Other sources

My question is: Should we take more precautions in controlling guns? I am leaning toward taking more precautions and not banning all guns so I am looking at things similar to Obama’s ideas such as improved background checks, school security and perhaps a ban for armor piercing ammunition, high ammunition rounds and possibly assault rifles. This brought me to look at the actual shooting such as Sandy hook and the Aurora movie theater shooting. In both scenarios I knew assault rifles were involved so it would be very relevant. The Sandy Hook shooting was at a school so I could use that to argue for more school resources. I did my best to find news articles on the topics from credible news like The Denver Post.  I found the Denver post news article on the shooting. It covers the total numbers of death as well as the guns the shooter used. One was an AR-15 assault rifle. To me this article gives reason to the effect guns can have. It also leads into a matter of whether or not assault rifles should be banned or not. Another point this will allow me to talk about is if someone would have had a gun could it have stopped the shooting. There are occasions where having a civilian with a gun holder permit stopped a shooting.

Citation

Parker, R., J. Bunch, K. Lee, J. Ingold, J. Steffen, and J. Brown. n.d., n. pag. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. <http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21118201/70-shot-12-killed-at-aurora-movie-theater>.

A large part of the gun control issue has to do with mental health. Many shooters or mass murderers are found to have mental illnesses that won’t allow them to behave normally. These mental illnesses are causes of violent and terrible acts. I wanted to look into this and was looking at magazines with the topic of mental health hoping I could find one directly relating to these shootings. Fortunately while looking I found the National Journal. A lot of focuses such as that of the NRA are associated with putting blame on mental illnesses not guns. I am not against this and if it would save lives it would be worth looking for.  Better monitoring of mental illnesses would make sense and keep guns out of the hands of those not capable of making conscious decisions. The article I was able to find talks about the little positive impact improving mental health would have. It talks about how mental health is reported to be only 4% of crimes. It also talks about the most violent mental illness, Schizophrenia. Yet it states within Schizophrenics killing is still low. This article has significant statistics in terms of the connection of mental illness and killing. When it comes down to recent shootings and the gun control mental health seems to be a very big point. This article will allow me to argue whether or not there should be a large focus on better mental health as an extra precaution toward guns.

Citation

Sanger-Katz, M. n.d. n. page. <http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/why-improving-mental-health-would-do-little-to-end-gun-violence-20130124>.

 Image citation:  

Anderson, Nick. N.d. Graphic. Empower NetworkWeb. 22 Apr 2013.

I was searching for a book that talked about guns, gun laws, gun ownership, and effects of guns on crime etc… When searching I found, More Guns Less Crime by John R. Lott. This book had stats on gun ownership on America. I read and found tables filled with percentages and numbers on various crimes, and the author used stats with gun crimes vs. other crimes. There are examinations and tables with men gun ownership vs. women gun ownership as well. I found the author to be getting some information from the FBI which is pretty credible.

Citation

Lott, John. More Guns, Less Crime. 3rd. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. eBook.

Looking for gun control sources was harder than I thought. There were so many things I found about congress and senate. Everything seemed to be about Obama’s drive to regulate guns. With a lot of the tragic shootings I wanted to see some opinions or plans at regulating guns. Obama had come up with a gun policy shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. Seeing that these shootings were the ones that got me into the topic I wanted to utilize Obama’s proposal. I liked the ideas he had and from them I could go into other opinions and about people who disagree with his gun policies and why.  Obama described his proposal as a common sense measure. I thought it would be valuable to see his steps toward regulating guns. After checking it out I think the president’s ideas are very well thought out. I was trying to stick to pages with .edu, .org and .gov for better credibility and I was able to come to the white house’s pdf of Obama’s proposal, which gives a summary of the president’s proposal. The proposal includes Obama’s plans to strengthen background check systems as well as ban military style weapons. I am completely for many of these points and think they would be a valuable to me. I could quote them onto my argument and back them with other statistics and shootings.

Citation:

“Now is the Time.” The President’s plan to protect our children and our communities by reducing gun violence.  Pg. 1-15. WH.Gov/Now-Is-The-Time. April 14, 2013.

Image Citation:
Jones , Taylor. Obama Digs Gun Control. 2013. Graphic. caglecartoons.comWeb. 22 Apr 2013.

This brings me to my next source. I’m planning on using some of the shootings as sources. But I think it would be smarter to get that from a newspaper or magazine. I was looking to compare the U.S. gun restriction to other successful countries and hopefully get some statistics. I was able to find an article on the PBS website which presented a comparison of the U.S. regulations to those of Canada, Japan, Australia, etc… The article covers U.S. constitutional laws supporting guns and shows the huge amount of the world’s weapons The U.S. possesses. It also shows the similar types of shootings in other countries and how the government reacted. This would be a valuable way to argue for how guns should be regulated and what types of things the U.S. should implement.  One country that stood out to me was Japan which has very low homicides and they also have a very restricted gun and sword system.

