Why are American teens so drawn to guns and gun violence?
Gun violence is a huge issue in the United States constantly with so many facets. And it’s caused a bunch of innocent people to die in those shootings’ incidents. Most of these shooting incidents were happening in middle and high school. With the current situation, teenagers are the most effective part of people in the united states. American teens have different aspects of influence on gun violence that included their psychology, race, and suicide.
American teen’s psychology problems
Most of the parents must go out to work and they haven’t timed to accompany their child. Our society is becoming more and more dependent on cell phones and other devices. Even though they have an electronic device to stay with, but they are still feeling lonely and isolated from other people. Dr. Michael has mentioned how the teenagers react to the absence of love in a specific situation, “In the school shooting in Connecticut, the mother of the perpetrator had apparently homeschooled him, thus depriving him of necessary socialization. To compound matters, she reportedly taught him to use high powered firearms at a range. Individuals such as this have more difficulty expressing their feelings” （Dr. Michael, third paragraph) The absence of love could be increasing the rate of gun violence on teenagers. As I mentioned before, teenagers have also abused the electric devices that shooting video games are the major reason to affect teenagers. According to the Aja Romano indicated the reference talk of President Donald Trump said “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society,” and Aja Romano state “Trump’s statement suggesting a link between video games and real-world violence echoed sentiments shared by other lawmakers following the back-to-back mass shootings”(Vox, third paragraph) Obviously, the problem has turned the point to the shooting video games and it has Serval potential dangers to teenager’s psychology.
Race and community
The race problem is the key term for gun violence. So, the impact of gun violence on Black is totally different from white children. Because of the community, they lived in are separated by the education system and living conditions to varying degrees. Based on the gun violence and the minority experience: “Almost 3,000 children are shot and killed every year in the United States, with guns taking the lives of 10 times more Black children than White children”. The race makes black children have higher chances of being victims of gun violence than white children. They could not be changed to their race since the parent gives a chance to bear in the world. After that, black students are trying to escape the community they used to live in through going to college and work hard. From a student who has claimed “Young African Americans today should not be fighting because of the neighborhood they live in or claim they are from.” and “Some African American males need to start choosing the right people to hang around; people who want to see you do well in life, not bring you down because they don’t want to do anything with their life”(Je’Von Russell, paragraph 2) That’s a shame and reality society in the united states to the African Americans who need to think more so many things for their future and worry about the people they hang out with. They might be worried about their safety every day to go to school or come home. This is a social problem in the united states that because of the racial boundaries leads to more kind of issues to the block.
Homicide and suicide
Firearm suicide is a significant public health crisis in the US. The percent of teen suicides has been increased and firearm suicide is the highest rate of any suicide case. Obviously, they affect gun violence and some of the other social conflict to them. Based on the child trends org, “In 2007, suicide rates for 15- to 19-year-olds have increased notably, reaching an all-time high of 11.8 per 100,000 in 2017.” And this evidence proves the gun violence increased the rate of death for teenagers. So, the problem is how teenagers can get a firearm so easily. “In 80% of school-associated firearm-related homicides and suicides, the weapons used were obtained from the home or from a friend or relative” ( youth gun violence fact sheet) In this case, the responsibility of parents is essential to the youth and parent need to have enough protection for the gun.
Mental Health Services
As gun violence becomes more effective, the teenager would be got influenced by shooting in somehow. Even though teenagers are not the victims or criminals in those shooting, but teenagers are the easiest affected by the people. It could damage their mental health or not. Mental health is essential to human beings, mainly teenagers are the future. As we talk about the impact of gun violence on teenagers, we also need to think about the mental health of teenagers. The Conversation, News Partner mentioned that “In a study published in the Health Affairs Oct. 7, we found a statistically significant 10% increase in the behavioral health care workforce was associated with a 1.2% decrease in the firearm suicide rate. We controlled for variables such as the unemployment rate, race, gender, and population size, among others. Increasing the workforce by 40%, a change that could potentially take significant time and resources would perhaps lead to a reduction in the firearm suicide rate of only 4.8%.”(The conversation, News partner, 11th paragraph) Based on what The Conversation, News Partner says, we could know mental service has some significant impact to decrease firearm rate, somehow, the mental service has cost a lot of money on it that hires the medical worker and professional mental health workers. “Based on our statistical analysis and taking account of the salaries for mental health professionals, it could cost as much as US$15 million to increase the size of Ohio’s behavioral health care workforce enough to prevent one firearm suicide.” (The Conversation, News reporter,13th paragraph) This means reducing firearm suicides is a costly way to approach mental health services. Instead of strengthening mental health services to reduce firearm violence, the action needed to the federal, state and local apartment to “strengthen laws and regulations shown to promote gun safety and prevent firearm deaths.” (The Conversation, News reported, 16th paragraph). So mental health service is not a good way to prevent gun violence.
U.S. Gun Policy vs Other countries Gun Policy
As more mass shootings happened in the United States, Americans are trying to figure out how it’s that always happened in the United States. Americans start to think over their gun policy that is the gun policy not strong enough or is the implementation effort is not big enough. Other countries have their strong gun policies that there are significant solutions to the problem of gun control. First, gun ownership is a critical point for gun control. 
“The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, has 46 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns, according to a report by the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey“ (U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparisons，paragraph 10) That straight-up points to the problem of gun control in the United States and the gun ownership is related with all those mass shooting and homicide.
Gun Policy of Canada
Canada used to have the same situation as the United States they have right now. Then Canada’s gun laws have often been driven by gun violence. That’s how they realize the importance of gun control. Canada’s gun laws have often been driven by gun violence. “In 1989, a student armed with a semiautomatic rifle killed fourteen students and injured more than a dozen others at a Montreal engineering school” (Global comparisons, Canada, first paragraph) Then Canada have found a method to prevent mass shooting happened again. “It is illegal to own a fully automatic weapon unless it was registered before 1978”, based on this sentence, we could know Canada has a powerful action to aim at gun control, especially in a mass shooting.
