Tahkir Johns 11/13/19

Gun Violence in America

Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the U.S. A new study from

Temple examined Philly shootings between January 2006 and December 2015. They

found that Philly experienced 46 neighborhood mass shootings that injured or killed over

200 people. Of that 200 people, 29 were killed, most of the victims were black, and the

average age was 24 years old. Between the years 2011 and 2015, there were more than

6000 shootings in Philly and approximately 1 in 5 of these shootings all ended in the

victim’s death. “Philadelphia has suffered a total of 351 homicides in 2018 in a city of 1.6

million and we had more homicides than Washington D.C.”

Semaj O’Branty is a student at Sullivan Elementary in Frankford who is still in the

hospital and in stable condition after being shot in the back of the head by a stray bullet.

Police say he was caught in a crossfire between a shooter in a red car who escaped and

the intended target. A teen was killed and another was injured in a double shooting in

West Mt. Airy on a Monday evening in November. A 17-year-old was charged for

shooting two teens outside a football game at Simon Gratz in September. An 11-year-old

was shot dead in the chest by an older Monday in Overbrook in November.

 Mayor Jim Kenney announced a new gun violence prevention system in which the

city saw its highest homicide rate in more than a decade. Kenney released the “set of

policy recommendations”, which aim to address violence on an urban and systemic level.

Last year, Penn students addressed gun violence by participating in a campus walkout

back in April that brought more 150 students onto Locust Walk to protest widespread gun

violence in classrooms and schools. “Help our police officers. Help our clergy. Help our

kids. And if you chose not to help us, then get out of the way and allow cities like

Philadelphia that struggle with gun violence to enact our own solutions.”

Larry Krasner has said that comparisons to New York or the Bay Area are not

instructive because of the economic advantages they have over Philly, the poorest among

the 10 biggest U.S. cities. He also said that his reform approach focuses on nonviolent

offenders, such as those arrested for drug possession, not those accused of shootings and

systemic solutions are the way to cut violence. Homicides and shootings have been

concentrated in the city’s poorest sections, including North Philadelphia, Kensington,

Fairhill, and parts of southwest Philadelphia. Philadelphia had half of the 12 mass

shootings in 2016 but the deadliest shooting was on Penn State College main campus.

Four people were killed on January 24 at an off-campus bar when a gun opened fire on

his ex-girlfriend and bystanders.

 Let’s talk about discrimination and the youth in gun violence. Gun homicides

impact black and Latino communities at rates that are extremely high. While Blacks

represented approximately 13% of the population in 2016, they made up 58% of gun

homicides and a black male aged 15-34 were almost 20 times more likely to die from

firearm homicide than a white male from the same age group. 1.7 million children live

with unlocked and loaded guns which are 1 out of 3 homes with kids have guns.​ ​The U.S.

must work to reduce these levels of firearm violence in low income and minority

communities and to address the socio-economic impact of this violence. In 2016, about

2,000 children died from gun-related homicides, shootings or suicides in the U.S. An

average of 6,000 kids are treated in an emergency room for gun-related injuries every

year. In 2014, 4,300 young people between the ages of 10 and 24 were victims of

homicide--an average of 12 each day; 2,647 died from their injuries. Firearms kill almost

1,300 American children-- under 18 years old--each year, boys and girls are most often

the victims, a U.S. study finds. Among children, 89% percent of shooting deaths occur in

the home. Most of these deaths occur when children are playing with a loaded gun with

no parent around them.

One way to protect children and teens from gun violence in their communities and

schools is to prevent people with dangerous histories from ever getting a gun. For

instance, criminal background checks are required only for sales conducted by licensed
dealers. It makes it easy for convicted felons or domestic abusers to have guns without a

background check by finding an unlicensed seller online or at a gun show. Another

example is keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. When abusers are

convicted of domestic violence or subject to restraining orders, they should be blocked

from purchasing guns and required to turn in those they already own. In addition, there

are programs and strategies that communities and schools can use to keep children and

teens safe from gun violence such as youth-centric intervention programs. They are

school-based programs that have been shown to reduce the negative effects of violence.

“Firearms prohibitions for high-risk groups — domestic violence offenders, persons

convicted of violent misdemeanor crimes, and individuals with mental illness who have

been adjudicated as being a threat to themselves or to others — have been shown to

reduce violence.” Gang prevention involves educating youth about the dangers of joining

gangs and providing programs that are alternatives to hanging out on the streets. Youth

who get drawn into gang life are often pressured into committing some type of gun crime.

