Accidental Shootings: Many Deaths Could Be Prevented

Gun control is a hot button topic in todays society. This is especially true due to the tragic spike in recent mass shootings. These shootings are causing a divide amongst the American people, which has sparked a national debate regarding the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.

Although mass shootings are being plastered across todays media, one must realize that the number of deaths from these horrific events only makes up a slight portion of overall gun related deaths in the United States. For example, in 2015 there were 372 mass shootings in the US, killing 475 people and wounding 1,870, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker. In comparison 13,286 people were killed in the US by firearms in 2015, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and 26,819 people were injured.

The United States has 88.8 guns per 100 people, or about 270,000,000 guns, which is the highest total and per capita number in the world.

Once realizing how many people are dying from guns that are not involved in mass shootings we must look at what is causing these deaths and if gun control laws can be put in place to prevent them.

Most people in todays society are focused on the idea that criminals or bad people are behind the deaths of so many, and gun control laws need to be enforced to stop putting guns into their hands. Whilst this may be a large part of it we are forgetting that a sizable number of these deaths can be attributed to accidental gun deaths. In fact there has been 1,875 deaths so far in 2016 caused by accidental shootings (Gun Violence Archive).

“If we can develop technology that you can’t unlock your phone unless you’ve got the right fingerprint, why can’t we do it for guns?” – Obama

In order to lower the number of deaths caused by accidental shootings the government should put in place mandatory gun control laws for the possession of guns. These could include mandatory safety features. For example automatic child proof safety locks could be added to guns or indicators showing when a bullet was in the chamber ready to be fired. The focus on this type of safety is mainly to protect accidental gun deaths involving children as at least 265 children under the age of 18 picked up a firearm and accidentally shot themselves or someone else with it in 2015, according to numbers compiled by the gun control advocacy group.

It is believed that if these laws were implemented to install safety control features on guns the number of overall accidental gun deaths would significantly reduce. This is backed up by The US General Accounting Office (GAO) which estimated that 31% of total accidental shooting deaths could have been prevented by installing safety devices on guns and more impressively 100% of deaths per year in which a child under 6 years old shoots and kills him/herself or another child could be prevented by automatic child-proof safety locks.

“We put gates around swimming pools to keep children from drowning. We put safety caps on medications to keep children from poisoning themselves… [B]ecause children are naturally curious and impulsive, and because we have shown time and again that we cannot ‘gun-proof’ them with education, we have a responsibility to keep guns out of the hands of children.”  – Marjorie Sanfilippo, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Eckerd College

 

Concealed Carry Killers – an Affirmative Argument

Many people are under the impression that concealed gun carriers are the “good guys,” using their guns only for self-defense, but far too often this is not the case.

Concealed carrying is a problem because it increases crime just as much as it deters it, it can turn confrontations into lethal incidents, it gives dangerous people easy access to firearms, it encourages criminals to carry guns, and it makes non-carrying people vulnerable.

Concealed Carry Killers is a resource created and updated by the Violence Policy Center that includes a considerable number of examples of “non-self defense killings by private citizens with permits to carry concealed, loaded handguns in public that took place since May 2007.” As of August 12, 2016, Concealed Carry Killers has recorded “696 concealed carry related incidents in 41 states and the District of Columbia resulting in 885 deaths.”

Concealed guns can turn confrontations into lethal incidents.What starts out as a disagreement, can too easily turn violent or even deadly, if either of the parties have easy access to weapons. Especially if in common places such as movie theaters, bars, or even traffic (and we all know how frustrating rush hour can be)! Take the situation below for example…

Spotlight: Neighborhood shooting in Maryland

“On April 3, 2011, Charles Edward “Pete” Richter Jr., 66, shot and killed his neighbor Mark Xander, 55, after Xander’s Rottweiler went on to Richter’s property. Richter’s defense attorney told a judge deciding bail that Richter had a permit to carry a handgun issued by the Maryland State Police… Read More

Concealed carrying gives dangerous people easy access to firearms. Concealed carry is good in theory, but not so much in reality. If only good, law-abiding citizens were able to obtain permits, there would be no issue. However, there is no way of guaranteeing the intents of other people or that a “good person” will continue to act the same way upon obtaining his or her permit.

The right to concealed carry encourages criminals to carry guns. Criminals will always find ways to obtain weapons, but one of the main reasons that they carry guns is to protect themselves from possible victims who are also armed.

Concealed carrying makes non-carrying people vulnerable. This is kind of an obvious one… As a non-armed person in a restaurant or bar, how would you feel knowing that strangers who are armed surrounded you? Most likely you would feel some sort of discomfort. If a fight broke out and everyone started pulling out their guns, what would you do? You would be the most vulnerable person there with no way to defend yourself.

The ability to carry concealed weapons is not as safe as it has been cracked up to be.