Citation:

Masters, J.. N.p.. Web. 15 Apr 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/12/gun-policy.html>.

Image Analysis

This heartbreaking photo depicts the terror that filled the hearts of Americans when Sandy Hook Elementary was subject of a shooting. These are people that were among the many affected by the shooting. This unforgettable tragedy is why Obama took a step toward a very important issue; gun control. After this tragic event Obama talked about making background checks more accurate, banning assault weapons, giving schools resource officers, etc… Obama called these ideas measures of common sense, which he thinks are necessary in keeping civilians safer. The stricter enforcement of guns and increase in precautions has brought some disapproval. Many people are fighting for their rights in possessing weapons. Some think it’s necessary so that they could defend themselves in situations like this. Many argue stronger background checks will help others say killing will continue. Opposing Obama’s proposals are The NRA, who believes blaming firearms isn't the solution. This image depicts the true importance of the situation and shows people the danger and importance of gun precautions especially since children where the main victims. The image raises many questions in terms of which way to go about gun control. Personally, I believe steps need to be taken and school resource officers are a good way to protect schools. I am not saying guns should be banned but more advance background checks and more difficulty in attaining deadly weapons seems to be rational. I don’t have as much information on gun control topics as I need so it’s hard to say exactly whether or not guns need to be banned or regulated more but one thing is for certain something has to be done.

Image Credit

Emmert , Don. Unidentified People Embrace After the School Shooting. N.d. Photograph. PeopleWeb. 7 Apr 2013.

Image URL

http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20656736_20656605,00.html

Should guns be more regulated?

My research question is, Should we take more precautions in controlling guns?

I would say with all that's happened recently like the theater and school shootings too many innocent lives have been lost due to the wrath of criminals. The weapons are consistently guns. Defending oneself against gun fire especially when it fires at an automatic rate is near to impossible. Fortunately guns can be regulated. Obama addressed the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings with a plan to ban assault weapons, high ammunition weapons and armor piercing weapons. He also brought up increasing background check protocols. I believe all these are necessary steps and if anything more precautions should be taken.
Today too me it's unbelievable what type of people have access to guns and even though with precautions there will still be danger and shootings I see it as a better chance for innocent civilians to survive and avoid injury. I've seen 9th graders pull out guns at parties while intoxicated as well as an 18-20 year old guys that were always involved in street fights and gangs that possessed automatic guns. That is just too scary to me. Going through high school it did slip my mind that if one of these guys start a fight with me and I defended myself I may be in danger of a drive by or something. Luckily the fights I had been in didn't turn into gun play but knowing people had the capability to do so made me nervous.

Many people argue it is their right to have weapons to protect themselves and they usually refer to the constitution and etc... They argue if more people were armed with their own guns these shootings could have been stopped. Others say with these precautions violence wouldn't decrease.

I'd like to see some statistics in how many people that own registered guns. I'd like to see statistics or number on legal registered gun vs. non registered guns. I want to take a look at recent shootings and the weapons that were used. Other things that will help in making my writing credible is by looking at deaths and injuries. Also looking at same and opposing arguments and beliefs and including them in my writing would make my writing more credible. Looking at officials beliefs in this matter would also help.

Image Citation:

Thompson, D.. N.p.. Web. 22 Apr 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/do-americans-want-more-or-less-gun-control-both-actually/266312/>.

Introduction

My names John. I am a 19 year old college student at Front Range Community College. I plan on on transferring over to Colorado School of Mines where I can go into Engineering. I am not really sure what type of engineering but I'm a big fan of physics so probably mechanical. Outside of work and school I buy and sell cars. I love cars and everything about them. Other than that if you find me its lifting in the gym or playing soccer. Since I'm pursuing engineering it comes a surprise to most people that I love to write. But writing was one of my best and favorite subjects and now I am bringing back the connection through English classes and literature classes in hopes that I can someday find myself writing a book under the setting sun of Italy, sipping on cognac like Ernest Hemingway. My blog will be about a topic that has caught my interest and most peoples. Lately there have been some devastating shootings at schools and public areas that require discussion and action. What arose after these tragedies was peoples hope for a safer living. I have a large family, a younger brother and sister, a mother and father. On top of that there are lots and lots of cousins, uncles, aunts and friends. With that being said I'm concerned for the safety of these people as well as my community so I am drawn to the debates and gun control topics.