The society we will live is experiencing violence ranging from school shootings and increase in reported cases of robbery. The number of handguns in the hands of Americans continues to increase each and every day. However, the increasing number of gun owners has caused more harm than good. In the past few decades, America has witnessed several shooting s carried out in learning institutions, military, and even at home despite the efforts by the government to limit the use of guns (Bonanno). The paper provides a discussion even though guns ownership is legal in the use, it should not be the case since it has led to the loss of life of many innocent lives.
The government should make gun ownership illegal. Gun ownership has not proved that it can control the increasing rates of crime. Crime has not ceased even with the arming of other citizens. Criminals have hardened the methods of using their guns. The government should develop ideas to make sure that gun owners do use their licensed firearms to commit any form of crime. There is no doubt that the elimination of all guns in the United States could result in the dropping in murder rates even if it will be challenging to eliminate from the American society (Kleck).
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"Handgun Ownership Should Not Be Legal".
The mass shootings that have taken place for the last decades require to be addressed urgently. One of the key aspect to consider when addressing the issue of mass shootings especially like the ones witnessed in schools and military camps is to ban the private ownership of handguns. One of the regular policy lesson drawn after the increased and shocking incidences of mass shootings in US high schools has led to consideration to control or ban handgun ownership (Martelle). The review of the details where mass shootings have taken place imply that even though some certain gun control measures were suggested after the incidences, the particular measures to use guns proposed became irrelevant and nearly could not manage to prevent the type of incidences that occurred which could have consequently reduced the total number of deaths (Bonanno).
Scenarios involving active gun shooters in schools has raised in the past few years resulting for the need to address the gun ownership. The school shootings have resulted in death of many young students and also their teachers. Psychological traumatization has also been attributed to causing shooters to carry out their crimes. Psychological traumatization is even more common among the military officers who were or are involved in war activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Kleck, an active shooter incident is an occurrence in which more than one person is involved in carrying out random shooting spree with the aim of causing mass or multiples murders (Kleck).
Some of the most recent examples of active shooter incidences which has raised concerns for handgun ownership be revoked include the 1999, Columbine High School, Colorado shooting in which Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris went on a killing spree causing the death of 12 students and one teacher. In 2007, 32 students and professors at Virginia Tech were shot and killed by Seung-Hui Cho. The shooting incident shocked the US and several voices were raised to curb gun ownership among the US citizens. The most recent and shocking shooting incident took place in 2012 when Adam Lanza in Sandy Hook Elementary School, Connecticut went on shooting spree killing 20 first-grade students and another 6 adults. This are some of the examples of significant school shootings that prompt for the need to illegalize gun ownership in the modern US society (Bonanno).
The mentioned shootings are the most notorious. There are several other shootings that have taken place in US schools. According to Bonanno, more than 240 people have lost their lives in the US in the active shooter incidents and also the mass causality since the shootings in Columbine High School in 199. The number of lives lost is high hence the need to consider legal owners have used their guns to kill innocent people. For instance, the mass killings at Connecticut school led to national widespread calls for gun control. Furthermore, it is not only in schools where the issue of gun control has raised concerns but also in the military. The US has in the recent years witnessed mass shootings in military camps of soldiers under post-war trauma using guns to cause deaths of innocent people (Martelle). The shooting in Fort Hood is one case that also raised concerns for the need to regulate the use of guns.
In a nutshell, the paper has provided a discussion proving the need to illegalize handgun ownership in the US. Legal gun owners have taken part in school mass shootings which has resulted to the deaths of several students since 1999. The government should come up with crime alternatives rather than arming every citizens. In the modern society, even a slight misunderstanding leads to the use of guns which in turn results to death. The liberty at which citizens own guns should therefore be reviewed to ensure the lives of innocent citizen are not under threat.
- Bonanno, Caitlin. School Shooters: History, Current Theoretical and Empirical Findings, and Strategies for Prevention. Sage Open, 2014. Web. 19 November 2014
- Kleck G. Mass shootings in schools: The worst possible case for gun control. American Behavioral Scientist, 2009. 52, 1447-1464
- Martelle, Scott. You say gun control doesn’t work? Fine. Let’s ban guns altogether. Los Angeles Times, 2014. Web. 19 November 2014
