There was a shootout at The Waffle House on Murfreesboro Road in Nashville, Tennessee. The shooting resulted in at least four deaths and many injuries. James Shaw Jr. saved many people when he tried to stop the shooter, Travis Reinking. Every time there is a mass firefight, the debate about gun control and gun power break out in the United States. According to statistics, there are more than 393 million guns in circulation and about 120 guns per 100 people. Although there are many objections and support for the use of guns, it seems that there are no specific plans to prevent them. Tighter gun control is necessary, because so many more guns than people use it, the death rate by guns is high, and there are not enough government funds to collect data on gun violence. Currently the number of weapons is much more than the population. The fact that easy for people to own and use guns has caused unexpected danger. There are currently more than 393 million civilian guns in the United States, arguing that each man, woman and child owns one and still has about 67 million guns. In the 1990s, Australia spent 500 million dollars to buy nearly 600,000 guns from owners.
Researchers at Harvard University reported that gun kill rates were reduced by 42% and suicide by guns reduced by 58% in seven years after applying procurement measures. And another study from Australia showed that for every 3,500 guns purchased over 100,000 people (Gebelhoff). Overall, the government in United States buys back guns from the owners is still a controversial issue, since the results are not very positive, and it’s cost too much money. According to the current social media, the more guns appear, the more deaths by guns there are. On June 12, 2016 at Pulse Night Club, a gunman killed 49 people and injured 53 people. There have been 11 mass shootings in the US, causing 117 deaths and 587 injuries occurring in public places such as concerts, workplaces, airports, shopping venues, etc., which are just statistics for 2017. There are too many shortcomings in background checks before being granted the right to buy guns. In 2017, the government allowed a man who killed 26 people in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, to buy a legitimate gun despite being convicted of domestic violence (Sarlin). Moreover, the deaths cause by gun are still out of control, and the rate remains high. The government does not fund much for research and prevention of gun violence.
There are many questions that are raised around the issues if guns make people safer. But there is no official answer because of legal restrictions so scientists do not have opportunity to study. According to Representative Jay Dickey, there is no money available for Injury and Prevention and Control at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that can be used to support or gun control. According to other repot by Christine Jamieson, she added that, The Congress has, however, taken $2.6 million, the amount that CDC has invested in research into gunshot and injuries, and funds to prevention of traumatic brain injury (Fessenden). To sum up, the government is not clear about the expenses for the prevention of gun violence. Some may argue that the gun control now is working very fine, so don’t need to change it. This, however, is not true. In fact, first there are the rate of deaths by gun still very high and don’t have any signal that it’s can keep. According to statics in 2016, the United States led the world in the rate of deaths caused by guns in teenagers among countries with available data. There are about 1,856 of children counted for homicides, 1,102 counted for suicide, and unintentional by the mass shoot counted for 126 deaths. This type of data is related to or caused by guns (LaMotte).
Secondly, the number of guns produced continues without control. Following the statics in 2013, there would have been about 357 million guns, more than 40 million compared with the rates of the population in the United States (Ingraham). Finally, the government doesn’t pay enough attention or give enough funds to take care of gun violence. In 1996, Congress cut the budget for CDC to invest in gun violence. Although the law does not explicitly prohibit gun research, it does mention prohibiting the use of federal dollars to study gun violence. Wintemute asked questions when recruiting researchers, ‘Will I have a job in a few years, or I will have to look for a job in another field because there is no funding’ (Niiler). On the-whole, the gun control needs to be more rigid because of the number of deaths caused by guns still increase, too many guns are stored, the government does not fund the study of gun violence. Gun control still causes a lot of controversy because of different opinions.
Some argue that it does not need to be modified, some say it needs upgrading because it does not help change gun violence. Gun deaths still increased without any research or any preventive measure. The unclear government in the costs of gun violence is also one of the reasons for less strict gun control. Citizen need to have a whole look and think carefully about gun control.
Work Cited
- Fessenden, Marissa. “Why So Few Scientists Are Studying the Cause of Gun Violence.”, Smithsonian.com, 13 July 2015, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cdc-still-cant-study-causes-gun-violence-180955884/
- Gebelhoff, Robert. “This is how we save lives from gun violence.” The Washington Post, 23 March 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/opinions/gun-control-that-works/?utm_term=.6993bb74376e
- Ingraham, Christopher. “There are now more guns than people in the United States.” The Washington Post, 5 October 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/05/guns-in-the-united-states-one-for-every-man-woman-and-child-and-then-some/
- LaMotee, Sandee. “US leads the world in child gun deaths.’ Cnn.com, 20 December 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/health/child-gun-deaths-rising/index.html
- Niiler, Eric. “THE CDC CAN’T FUND GUN RESEARCH. WHAT IF THAT CHANGE?’ Wired.com, 3 July 2018, https://www.wired.com/story/what-if-the-cdc-could-fund-gun-research/
- Sarlin, Benj. “6 proposals to reduce gun violence and how they work.’ nbcnews.com, 28 Feb. 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/6-proposals-reduce-gun-violence-how-they-work-n851736
