Violence, in any context, is dreaded. It is more dreaded when it is a prolonged one and there is no sign of it coming to an end in the future. This has been and still is the case for gun violence in America. Any violence that is caused by guns or that involves the use of guns is regarded as gun violence. In America, this is very popular for a number of reasons. First, the guns are readily available so that people can easily access them. Secondly, America’s law allows its citizens who are older than 18 years to easily own a gun by purchasing it in stores near them. Gun control laws have also not been much of use, given the laxity with which they are implemented. The burden of gun violence is being felt by the government as well as the communities directly affected. The available literature shows this and as illustrated in this review, it dictates that something needs to be done about the gun violence in America, and it has to be done fast. Politicians can’t seem to agree what is the best path for the country to take concerning guns.
The citizens as well are not very sure the path they want the country to take, and as this indecisiveness continues, gun violence continues to shake the country by its roots. The current literature shows that gun violence is one of the most serious and recent threats to the peace and safety of American citizens and unless an action is taken to put it under control, it will continue unperturbed. There are cases of gun violence in every part of the world, either from law enforcement or from armed citizens or from bad guys like terrorists. Several articles compare the US with other nations on gun violence and the U.S. has more cases of gun violence than all advanced countries in the world. (Quealy & Sanger-Katz, 2016) termed the U.S. as an outlier. This is supported by data given by the FBI that shows that, in 2014 alone, 8,124 people lost their lives to gun violence. This is an approximate rate of 31 people per one million people dying from gun violence. The article compares these statistics to those in Poland and England, where approximately one person out of a million people die from gun violence. (Fox, 2018) conducted research and reports that homicide rates in the U.S. are 25 times higher than homicide rates in developed countries like the U.K., Germany, and Australia.
The report cites that the highest, almost half, cases of gun violence, especially by citizens happens in America. This is a stand also supported by (Alzenman, 2018) who makes these reports on an annual basis and for the last 10 years, the annual report has put the U.S. higher than all the civilized nation. America also comprises of the six countries that are responsible for more than half of the gun deaths in the whole world as (Lopez, 2018) One of the main reason why the gun violence rate is so high in America is its gun control laws. Most nations to which America is compared have very strict laws when it comes to ownership and use of guns. In America however, as (Fox, 2018) explains, it is enshrined in the constitution as a right of every American to own a gun. Research that would further advance the idea of having strict gun laws in America has been constrained with the recent constraint being by the NRA against the CDC (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2017). Within America, there is a variance on the frequency and intensity of gun violence between the states. States with strict gun laws have lower death cases from gun violence compared to states with relaxed gun control laws (Schoen, 2018). The cost of gun violence is also significantly reduced for states with strict gun control laws and exaggerated for those with relaxed gun control laws (Giffords law center, 2018). This hints that the laws have a major influence on the rate of gun violence an area will have. In the same way, other advanced countries like Germany have very strict gun laws and they also have very low rates of gun violence (Anderson, 2016). This suggests that gun laws have something to do with gun violence. The more relaxed the laws are, the higher the gun violence and vice versa.
With American’s gun laws being comparatively relaxed, as the literature illustrates, we are not about to experience fewer gun violence cases Gun violence places a huge financial burden on the federal and state governments as they try to control it and as they take care of the repercussions of gun violence. Passing or rejecting gun control laws takes the time of the policymakers who are paid to deliberate on these issues. When the laws are created and passed, they often are not enforced and hence every cost incurred in creating these laws becomes a waste (Beckett, 2017). When gun violence occurs, there are a number of things that occur; People loos lives, others are seriously injured and need medical attention, they lose wages and property is lost. This costs the country as it has to take care of medical bills, replace lost property and compensate the injured. As a result, taxes for law enforcement have increased and the value for property has decreased (Singletary, 2018). In total, it costs the U.S. an approximate of $229 billion annually. This is approximate of $700 for every American per year (Giffords law center, 2018). Americans also own a higher number of guns per capita than any other country in the world. What the statistics show is that America is spending significantly either trying to stop gun violence or trying to clean up the effects of gun violence. Gun violence is a menace in our country. It is costing us lives, peace and money.
The literature available shows that, it is one of the leading causes of deaths in the U.S. causing death rates similar to what road accidents cause. From the literature, gun violence is fueled by a number of things and one of the most influential is the laxity with which the US controls guns. For countries that are more stringent with gun violence, the cost of gun violence is relatively low, but for the US. Study after study has shown that we are carrying a burden too heavy. Since the lawmakers can’t agree to tighten up the gun laws, the country will continue to lose money due to gun violence. It will also continue to lose its citizens and even its face to the world as a safe and secure place to be. Gun violence is a very serious issue for Americans and with the status quo, it is not about to change, in fact, it’s getting more violent by the day.
