Gun Violence in America

 

The shooting incident that happened happened in Uvalde, Texas recently has been the reason that triggered our lawmakers to tackle the problem in gun violence in America. What are the reasons why gun violence are rampant in America?

 

Deaths by firearms have been a fixture in America. Research have shown that there were 1.5 million deaths from 1968 and 2017 alone that makes that higher than the number of soldiers killed in every US conflict since the American War of Independence in 1775. Then in 2020, more than 45,000 Americans died because of gun shots. Whether they were murdered or committed suicide. It was the highest that year alone. With that said, research says it has a 25% increase 5 years before and 43% increase from 2010. Though this problem is alarming, many gun control groups are still fighting for their constitutional rights to have guns. 

 

A survey conducted by Small Arms-a Swiss-based leading research project- they have found out that 390 million guns are in circulation in 2018. Ang USA residents are on the top of the list having a ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents. 

Public health experts have focused about the gun violence problem in our country which they have recorded that approximately 32,000 people are killed with guns in a year- about 19,000 of them by suicide- and another 74,000 are injured in  nonfatal gunshot incidents. They already recommended a range of policies to stop the illegal purchases of high powered guns for the public and increase enforcement and penalties for persons who are smuggling guns in America. 

 

Studies have also shown that a number of gun related incidents occurred because of the mental health of an individual. They have been urging our government to increase spending to improve mental health screening and treatment to prevent gun violence. But our health experts and and consumer advocates strongly rejects what they saw as scapegoating of the mentally-ill individuals who are violent against other people as citizens are always putting the blame on them. They are doing their best to debunk the thinking that "the mentally ill are dangerous," while also attempting to leverage that very perception to help and support those people have a better funding to improve the mental health care system in the United States without spawning crisis driven laws that might overreach in restricting the rights and invading the privacy of people with mental illnesses.

 

Policy making in our country to battle the problem with gun violence because of mental illnesses should be based on epidemiologic data to improve the effectiveness, feasibility, and fairness of the policy initiatives. We need to tackle this problem head on because most victims in homicide gun violence are children who don't have enough power to defend themselves. They are always caught unaware with every gun related incident happening in our country. 

 

 

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