Gun Policy of Australia
Australia was the same as Canada that gun violence has driven to gun laws. Australia is counter the gun ownership to list plenty of methods to do with it. According to “The National Agreement on Firearms all but prohibited automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles, mandated licensing and registration, and instituted a temporary gun buyback program that took some 650,000 assault weapons (about one-sixth of the national stock) out of public circulation”(Australia, third paragraph) And Australia had provided “genuine need” for a particular type of gun and take a firearm safety course. Australia hadn’t forced people to comply with the rules. Australia provided some of the gun courses to attract people that it’s step by step action for carries out gun control. The interesting part of gun law is “Australia paid citizens to sell their guns to the government” and “a massive buyback program, costing hundreds of millions of dollars offset by a one-time tax increase, that bought and destroyed more than 600,000 automatic and semiautomatic weapons and pump-action shotguns”(Chris weller and Ivan De Luce, paragraph 6) It’s a huge success in the gun control that almost lower the percentage of mass shooting and homicide to 50%. “Over the next few years, gun-death totals were cut nearly in half. Firearm suicides dropped to 0.8 per 100,000 people in 2006 from 2.2 in 1995, while firearm homicides dropped to 0.15 per 100,000 people in 2006 from 0.37 in 1995.” (Chris Weller and Ivan De Luce, paragraph 7)
Gun Policy of Israel
Israel is totally different than other countries because Israel has required people to get military service. So, the gun has become a part of life in Israel and much of the population was a soldier. “After serving typically two or three years in the armed forces, however, most Israelis are discharged and subject to civilian gun laws” and “relatively strict gun regulations, including an assault-weapons ban and a requirement to register ownership with the government” (Israel, second paragraph). The actions made by Israel are the biggest effective for gun control. The gun applicants have professional psychological quality and professional training. As military personnel, they have a more rigorous attitude toward guns and know the lethality of guns.
Gun Policy of United Kingdom
The United Kingdom took a multiplicity for approaching the gun control. Basically, the United Kingdom has combined elements from Norway, Australia, and Japan’s policies. From Chris Weller and Ivan De Luce, the United Kingdom, paragraphs 13 and 14, “Around when Australia adopted its gun regulations, UK Parliament passed legislation banning private ownership of handguns in Britain and banned semiautomatic and pump-action firearms throughout the UK. It also required, shotgun owners, to register their weapons” and “A $200 million buyback program led to the government’s purchase of 162,000 guns and 700 tons of ammunition from citizens.” The way the UK did is exceptional intelligence that followed the other countries and makes some corrections based on the situation in the UK.
Gun Policy for Japan
Based on the graph I mentioned before, Japan has an extremely low value of gun ownership and homicide. This is inseparable from Japan’s policy on guns and Japanese people’s ideas to the violence of guns. “Under Japan’s firearm and sword law, the only guns permitted are shotguns, air guns, guns with specific research or industrial purposes, or those used for competitions” (Global Comparisons, Japan, second paragraph) and “Japan’s aversion to firearms with its demilitarization in the aftermath of World War II. Others say that because the overall crime rate in the country is so low, most Japanese see no need for firearms” (Global Comparisons, Japan, third paragraph). In addition, Japan has strict laws for obtaining firearms that Japanese people who want to own a gun, they “must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, and achieve at least 95% accuracy during a shooting-range test” (Chris Weller and Ivan De Luce, Japan, second paragraph) and “have to pass a mental-health evaluation at a hospital, as well as a background check, in which the government digs into any criminal records or ties and interviews friends and family members”( Chris weller and Ivan De Luce, Japan, third paragraph) Japanese people has ban the gun most likely, but they do not feel any uncomfortable without gun for living. So, the psychology part is the most important to approach completely gun control.
Basically, gun violence in the United States has many causes and while we can’t fix it all at once we must live up to our ideals as much as possible. Eventually, the racial and political problem is the hardest part of the solution to gun violence.
Worked cited
Teens, Guns, and Violence
https://www.oneworldeducation.org/teens-guns-and-violence
The Impact of Gun Violence on Children and Teens
https://everytownresearch.org/impact-gun-violence-american-children-teens/
https://www.experts.com/Articles/Guns-Violence-Psychology-Cause-Effect-By-Michael-Perrotti
The Frustrating, Enduring Debate Over Video Games, Violence, and Guns
Aja Romano – https://www.vox.com/2019/8/26/20754659/video-games-and-violence-debate-moral-panic-history
The Impact of Gun Violence on Children, Families, & Communities
About admin – https://www.cwla.org/the-impact-of-gun-violence-on-children-families-communities/
Gun Violence and the Minority Experience: National Council on Family Relations
https://www.ncfr.org/ncfr-report/winter-2018/gun-violence-and-minority-experience
Teen Homicide, Suicide and Firearm Deaths
https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/teen-homicide-suicide-and-firearm-deaths
Firearm Suicide in the United States
https://everytownresearch.org/firearm-suicide/
More Mental Health Care Won’t Stop Gun Violence, New Study Says
The Conversation – https://patch.com/us/across-america/more-mental-health-care-wont-stop-gun-violence-new-study-says
U.s. Gun Policy: Global Comparisons
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-gun-policy-global-comparisons
Democratic Candidate Beto O’rourke Says ‘hell Yes’ He Will Forcefully Take Back Assault Weapons from Americans – Here Are 5 Countries That Have Taken Radical Steps to Eliminate Firearm Deaths
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