violence here in the United States has grown to be normalized and in some ways it is now our social norm with kids all across the country fearing that their school will be shot at and for someone they know to lose their life because of it. While enforcing stricter rules hasn’t proven to do a lot to help the cause there are still debates on how to solve this problem and help save the lives of the youth as guns have now become one of the leading causes of death for children.
