Guncontrol
I. Attention
a. Blood has been shed on the floors of church’s, movie theaters, concerts, schools,
nightclubs, and many more places by guns that were in the wrong hands. How can
Americans’ feel safe anywhere knowing that at any second their lives can be
taken by a bullet just like all the thousands of lives that were taken at the most
harmless places doing the most innocent things.
b. Stated in “Gun Violence” by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia of Research
Institute “America’s gun homicide rate is more than twenty-five times the average
of other countries… the United States accounted for forty-six percent of the
population but eighty-two percent of the gun deaths”
c. How many more deaths that are caused by a gun need to occur in order for our
country to realize that something needs to change. Within five weeks the United
States had had two of the biggest mass shootings and there has yet to have any
change in gun control. Our country simply seems to encourage us to keep the
victims in our thoughts, but not the reason why their deaths were caused.
d. Gun violence has caused more that 11,000 live a year because that have ended in
the wrong hands, as reported “Gun Violence” by In Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia Research Institute
e. We need change, and we shouldn’t have to wait to hear on the news another mass
shooting occurred that took more innocent lives, we need change now and we do
this by limiting gun ownership and types of guns, thorough background checks,
and accessible health care for everyone.
II. Need
a. Gun violence is the lead cause of death in the United States according to “How
likely is gun violence to kill an average American?” by Mr. Mosher and Mr.
Gould they also stated total of 115 mass shooting in incidents have occurred as of
May 7, 2019
i. A mass shooting is someone who kills four or more people in a single
incident defined in “Mass Shooting: Definitions and Trends” by Ms.
Smart
b. The first of many reason for a mass shooting to occur is not having proper gun
ownership laws.
i. Reported on “What Las Vegas Police Learned from the Deadlest Shooting
in U.S. History” by Bridget Johnson On October 1st 2017, 64-year-old Las
Vegas native Stephen Paddock unleashed a rapid-fire bullet from the 32nd
floor of a hotel on attendees of a country music festival
ii. As a result of the massacre fifty-eight lives were taken and 850 were
injured at a country concert
iii. this event became the worst mass shooting in modern American history
iv. The shooter used twenty-three firearms and twenty-three were
semiautomatic rifles
v. Some of these guns were modified with technology known as a “bump–
stock” that allows for rapid firing similar to a machine gun, this could be
purchased online or from private dealers without government regulations
vi. Las Vegas shooter owned forty-seven guns, and thirty-three of those
firearms were bought within a one year , he was not required reporting
multiple sales of guns to federal authorities
vii. Automatic weapons fire rounds continuously as long as the trigger is help
down
viii. This is how the Las Vegas shooter was able to fire so many shoots which
injured and killed hundreds
ix. The shooting lasted less than 15 mins
c. another reason for the recurrence of mass shooting is not helping those in of
reformation of background checks when being process
d. Reported on “On Autopsy for Texas Church Gunman Confirms Death by
Suicide” by Roxie Bustamante on November 5 26-year-old Davin Kelley opened
fire at a Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs in Texas
i. Killing twenty-five people, and a unborn child which made it the deadliest
mass shooting at a church in American History
ii. The Air Force had court-martialed Kelley for beating his wife and stepson.
He was convicted, sentenced to 12 months in prison, discharged from the
military for bad conduct, and handed a reduction in rank. At one point in
his confinement, Kelley escaped from a psychiatric hospital in New
Mexico, but was picked up by police in neighboring Texas
iii. And the shooting occurred because of a dispute he had with his mother-in–
law, she attended that church, but didn’t go to service that day
e. Another reason for mass shooting are cause is because mental health care is
accessible
f. In the case of the thousand oaks shooting, the shooter 28 year-old David Long
opened fire at a thousand oaks country bar, killing 12 people, reported by Nicole
Chavez in “Thousand Oaks Gunman Went From Marine Vet to Mass Shooter.
Investigators Want to Know Why”
i. Long served in the Marines from 2008 to 2013, completing one
deployment to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, amid the infamous surge.
His unit saw relatively little action, according to Marines Long served