For many kids owning a gun means they command respect from their peers. One possible

solution is grouping homicide prosecutions with gun cases and using more secure

courtrooms so victims feel safer testifying. Krasner says his reforms are giving youth a

chance to get a job, instead of having a criminal record for a minor offense keeping them

from employment.
 On December 15th, 1791, the Second Amendment of the United States

Constitution reads: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free

State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” During the

Revolutionary War, militiamen were very dependent on supplied muskets with bayonets.

The Second Amendment was ratified post-war in case the federal government should

neglect to arm and discipline the citizen militia. Gun ownership was specifically

preserved by the founding fathers in the interest of the common defense against a

tyrannical government. In the 1960s, establishing a constitutional right to carry a gun for

self-defense was becoming central to the mission of the Black Panther Party. The Black

Panther Party took the instrument that once enforced Jim Crow and white supremacy and

turned it into a symbol of black empowerment. Individual states adopted “concealed

carry” and “stand your ground” legislation.

In 2014, there were 33,594 firearm deaths in the U.S. There were 1,217

firearm-related injuries in Pennsylvania; almost half were under 25 years old. The firearm

mortality rate for Pennsylvania is 12 per 100,0 people. In Pennsylvania, suicide and

homicide accounts for over 96% of all firearm deaths according to data collected from

2010-2014. The governor’s office says more than 1,600 people died of gunshot wounds

in Pennsylvania in 2017. Wolf also said that the Pennsylvania firearm purchase

background checks already exceed what is required by the federal government and
argued the Philadelphia police shooting proves once again that criminals will not follow

changes we make to existing firearm laws. More than 90 Americans a day die by gunfire

and it breaks down to 21,386 suicides, 11,008 homicides, and 1,200 accidental deaths.

Gun violence is estimated to cost the economy at least $230 billion every year. It’s

hard to plot the relationship between gun ownership and gun violence across countries,

but research suggests that gun violence is shaped by “socio-historical and cultural

context.” Meanwhile, in developing countries, cities with more guns have more

homicides. Nearly 21,000 people in the U.S. use guns to kill themselves each year,

accounting for about two-thirds of all gun deaths. “The term ‘gun control’ refers to any

government policy limiting the ownership and use of firearms. Gun control policies can

restrict the types of weapons and accessories that private individuals may legally possess

or own (Utter, 2010).” Over the past year, the United States has suffered from many

tragic gun shootings in schools, movie theaters, and large events. Due to this, our country

has begun to push the issue of whether or not we have enough laws for gun control. I

think our country needs to step back and review the current stance and add more

restrictions to make sure our country is as safe as possible. There need to be restrictions

because a person does not need a gun to those of military use for everyday life. After the

mass shootings, it was announced that some kind of mental illness or condition was a

possible cause for all of the shooters’ reasons of the attack. In 1968, The Omnibus Act
was passed to “keep firearms out of the hands of those not legally included to possess

them because of age, criminal background or incompetency (Edwards, 1993).”

In conclusion, I think there is a need for more gun laws within our country or they

can ban it but I think that will take a long time. It could save innocent lives from being

taken too soon by testing the mental stability of someone when they purchase a gun. It

could make us come together as a country to make our nation a safe place while

restricting the laws of what types of guns a person has access to. Adding restrictions to

the current gun policy would help us grow stronger and to make sure that we can always

offer a safe shelter to the people of our country.

“Gun Violence Archive.” ​Gun Violence Archive​, ​www.gunviolencearchive.org/

“Key Facts about Gun Violence Worldwide.” ​Amnesty International,​

www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/arms-control/gun-violence/

Hauck, Grace, et al. “Congress Approved $25M in Funding for Gun Safety Research. Now

What?” ​USA Today,​ Gannett Satellite Information Network, 9 Feb. 2020,

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/09/gun-violence-how-researchers-spend-25-m-gu

n-safety-funding/4464121002/
Shaw, Julie. “Under DA Krasner, More Gun-Possession Cases Get Court Diversionary

Program.” ​Https://Www.inquirer.com,​ The Philadelphia Inquirer, 23 June 2019,

www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-district-attorney-larry-krasner-gun-possession-cases-divert

ed-ard-probationary-program-20190623.html

Nbc. “Mothers, Friends of Homicide Victims Speak Their Pain, Demand Action to Stop Gun

Violence.” ​NBC10 Philadelphia,​ NBC 10 Philadelphia, 8 Feb. 2020,

www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/mothers-friends-of-homicide-victims-speak-their-pain-de

mand-action-to-stop-gun-violence/2291556/

“America's Gun Culture in Charts.” ​BBC News,​ BBC, 5 Aug. 2019,

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081

Lopez, German. “America's Unique Gun Violence Problem, Explained in 16 Maps and Charts.”

Vox,​ Vox, 1 Sept. 2019,

www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts