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.
What a hot topic...it is unfortunate that people can be extreme and there will always be radical activists to fight or support any group. Any object can be turned into a weapon and there is no way that they all can be banned. It is a sad time in our world, we have become a fast paced, shoot èm up world that seems to be spiraling out of control. I don't see how purchasing a gun can be monitored for people that have mental health issues. There is not way on knowing this unless there is some sort of registry. A registry that would come from mental health counselors, psychiatric and psychologists. All this information would be public and then HIPPA would argue. It is all to messy and it is too bad that some people manage things.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is a hot topic for many right now, another one of the great debates of this time in our country. I think you're doing a great job of finding sources that can help defend points regarding what kinds of controls should be in place and a bit of other factors that play a role in gun violence. One thing to consider, if you haven't already, is find evidence of how other countries manage on gun violence with what kind of restrictions they have. Other countries have much stricter gun control laws and as a result several have far less gun related fatalities.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. Yes one of my first sources was about other countries gun control laws. It includes studies on Japan, Canada, Norway, Australia, and the U.S.
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