America’s Gun Problem

5 min readSep 29, 2019

These are the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took place on December 14th, 2012 in Newtown Connecticut. Their story is one that we’re all too familiar with, and one that it seems no matter how many years pass, we will never forget. The image of small children crying and terrified was a picture no one wanted to see. Many citizens thought the brutal killing of innocent children would mark the end of the gun debate, but as they would soon come to learn, there had been many before these children, and there would be many after them.

There is no definition set in stone for what a mass shooting is, but it’s usually thought of as having four or more deaths. Since Sandy Hook, there have been at least 2, 237 mass shootings, with at least 2, 529 killed and 9, 347 wounded. Here are the five most deadly mass shootings that have taken place in the US (The perpetrator isn't included) :

Las Vegas shooting in 2017: (58 dead, 851 injuries)

Orlando Night Club shooting in 2016: (49 dead, 53 injuries)

Virginia Tech shooting in 2007: (32 dead, 23 injuries)

Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in 2012 (27 dead, including the perpetrator's mother, 2 injuries)

Sutherland Springs Church shooting in 2017: (26 dead, 20 injuries)

Take note that the number of gun deaths in the US is actually way higher than stated because it doesn’t include shootings with less than four fatalities. It also doesn’t include cases of domestic violence and accidental gun deaths. Suicides using a firearm are also not included.

The Excuses That Are Made

It’s clear that America is in desperate need of a solution to this horrific epidemic that plagues the nation and takes the lives of so many and forever alters others. The only thing standing in our way is ourselves. We need to look at the big picture. Over the years, people have argued that it’s not the guns, it’s the people. It’s all the violent video games they play. It’s the fact that they suffer from a mental illness, so mental health needs more attention. There are various things wrong with these arguments. For one, these arguments completely disregard accidental gun deaths that also claim many lives, especially among small children. It also doesn’t include gun deaths that happen due to things such as gang-related violence. While these events may not typically be what comes to our mind when we hear the words “gun violence” or think of gun-related deaths, they still matter.

When it comes to the argument that violent video games are making people more prone to violence or are desensitizing people to the true horror and aftermath of such a heinous crime (some argue that because you come back to life after you die in a video game, you fail to recognize the finality of death in real life) numerous studies have been done. Studies have found no real connection between playing violent video games, such as Call Of Duty, and violence in real life. Some have tried to make a point that often the perpetrators of mass shootings were found to play games where the object is to kill people and those games were making them want to act it out in real life. It’s more likely though that they played those kinds of games because of their fantasy to hurt people, although that’s obviously not the case for everyone that's played a violent video game.

When it comes to the argument of mental illness being the real problem and not the guns, it’s important to note that America is definitely not the only country where mental illnesses are on the rise, so more countries would be having mass shootings and dealing with gun violence in general if that was the case. The truth is other countries have one thing we don’t: Strict gun control laws.

Other Countries And Gun violence

As stated before, other countries and different parts of the world have significantly less gun-related deaths than America. Why? It happened once and then the country didn’t allow it to happen again. Take Scotland for example: On March 13th, 996 there was a mass shooting at Dunblane Primary School near Stirling. It left seventeen people dead (not including the perpetrator) sixteen five-six-year-olds and one teacher lost their lives that day. Shortly after, gun control laws were put into place. Since then, there have been no school shootings in the UK. It’s shown that gun control works for other countries so why are some people so convinced it wouldn’t work for America?

Here’s a comparison of gun violence in other parts of the world:

Stop The Killing

At the end of the day, no matter which side you’re on, I don’t think you can disagree that what we’re doing isn’t working and we can’t continue to turn a blind eye to the crisis. We can’t keep letting innocent citizens pay the price just to protect your right to bear arms. We’re supposed to adapt with the time. If the 2nd amendment needs to be changed in order to prevent tragedy from happening, then it should be changed. Ask yourself: Just How much are you willing to sacrifice?

Can you keep watching this happen?