Gun Violence Magazine

Gun Violence Magazine

            Gun control in the United States has been a debatable issue for many years. This issue is getting even worse as time passes. Aside from the many mass shootings that have recently occurred, there is also gun violence on a smaller scale. These smaller scaled tragedies add up and make up a large portion of the fatality rate caused by gun violence. Some pros to enacting more gun control laws include the Second Amendment is not an unlimited right to own guns, more gun control laws would reduce gun deaths, high-capacity magazines should be banned because they too often turn murder into mass murder, and guns are rarely used in self-defense. Some arguments against those pros include the Second Amendment of the US Constitution protects individual gun ownership, gun control laws do not deter crime; gun ownership deters crime, gun control laws infringe upon the right to self-defense and deny people a sense of safety, and gun control laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns or breaking laws. Overall, those who are for enacting stricter laws on gun use believe the stricter laws will decrease the rate of deaths by guns and those who are against enacting stricter laws believe the laws will not stop those from gaining access and causing harm.

            I am for enacting stricter laws on gun control. I believe that by enacting stricter laws on gun use you can stop some people from harming others, and that is enough. If you make it harder to gain access to guns then you will certainly be able to stop a tragedy from happening, even if it isn’t as big as a mass shooting. Another benefit of enacting stricter laws, aside from lowering the homicide rate, is lowering the suicide rate. The suicide rate by use of a gun can also account for the high number of deaths by guns. There are also accidental deaths caused by the presence of guns. A child can get access to a gun and accidentally fire it. These instances could be lowered by stricter laws.

            It is no surprise that the United States has the most deaths caused by gun violence. Just this year there have been 273 mass shootings in the US so far in 2017, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. The same resource found that more than 11,650 people have died from gun-related violence so far this year and more than 23,500 others were injured. The deadliest mass shooting in modern US history just occurred last month. In Las Vegas, Nevada, a gunman killed at least 59 people and injured at least 527 others at a festival. It has become normal to hear about these tragic mass shootings, especially this year.

            For my final semester project I would like to create a magazine that advertises and informs about everything that has to do with guns. The United States is not strict about gun use and I feel like it would be interesting to treat guns as if it were a car or a pair of shoes, because that is how it is treated. My project will question that if the same methods to sell clothing were used to sell guns would there still be a consumer. It will also question if the consumer understands the everyday rate of deaths because of gun violence would they still purchase. Many people only think about mass shootings and think that people will kill regardless but there are accidental deaths because of the presence of a gun. In the magazine I would include advertisements showcasing guns. On another page I could include the actual statistics of gun violence. I could also include a timeline of everyday deaths by the use of guns.

Works Cited

"Gun Violence Archive." Gun Violence Archive. N.p., n.d. Web.

"Guns in the US: The Statistics behind the Violence." BBC News. BBC, 05 Jan. 2016. Web.

Lopez, German. "America's Unique Gun Violence Problem, Explained in 17 Maps and Charts." Vox. Vox, 02 Oct. 2017. Web.

Mark, Michelle. "How Americans Really Feel about Gun Control." Business Insider. Business Insider, 03 Oct. 2017. Web.

"Should More Gun Control Laws Be Enacted in the United States?" ProCon.org. N.p., n.d. Web.

Mourners at the vigil one week since the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at the Route 91 

Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas. 

 Gun control advocates protesting outside the National Rifle Association’s headquarters in Fairfax, Va., in 2015.

Mourners gathered for vigil at Lake Eola for Pulse Nightclub.