The Need for Stricter and More Thorough Gun Control Laws

There have been 297 mass shooting attacks in the US this year. That is more events of violence than days this year thus far. In fact, that figure demonstrates that about every two weeks we have an active shooter in America. With the extreme increase of mass shootings in America, gun control is more important than ever. With active shooter situations occurring almost every two weeks - the topic of this persuasive essay is clear - we need stricter gun control laws to protect the public. Gun violence is so prevalent in the U.S. to the point that we are leading the world in the most firearm related incidents and the reason why this is so easy for the terrorists in the United States to acquire a firearm in result of weak gun control laws. Current gun control laws are so futile because of all the loopholes that lead to mentally ill or dangerous people to acquire guns and that itself threatens the safety of society. These mass shootings that are being committed by dangerous white supremacists are so frequent now because all of them were able to acquire their guns legally and use them against the public population, sending them to hospitals and morgues costing taxpayers an enormous amount of money.

Current laws aren’t working because all of the mass shooters in America have been able to access guns legally while being considered mentally ill because of all the loopholes that are available to bypass safety measures such as the background check. “Approximately 40% of gun sales are made without any background check — giving convicted felons, the dangerously mentally ill and others unchecked access to firearms. It’s long past time to require a background check on every gun sale in America…”. It shows that the gun control laws are not thorough enough so then we need to redesign the background check system. The 40% of gun sales without proper background checks are one of the reasons why firearms are being used by the people who should not be even near weapons because they are a danger to themselves and others. “We need a comprehensive approach: a surge in mental health services, mental health ‘first aid’ programs to identify and intervene in problems before it’s too late, and a background check system that will stop the most dangerous among us from buying guns, by getting records in the system and closing the Internet and gun-show loopholes…”. It entails the way the holes in the law that allow people to bypass the security background checks. There are loopholes that people can take to completely dodge the few laws that we have in place to protect everyone, all they have to do is buy the weapon indirectly from gun shows and other methods like buying them online.

Some extreme GOP left wing gun nuts will argue that stricter gun control laws violate the 2nd amendment. The constitution states “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.”(U.S. Constitution 1789), so everyone has the right to own a gun. We as a nation are fighting for a more thorough and effective laws for gun control, the problem is not the guns but it is the people that are allowed to own a firearm when they are not well or are known as a danger to society.

Stricter gun control laws will lower costs for the nation. For example, “Firearm-related deaths are the third leading cause of injury-related deaths in the United States ...The mean per person ED and inpatient charges were $5,254 and $95,887, respectively, resulting in an annual financial burden of approximately $2.8 billion in ED and inpatient charges”. Victims hurt by guns are admitted to hospitals that often have to get money from the taxpayers to pay for all treatments. Because guns are running wild with unstable and dangerous people, the victims that are attacked by these people have to contribute to the upkeep of public hospitals and emergency services costing insurance companies like Medicaid and Medicare a total of 2.8 billion dollars a year. “Total Cost per Firearm Assault ...Fatal ...$5,094,980”. Now this outrageous number is the societal cost for deaths in a year. For one year in 2010, Fatal cost per firearm assaults that ended fatally combined to a net price of $5,094,980. This had to have been paid in taxes. Taxes taken from the citizens of the United States. Now imagine how much money it costs now when there are a plethora of shootings in 2019. Nearly 40,406 incidents of gun violence and approximately 300 mass shootings.

Gun ownership is most prevalent amongst white middle aged men- the most common demographic of mass shooters. “White men are especially likely to be gun owners: About half (48%) say they own a gun, compared with about a quarter of white women and nonwhite men (24% each) and 16% of nonwhite women.” This is proof that white middle aged men are the most common type of person to own a firearm and they are usually the ones doing the shootings. Half of the middle aged white men say they own a gun and that they make up about 50 percent of all mass shooters. “White People Are Twice as Likely to Own Guns Than Blacks and Hispanics”. Whites are more likely to own a gun than brown or black people contrary to many societal beliefs. Hispanics and African Americans are 20% as likely to own a firearm and white people are 50% as likely to own a firearm. This goes against the stereotypes about people of color but fits into the stereotype of the white shooter.

Gun control laws are not strict enough and as a result gun violence runs rampant in our communities. Because our government will not do anything we are the ones who have to step up. We can start our part by doing if you see something, say something because nowadays nobody is safe from gun violence.