Children Gun Violence example essay topic

Handguns in Households with Children Guns in America are a problem as bad as the drug problem: 43% of households that have children have handguns in them; 10 children die every day from handguns, approximately one every 2 1/2 hours. That is the same of a classroom of children every two days. Parents do not realize that children get the physical capacity to reach and discharge a firearm long before the ability to understand the potential consequences of these actions. Parents who insist on keeping guns in the home should be urged strongly to store their firearms unloaded and locked in a secure place. Actions like these will reduce the probability of children being killed by a firearm.

The presence of handguns in households with children frequently leads to fatal accidents, suicides, and murders. The majority of handguns kept in homes are NOT kept safely locked up, simply because people are stupid enough to believe that they need to be able to access that gun as fast as possible in case of emergency. These people keep their guns in bedside drawers, closets, under mattresses. Most of the children who are involved in fatal accidents are older children. In 1999, the most recent year which data are available, 34 children under the age of 5 died in gun accidents.

Among children aged 5-9, there were 56 fatal gun accidents; and among children aged 10-14,146 fatal accidents. For instance, on July 21, 1999, in Lake park, Florida, a 6-year-old boy fatally shot his 5-year-old brother Corey Andrew Wilson, as the boys played with a shotgun they found under a bed in their grandparent's bedroom. The best way to reduce gun risks is to remove guns from home. Candamo 2 Children suicide has truly become a problem of outbreak proportions in America that must be addressed from every direction. As numerous studies have shown, children use guns in roughly two out of every three-suicide attempt, and handguns are used in 70% of these.

In 1998 alone, 1200 youth in America committed suicide with a gun, the same of one every seven hours. Children suicide attempts are usually impulsive acts, and the easier it is to carry out. Using a firearm in a suicide attempt drastically increases the likelihood that the attempt will be fatal. Simply having a gun in the home actually increases the chances of suicide by a factor of 5 for all residents in that house, including children, and the number of children in America who readily have access to firearms is outrageous. Plainly speaking, if guns were not so readily available, the number of children suicides in America would decrease significantly. The number of American citizens concerned with children gun violence is rapidly increasing.

Nearly a million U.S. students took guns to school during 1998. It is important to note that many school shootings are committed by children who have stolen their parents' legally owned guns. Columbine is just one example of what can happen. Over the two years ending June 30, 1999, violence in and around schools happened in 25 states resulting in 105 deaths.

Nearly two thirds of the victims were primary and secondary schools students, another 11 percent were teachers or staff, and the remainders were community members slain on school property. Firearms were used in 75 percent of these deaths. For example, take the case of a nine-year-old girl who took a Glock semiautomatic pistol to school. The girl, who told officials she found the gun in an unlocked drawer in her mother's bedroom, said she wanted it for protection against gang Candamo 3 members who had threatened her at school a week ago. Therefore, rather than relying on teaching children principles of a gun safety, parents should learn how to more constantly prevent firearm injuries. Anticipatory guidance is vital to give parents the information that they need to make smart choices for themselves and their children.

In light of the fact that many gun owners acquire firearms primarily for protection, parents should learn the true balance of benefits and risks that are associated with keeping a gun in the home. With all the recent occurrences of school violence in the news, the safety of the nation's children is on everyone's mind. There are several ways that parents can improve their child's safety at school. They should not have blind confidence in the child's school. If there is something worrying the parent, then they should ask questions to the school and find out their high safety rank with school officials. Firearms in the home are an increasing concern for parents and health professionals alike.

A number of professional groups have begun to speak out about firearm safety and children. Both the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) and the Society of Pediatric Nurses (SPN) have position statements on the issue. The SPN has suggested that pediatric nurses, employed in a variety of settings, have the opportunity to educate parents and children about gun violence and prevention of firearm injuries. As the AAP recommends for pediatricians, nurses can address the issue of firearms in the home both through history-taking questions and in anticipatory guidance.

Since studies have shown that many times both parents do not know how a gun is stored in their home, nurses should encourage the non-gun owning parent to find out and to discuss safe storage with the gun owner. Candamo 4 The AAP has teamed up with PAX: Real Solutions to Gun Violence to support the national public health campaign called ASK (Asking Saves Kids). The premise of this campaign is that parents should ask about guns in the homes where their children play. The strength of this campaign is that it can involve all parents concerned with the welfare of children, including gun owners, and can begin to make discussions about public safety and to have good parenting part of the solution to gun violence. The ASK campaign suggest that parents whose children are invited to play at the home of a friend or relative may often ask if anyone in the home smokes or is ill, but may need encouragement to ask an even more important safety question: Is there a gun in the home? On the other hand, The National Rifle Association is one of the responsible for many deaths from handguns.

They may not have pulled the trigger, but their stiff opposition to any law that will help reduce the incidents of gun related homicides is sickening. The NRA said that by having a gun in your home makes you safer; it protects you from other people with guns. The first, and the easiest, argument against these statements is very simple. How can having a gun beside you protect you when there is already a gun pointed in your head? By the time you actually get hold of the gun, your brains are splattered across the bedroom wall. Its been said that 43% of homes have a gun in them, 12% of homes have a gun that is not secured in any way, simply kept in a drawer, or even on a shelf, 10% of homes have a loaded gun.

With those statistics, it has been proven that you are 22 times more likely to be killed by someone you know than by a stranger. Where there are guns, there are deaths. Candamo 5 While the NRA sits there and pumps millions of dollars into election of pro gun politicians, the rest of the country just sits back and watches the latest high school massacre on the news. Yes, the old saying of the NRA is true.

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Let's apply the NRA logic to some other situations. Cars don't' kill people, people kill people. How many of those deaths are directly the fault of the car?

People built those cars, and people drive those cars. Yet the NRA will not support any laws, which make guns safer, which reduce the chance of guns being the reason that children die. Every year, governments ban or recall hundreds of products that cause injury or death to very small numbers of children, yet they will not pass laws making guns safer because of the NRA. Maybe people may not be able to fight the NRA on the national level, but there are many cities and states that have already taken one step forward.

Such a small number, however, is not enough to convince the politicians that they don't need the NRA's money or votes. The children need their help. In conclusion, despite the guidelines regarding safe firearm storage in homes with children, a study reports less than half of gun-owning parents store their firearms safely. Many parents underestimate the risk of leaving their children in the home with an unlocked and loaded firearm. The gap between awareness and reality is particularly great for gun-owning parents. More gun-owning parents trust their children with a loaded gun and believe that their young child can tell the difference between a toy gun and a real gun.

And in many cases they will not be able to tell the difference. So to have handguns in homes around children will sooner or later produce fatal accidents, suicides, and even murders.