Gun Violence In America example essay topic

Preservation of the 2nd Amendment When our forefathers sat down to write the bill of rights they made ten basic rules or freedoms that all Americans are entitled to. For hundreds of years no one has questioned any of those freedoms, that is until recent years. The second amendment gives Americans the right to bear arms. The purpose of this amendment is to be able to form a militia in order to be able to overthrow a repressive government. In recent years the availability and number of guns in the United States has increased. With the media tracking and recording violence, some Americans have begun to question the 2nd amendment's relevance.

With the spree of school and adolescent shootings over recent years there has been an outcry for the prohibition of gun ownership. However, will banning guns stop the rising violence in American culture? It is my belief that we cannot ban guns to solve the violence in our country. In Michael Moore's film "Bowling For Columbine" he tries to discover the correlation between guns and violence in America.

Through his research and findings he reveals that although our Canadian neighbors have a higher gun ownership rate than ours, their gun-violence ratio is far less then America's. "Bowling for Columbine" looks deeper into the matter to sniff out the real cause for America's violent behavior. Moore examines how fearful American culture is and points at the media and government's scare tactics to be a mere marketing ploy. He shows a commercial from a metal detector company who is encouraging the school to require uniforms. The commercial shows a student wearing baggy pants who then proceeds to pull out a small arsenal out of his pants. Moore's view is that within fear and insecurity of our culture is profitability.

The National Association of School Psychologists released a publication recently called " Attitudes toward Guns and Violence: A Neglected Factor in Youth Aggression and its Prevention". This publication conducted a survey to try to figure out the reason for such aggression in the youth culture. It found a surprising pattern that the aggressive behavior in children did not change between the 3rd and 5th grades, but rose sharply between the 5th and 6th grades. They credit this to the physiological changes in the mind of the adolescent, mainly puberty. So how can we curve the violent trend Americans are following? The question is far deeper than originally thought.

To first approach the violence problem we can look to the media who relentlessly bombards us with violent events. America has become conditioned to violence. The media should limit the violent images and stories they depict and concentrate on with more positive events like community service and helping one another. While the media is being dealt with, America should also try to educate the children about dealing with anger and internal problems at an early age. With these plans in action we can begin to make a more peaceful culture. The banishment of guns will not affect the violent culture or gun violence.

By banning guns we merely take the weapons out of the responsible American's hands and leave them with the criminals. When we call for the abolition of guns in America, we should not turn to the effect, but to the cause. Education and prevention are the best ways to stop gun violence in America.

Bibliography

Bowling For Columbine. Dir. Michael Moore. Perf. Michael Moore. Videocassette. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 2001.
Shapiro, Jeremy. 'Attitudes toward Guns and Violence: A Neglected Factor in Youth Aggression and its Prevention. ' NASA Communiqu'e Volume 27 (Nov. 1998): Pages 1-6.
16 Nov. 2004.