Affirmative Argument

According to the FBI, in 2012, 64% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides. In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicides, and 11,078 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. When people hear the words gun violence they most likely think mass shootings and terrorism and it’s not their fault when they think that way. A big portion of the blame goes to the American media. The media includes the cable news channels, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook etc. and also the print media. They all focus on the sensationalism of the news to satisfy the audience’s interests and it does not matter if the news is about a humans being slaughtered by a mentally ill individual or a hate group initiated killing. What is more shocking is that with the increase in gun ownership another cause of gun violence has risen namely suicide. In fact suicide by firearms has been around longer than you think but again when you can talk about mass shootings and terrorism who would be interested in a suicide related death? Unless a major celebrity is involved and then there is the opportunity to sensationalize that news.

The Trace, an independent and nonprofit news organization, is also a platform that is dedicated to informing people about the drastic increase in the firearm-related violence in the United States. They believe there is a shortage of information on the issues violence caused by firearms. The article New CDC Report Shows America’s Gun Suicide Problem Getting Worse, published by Katie Masters on www.thetrace.org reports the issue of gun suicide increasing tremendously and thus becoming a huge problem in the U.S. According to Morris M. in 10 Arguments for Gun Control, study after study indicates that suicide is not so much a rational decision, but something people do on the spur of the moment—meaning that a lack of access to a death-shooting murder-stick at that critical moment could be the difference between life and death. Even more worrying, people who committed suicide were found to be seventeen times more likely to live with guns at home than not.

The CDC raised a concern of the negative role guns play in deaths. According to them, More Americans are killing themselves with guns, with the number of gun suicides rising by 4,735 from 1999 to 2014. The opposition may argue that the studies show a decrease in suicides by death, however they are not looking at the bigger picture. Cathy Barber, a researcher at the Harvard Injury Prevention Training claims that, “In 1999, there were 16,599 suicides committed with a firearm. In 2014, gun suicides totaled 21,334.”

The opposition to gun control states that we should focus on the mentally ill when implementing gun control laws. But my question is, how can law enforcement agencies get access to such a database without violating the individual’s privacy thus making it impossible to have access such data and implement laws to prevent possible gun violence? With the issue of violating privacy, getting access to such data would be considered worse than tracing phones, emails and other personal online activities. The fact is that committing suicide using a gun with easy access is more likely to happen than suicide by swallowing poison or slitting a wrist as it is less painful and quicker way to die.

Saving lives by fixing the gun control “loop hole.”

Seung-Hui Cho, a senior student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, passed a background check before obtaining a gun despite having been declared mentally ill two years before, according to a U.S. News article on NBC News. On April 16^th, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

If background checks for the purchase of firearms were more rigorous and universal across the United States, would the victims of the atrocious Virginia Tech campus shooting still be alive today?

In 1998, the Federal Bureau of Investigations launched the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which was established by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. This system allows and requires licensed firearm sellers to check a firearm buyer’s eligibility in a matter of seconds. The background check is run immediately through the FBI in order to search for any “red flags” such as a criminal record, or a history of mental illness in a potential firearm buyer.

So, how did Seung-Hui Cho pass a background check and obtain a firearm when he was already declared mentally ill? This issue addresses a “gaping hole” within our background check policy in the United States. The problem therein lies in the fact that “states are responsible for compiling mental health records from courts, hospitals, and other sources to submit to NICS, but they are not legally required to do so,” according to the same U.S. News article on NBC News. This means that anyone who passes a background check and purchases a firearm in the United States could potentially be the next “Seung-Hui Cho.”

Further, what is also worth examining is the fact that the sale of firearms between private parties, and/or the transfer of firearms between family members, does not require a background check, whatsoever. This is known as the “gun show loop hole.” Only California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island have state laws that mandate background checks for the purchase of firearms through private parties and family transfers, however; 33 states do not have a law that addresses this loophole, which essentially allows people with criminal backgrounds or records of mental illness to purchase firearms through alternative means.

It seems that allowing firearms to be in the wrong hands is all too easy in the United States. What is disturbing is that our gun control policy, in regards to background checks, makes the sale of firearms essentially ‘legal’ to buyers who might have mental illnesses. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, 1 in 5 adults experience a mental illness, and 1 in every 25 adults live with a serious mental illness. This statistic does not seem to be improving either, and until we can address some of the core psychological health issues in society, our gun control policies must continually adapt to our changing social environment. Even if Seung-Hui Cho was denied a firearms sale by a “red flag” in his background check, he may have been able to acquire a firearm through some resourceful means, however; making background checks mandatory in any market throughout the United States, and requiring states to submit records of mental illness to the NICS, will “keep guns out of the hands of at least some people who are not supposed to have them,” which in turn can save thousands of lives a year, including the lives of the 33 people killed at the Virginia Tech shooting had our background check policy been more rigorous.