Essay Example: The Gun Violence in America

The mass shootings in America have caused inescapable debate on whom and why should one own a gun. The massacres have led to relentless and widespread of protests and marches, contentious state and congressional hearings, celebrity endorsements, tough new gun control laws, and proposed federal and state legislation. The question of whether the shootings are due to the free will of owning a gun or mental illness is yet to be known (CQ Researcher by CQ Press).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The undeniable truth is that all people in the United States have the right to own and keep guns. America holds a large percentage of citizens who own firm arms compared to other more advanced countries. The president of the United States accepted that other advanced nations in the world do not face the kind of mass violence like America faces and resolved that something should be done. This ownership of firearms seems to have led to the recent mass shootings like the racist massacre that occurred at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is located in Charleston, South Carolina. Obama admitted that politics also are huge contributors to the mass killings America experiences at the moment. Would new laws to restrict access to guns be passed as a result? No, I do not think this will happen.

I have a thought that if anything were to happen like politically passing new gun laws to govern the ownership of guns, sincerely it would have happened after the massacre that occurred on December 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. This tragedy came as a shock to Americans since it consumed lives of twenty promising young children and six staff at their elementary school in quaint New England. All was done by a mere young man who picked a rifle from the parents firearms collection and just due to some disturbances he just shot on people. Some marginal twists of the gun laws were made to gain footing in the Congress but later they failed. Nevertheless, a bipartisan drive was made to ensure better enforcement of the already existed laws. This would have made it possible for all gun buyers to be checked for any mental illness or history of crime before any transaction was made. Am sorry to say, this procedure failed terribly. Americans should be assured that the recent massacres are not any near to the passage of new gun laws (Europe.newsweek.com).

Questions are still being asked to how easy it was for the 21-year-old suspect Dylan Roof to access a gun while it was so clear earlier he had confirmed to his friends that he would start a race war and also he had been arrested for drug possession in February 2015. To my concern, the problem was not that there were no laws that controlled the ownership of guns but the opposite. Conservative radio talks, cable television and the internet went ahead to explain that the laws that existed in South Carolina and the background checks had kept firearms out of the hands of the honest folks, for instance, pastors. The folks should have been armed to give themselves maximum protection.

Despite the second Amendment giving individuals the right to be in possession of a gun, I do not give full support for the Republican politicians and the National Rifle Association for their unshakable stand on the gun control measures. These two even take it further that for us to be safer then fewer gun restrictions should put in place. The issue in mind is, why is it that many people are more focused on the issues of gun control whenever any massacre occurs forgetting there are more homicides cases happening every year (The Economist). It is so pitiful that no public figures or community leaders are zealously concerned about the gun violence taking place in the country. They are only awakened when a massacre happens, and this is when they call for immediate action.

The political alliance will always be the first on social media giving condolences whenever a massacre occurs. These heartfelt condolences are less of what the people of America need right now. People need action to be taken and not fake promises. Instead of action, an argument is developed between the Democrats and the Republicans. Democrats will always hold it responsible for lack of reasonable gun laws while the Republicans put the blame on psychological disabilities as the factors that put a barrier between the gun owners that commit crimes and those who do not. Additionally the Democrats seem to have more ground and are vocal during mass shootings while the Republicans are not that vocal. Ironically, both their stands, which are having reasonable laws put in place and monitoring psychological disorders are put in place then, there would be a huge reduction in the massacres and homicides we experience due to free will gun ownership (The Economist).

It is less evident that disarming every citizen in America and imposing new laws would reduce the massacres and the homicides we are experiencing the United States right now. On the other hand, it is also less evident of to whether better management of the mental illnesses of individuals would have a significant impact on the mass shootings in our community today. This is due to the undeniable truth that every leader right now is focused on the next election. Despite their smart solutions to address the gun violence in America, both parties are so much worried about their next move in the upcoming elections. This has left the common citizens with no concrete solution to this undeniable violence causing havoc in America.

America is made of people of different cultures and believes and is politically divided. Therefore, tribalism cannot be disputed for not causing the called dispassionate questions of public policy. There are striking headline numbers when polls say that many people think guns are necessary for self-defense. But these numbers reveal the gaps between different races, classes and regions. Research done by Gallup pollsters shows that by 2014, 81% of the Republicans and 41% of the Democrats agreed that for safety to be achieved in a home, one needed to possess a gun. Also, Pew Research Centre showed that the whites were more likely than the blacks and Hispanics to advocate for gun rights control than control access to guns (CQ Researcher by CQ Press). Therefore, it seems like questions on gun control look like questions of identity. The message from Mr. Obama and Mayor of Charleston of gun control as a logical response to the massacres experienced triggers a tribal response. Therefore, this drags down the efforts of making new policies to govern gun control.

In conclusion, the gun control measures to avoid the mass killings will not be achieved if there is still a division of race, the party that is a Republican and Democrat and differences between leaders among other factors. This is because every individual holds their opinion; the above factors therefore, create a barrier to common understanding.

References

CQ Researcher by CQ Press,. 'Gun Control'. N.p., 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

Europe.newsweek.com,. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

The Economist,. 'Why Gun Control Is Doomed'. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.