Gun Violence

The 2^nd Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the rights of its citizens to keep and bear arms. Quickly becoming one of the most controversial Amendments since Prohibition, the Supreme Court recently passed down a decision that upheld the 2^nd Amendment, but more cases and litigation wait in its wake. Whether a person is pro gun control or not, statistics show that gun violence in America and gun related deaths are the highest in the world. Problems are abundant in this field ranging from the accessibility of weapons to violence portrayed by the media to school shootings which seem to happen on a yearly basis. There is no quick fix to the problem and no answer that will please everyone but steps need to be taken to address this issue and combat those who take advantage of the system. By examining the issues that gun violence brings to society and potential ways to mitigate the problem, police forces, communities, and individuals will be more prepared in combating the violence.

Every year in the United States since 1972, an estimated 30,000 people die from injuries due to firearms, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[1] This is an astonishing number and some experts are even going as far as to say it has become a sort of epidemic. What is often lost in the tragedies of gun violence is the massive amount of financial costs it actually incurs. When the figures are brought up it is clear to see the detriment it has on the wallets of citizens. It is estimated, through loss of productivity and medical treatment, each person that dies from a gunshot costs $374,000 with taxpayers paying exactly 85% of the medical bills.¹ Various cities have started taking notice of the enormous amounts of costs being sucked up by gun violence and have filed suits against major gun companies, predominately Chicago which is asking for upwards of $433 million to counterbalance the money contributed by the taxpayers.1

Surgeons and internists view gun violence as a public health problem and not a medical problem.2 It is thought that if physicians and doctors begin to see gun violence as a medical problem, they will begin to counsel their patients on gun safety, an idea that has been used before with things such as seat belts, smoking, and STD's.² This idea could bring about a great affect on gun violence if the patients would listen to their physicians. In the meantime, since gun violence is viewed as a public health issue, these medical experts are not obliged to engage in talks with their patients about gun safety.

One of the most prominent and obvious issues of gun violence have to do with children and school shootings. Two years ago a gunman killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech and left the country in a heated debate about gun laws. Would it be better to increase gun control and make it harder for people to acquire these weapons or would the students of Virginia Tech and countless others have been better off if gun legislation was reduced allowing them to fight back with equal force? Should private citizens be allowed to carry weapons for protection? Or would this ultimately cause more gun violence and an even bigger problem than before?

Due to the shootings in Blacksburg, Virginia and other campuses around the country, students at several schools are petitioning to carry weapons on their person for their own safety. Presently, only some schools in Utah and Colorado are allowing their students to carry firearms, citing that if the students are allowed to carry weapons outside of school grounds, why shouldn't they be allowed to posses them on them.3 Advocacy groups have sprung up all across the nation pushing for legislation to pass that would allow students to carry weapons, such as Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, which has around 30,000 active members.³ This comes with strong opposition from students and school administration who argue that they would rather only have to deal with one shooter than a massive shootout.³ Paul Helmke, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, one of the most prominent gun control groups in the country stated simply that "The more guns you bring on campus, the more gun violence you're going to have.³"

These students are obviously afraid of what could happen to them and rightfully so and its only normal that they would want to equal the playing field and have something for their own protection when police are unavailable. The most common cited use for guns is protection yet it is known that guns are more likely used for offensive purposes and suicide.4 In recent policing activities in certain cities such as Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City, the removal of guns from the streets has decreased gun crime.⁴ In Boston, a social network that combined with strong enforcement in a program called Operation Ceasefire, helped reduce homicides by 63%.⁴ Strong police enforcement can be one of the most effective ways of reducing gun violence and more programs are on the horizon in several cities to match what happened in Boston.

Today one of the most effective ways to prevent gun violence is through extensive local background checks on potential buyers. In 1993 the United States passed the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act setting up federal guidelines for background checks when a person wants to purchase a firearm.5 Opponents to the Act simple state that criminals who want guns usually acquire their weapons illegally anyway.⁵ A study done by Steven Sumner, a med student, and Dr. Peter Layde, co-director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, in May 2008, found that "the local-level checks were associated with a 27 percent lower firearm suicide rate and a 22 percent lower homicide rate among adults 21 and older.⁵" However, studies such as this always have drawbacks and problems and the fact remains that there is more information available at the local checks that is not available at the federal checks.⁵ These local checks are only implemented in 12 states, while the other 38 use some type of state level check or the bar minimum of the NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System.)⁵

Homicide is defined as the killing of another human being, and since 1976 the use of handguns to commit this crime is way above all the rest, combined.6 From 1982-2001 there were 77,361,013 firearms produced including 34,484,476 handguns.

Gun violence has been around since before the 2^nd Amendment was ratified. Is a history of violence in our blood? There is no arguing the fact that homicide by firearms is an enormous problem in the United States today, there is an argument over what can be done about it. Carrying concealed weapons could work if the citizens that carry those weapons were subjected to extensive background checks and proper training; otherwise it's plausible to assume that a homicide could turn into a more tragic shootout between criminals and non-criminals. What is very important is that citizens need to be aware of the tragedies that surround them and need to take some sort of action, albeit with community groups or petitions and most importantly we need to put our trust in the police force to protect and serve our communities and continue to take criminals and their guns off the streets.

Works Cited

Davidoff, Frank (1998). Reframing Gun Violence, Annals of Internal Medicine, 128(3), 234-235.

Gun Violence and the public health. The Lancet May 2007, 1403.

Gunderson, Linda (1999). The Financial Costs of Gun Violence, Annals of Internal Medicine, 131(6),

483-484.

Noonan, David (2008). The Science of Gun Control; Local background checks are more effective at

reducing suicides and homicides than federal checks, Newsweek, 151(25), 17.

Stell, Lance K (2004). The Production of Criminal Violence in America: Is Strict Gun Control the

Solution?, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 32, 38-46.

Whitford, Ben (2008). Armed For Class; Students can carry guns legally at a handful of schools.

And advocates are pushing for more, Newsweek , 62.

[1] Gunderson, Linda (1999). The Financial Costs of Gun Violence, Annals of Internal Medicine, 131(6),

483-484.

1 Gunderson, Linda (1999). The Financial Costs of Gun Violence, Annals of Internal Medicine, 131(6),

483-484.

2 Davidoff, Frank (1998). Reframing Gun Violence, Annals of Internal Medicine, 128(3), 234-235.

3 Whitford, Ben (2008). Armed For Class; Students can carry guns legally at a handful of schools.

And advocates are pushing for more, Newsweek , 62.

4 Gun Violence and the public health. The Lancet May 2007, 1403.

5 Noonan, David (2008). The Science of Gun Control; Local background checks are more effective at

reducing suicides and homicides than federal checks, Newsweek, 151(25), 17.

6 Stell, Lance K (2004). The Production of Criminal Violence in America: Is Strict Gun Control the

Solution?, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 32, 38-46.

6 Stell, Lance K (2004). The Production of Criminal Violence in America: Is Strict Gun Control the

Solution?, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 32, 38-46.