Santa Fe High School shooting

• On May 20, 2018, a 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun and a pistol stormed Santa Fe High School, about 30 miles southeast of Houston, and opened fire in an art class, officials said.
• The teenager who allegedly used a shotgun and a revolver to kill 10 people and wound 10 others at a Texas high school Friday admitted he didn’t shoot people he liked and meant to kill the ones he did target, a probable cause affidavit says

Impact of Gun violence on young people

Race issue in Gun violence of America

These numbers likely do not tell the whole story, as studies have found that overall deaths for American Indian populations are underreported by 30 percent.28 The elevated rate of suicide among young Native Americans presents a serious concern for tribal leaders, and as the National Congress of American Indians explained in 2015, “The higher incidence of suicide in Native peoples is informed by a long history of systemic discrimination and abuse.

The effect of gun violence on America’s teens

• In the United States, firearm violence is the third leading cause of death and the second leading cause of injury-related death among 0-17-year-old children
• Boys account for 82% of all firearm deaths among children, and those youth aged 13-17 have a firearm injury rate that is 12 times higher than that of children below aged 13
• In 2016, approximately one out of every three US households contained a firearm; only 46% of these gun owners stored their guns safely, and almost 40% of these homes had children under the age of 18.

From Zehua Li
5010 99nd St, Brooklyn, New York

Dear teenager’s parent,
I’m trying to remind some of the issues about gun violence on American teenagers. As we all know, many mass shootings have happened in the United States that cause so many Americans dead. After those mass shootings appear in the United States, a lot of Americans have impacted by gun violence. Moreover, among this group of Americans, American teens are the most affected people in the United States. Teenagers are not mature. The things can quickly get the effect around them and barely know how to handle the things. Especially for something teenagers think is cool and stimulate, they would like to try or use them to show around. This kind of psychology is dangerous that could increase the possibility of becoming a criminal. Besides, youth victims of gun homicide are a massive issue of cause the teenagers are dead. Firearms were the murder weapon in 86 percent of youth homicides in 2014. Based on the Uniform Crime Report Supplementary Homicide Reports, there were an estimated 3374 homicides with a firearm committed by known 12 to 24-yea-olds in 2014. A considerable number of teenagers killed by guns. Of the 5,504 youths ages 10 to 24 who died by suicide in 2014, almost half were carried out with a firearm. These statistics clearly show how harmful guns are too young people. It could tell us the truth that teenagers might be poor psychological endurance that the school and family stuff makes them could not breathe in their life, so they find a way to end their life. As their parents, your child needs more attention and love on them.
Moreover, some of the youths are directly exposed to gun violence through victimization or perpetration, and they can also be indirectly exposed by witnessing gun violence in their communities. Even if an adult lives in a community full of gun violence, they are bound to be affected, not to mention teenagers, who do not have the psychological capacity to cope. Both of them suffer psychological and physical damage. About 8 percent of children reported being exposed to a shooting (including hearing gunshots or seeing someone shot) in their lifetimes, with children 14 to 17 years reporting the highest levels of exposure to a shooting (13 percent). Additionally, boys were more likely than girls to report exposure to shootings. This kind of situation tells us that living condition or community is essential for preventing teenagers from gun violence. I hope you could listen to my advice.
I will wait for your reply and glad to have a chance to talk to you. Thank you very much! Have a nice day!

Sincerely,
Zehua Li

Potential Genres
I would like to use interviews and new as my genre to address my question of why the American Teens are so drawn to guns and gun violence. In my opinion, the interview and news would be a more effective way to show gun violence on how to affect American teens. The interview is a straight forward way that shows the people who go through in those mass shootings to what they feel behind those mass shootings. The news is the most popular and fastest method to know what happened in the world or anywhere. So the news has a lot of new information about gun violence in the United States and it might tell many things we don’t know behind gun violence. Basically, the audience could be through the interview and new know what exactly gun violence happened in the United States. As they realized, they should follow the path that thinks about the reasons behind those gun violence happened in the United States and who are the victims of these mass shootings.
Audience strategies
Essentially, my audience is the American teenager’s parents who try to protect their kids from gun violence. So my strategies based on my research essay and my potential genres would be a step-by-step method to explain gun violence in the United States. First of all, I need to let my target audience know the latest news about gun violence. And then I would show some data about gun violence causes of how much teens died and homicide issues. The ways I did is need my audience to trust me and realize the gravity of the gun violence. When we write an essay, I believed most of the writers are wanting their audience to know the purpose of the essay. So am I. Assumed my target audience is the parents of teenagers, then my expression should be more rationality and the stance is neutral. Most of part of my essay needs to talk more about American teens. Eventually, I will leave some space for my target audience to think about what they need to do for their kids.

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