American History II students have been discussing the issues surrounding gun violence. After watching the film, Bowling for Columbine, many students conclude that people are the problem to gun violence, not the guns or their availability.
EXTRA CREDIT: Assuming people are the problem of gun violence, are there any solutions to reduce the amount of gun violence in America today? Do any of these solutions involve legislation or government action? If so, in what ways?
Since we are assuming people are the problem of gun violence the only solutions there are to reduce the amount of gun violence today is making sure we do complete background checks on people who obtain a gun. If they have any mental problems, then they obviously shouldn't be able to have a gun. To reduce violence it depends greatly on how many guns there are, how they get them and why they own them. If we make it harder for people to get a gun then it will be harder for them to cause violence. If that doesn't work, then our only option is to take guns away from the general public completely. This would take action from the legislation and government, in order to make a law banning guns. There have been far too many tragedies recently, it is time to make a change and reduce the amount of gun violence there is in America.
ReplyDeletePeople are the problem of gun violence, in fact it is commonly said that it is not the gun that kills people but the person behind it. There are many ways to prevent this from happening, but I think the best way would be to make some adjustments to the laws. If the government made the background checks more thorough in order to buy a gun, and made it harder to buy hand guns, hand gun ammunition, and assault weapons and their ammunition, then it could help lower the death rate in the United States. Although it is our right to own guns and to have them, it should have a little bit of regulation or restrictions to help protect the people. Guns aren't the problem, but they don't help solve the death rates, or the violence. Just because somebody uses a gun and others do too, doesn't mean the guns are the problem, the gun owners are. We just need to find a better way to regulate who gets guns, and how many, and how much ammo, and which types of guns.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte Breland
One way to reduce the amount of gun violence in America today would be to have background checks more extensive. Allowing psychiatrists to break client confidentiality and mark them down for violent behavior that could be found on a background check would prevent people with mental health issues from purchasing firearms. The government would have to in-act this law so they must be the ones to take action.
ReplyDeleteThere are always ways that you can try to reduce the gun violence in America. The biggest thing we could do is we could take peoples guns away. Yes that involves legislative and government action because it is a law they'll have to pass, but in my opinion this won't work. People are just going to get angry. Also just like drugs and other weapons you would still be able to get your hands on them if you actually tried. Therefore if a person wants to go shoot up someplace more than anything in the world he will. The law saying you can't own a gun isn't going to stop him. Just like the law saying heroin is illegal isn't going to stop the drug addict from getting their hands on heroin. So we can try but there isn't a whole heck of a lot we can do.
ReplyDeleteI think that the violence and murder rates would go down if people learned how to work for what they need. Giving everyone everything they need is not the answer, that promotes Laziness and boredom. When people get bored they tend to do stupid things. A lot of crimes committed by young people are from being bored and wanting to do something. Guns are not the reason that crimes are being committed. Guns do not commit crimes, humans do. A good look at why gun control is not the answer is Australia. They have gun control laws and their crime rates went up when they put the control in. Criminals wont listen to the gun control laws. Gun control takes guns away from the people that just want to protect themselves. It sets them up to be victims. I would rather not be a victim but if I get put in a situation where I could become one I would love to have the chance to defend and protect myself. The government is abusing their power. The government is supposed to set up boundaries for the people, not to run their lives for them. The answer to America's problem is not to sit back and let the government decide what to do. The people of the U.S. need to start thinking and doing for themselves. As much as they might not want to, the people need to start taking responsibility for their actions on an individual level. Each person must accept full responsibility for every action they make. It is time for America to remember what it means to take responsibility and accept what punishment may come. It is ok to make mistakes. That is the human way, but mistakes have consequences and they need to be brought on. People need to just grow up and accept the consequences for their actions. That is a part of life.
ReplyDeleteKimberly Duram
Assuming that it is people who are the problem of gun violence I would have to say that there is no way to completely reduce the gun violence in America. You might be able to put more restrictions on the guns but it won't stop people from getting one. It's only illegal if you get caught some may say.For example the whole situation with the smaller magazines, it won't stop people from making bigger magazines themselves. People are smart and if motivated by enough money they can achieve a lot. I guess there are two sides to the story because I don't think that the founding fathers believed that we would have the guns we have today. It's not like a criminal will follow the restrictions anyways because he/she is a criminal and its not like they are going to follow the restrictions. Back ground checks would be good to stop mentally ill people from getting guns but there are so many guns that don't have serial numbers and aren't registered to anyone. That's just my opinion though.
ReplyDeleteKarsten Vanleishout
I believe that the best way to change the way guns are viewed is having knowledge of guns and gun safety. This will reduce the fear associated with guns and more people will be able to protect themselves against criminals should they need to. Tori Gondeiro
ReplyDeleteAssuming that people are the problem, then the people need to take responsibility of their actions and not just say the gun made me do it. The only way to get make gun violence reduce is to do more extensive background checks, like see who they are related to and if they have ever been admitted to a psych hospital for any reason or if there is a history of gun violence in the family. We as Americans are the ones that need to make this change happen. The gun dealers that overlook small things in the background checks, or even not doing one at all just to make a quick buck. That kind of behavior needs to come to a stop, because if all of the gun salesmen followed all the rules there would a significant amount of less gun violence across America.
ReplyDeleteOne way to reduce gun violence is to have better back round checks and also a big thing in my opinion is to have a better system put in place to check people for mental disorders. I do believe this would involve government legislation, we should open up insane asylums again. I believe these would be good ways to stop gun crime in the United States. B.H
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion people are definitely the root cause of gun violence. I understand feeling the need to control guns, but the government is never going to control the people behind the guns. What some people don't understand is that putting gun control out there, they may be stopping that crazy who had an idea to shoot up a local grocery store, but he wasn't going to do it anyway, and if he was, he wouldn't have bought the gun legally. If the government is to do anything with gun control it should be enhanced background checks on gun buyers. I feel like anything more, for instance, controlling what types of guns and how much ammo people can buy, is moot point. If someone wants to go out shooting an AK-47 with a high-capacity magazine, they will. I see gun control as sort of like a doctor treating a symptom instead of the root cause of a sickness. Taking away guns, even completely, won't stop violence, the government needs to address the violence, not the guns. Gun control is a cop out, so that the government doesn't have to get down to the bottom of why our country is really so violent.
ReplyDeleteI think that one way to lower the rates of gun violence is to have more extensive background checks. These background checks should include more than just their police history. There should be more psychological checks and people should be well educated on gun safety. I think that there are many more root problems to gun violence such as poverty, medical aids, and fear. I have never met somebody who hasn't been afraid of something. Our society today is based on fear: terrorist attacks, violence, laws, government, ect. All of these fears are aided and cause radical acts because of media and many other factors. Whether or not somebody is democratic or republican there are always sources that dramatize the situation with then increases fear in society. Overall, there are many problems with root problems to gun violence, there is not one straight forward answer to solving this chaos.
ReplyDelete