Before we go into any further detail
about guns, we have to define what gun culture is. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word
culture as “a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or
organization.” This means that a
society, such as ours, has a specific way of thinking and behaving of what
actions we should perform. Now when the word
“gun” goes in front of culture, then we have to examine how our American people
think and behave with guns.
Gun culture is defined, so let’s go
into how commonplace gun culture is in our society. Without a universal background check system,
it’s impossible to determine the exact amount of guns that are owned in the
United States. However, an April 2014
report published by the Pew Research Center tells us that 37% of adults own a
gun in their household. Seeing that the
U.S. Census reports that 76.5% of our population is over 18 and we have 316
million people in total, this would mean that about 89.4 million adults currently own a gun as of now. Since we are defining gun culture, we have to
examine why people possess a gun, this would be the “thinking” factor in gun
culture. This is so by looking at the
same article published by the Pew Research Center, except this time presenting
the statistic that only 48% of gun
owners own a gun for protection. This
should be devastating to us because 52% of gun owners possess a gun for any
other reason than for protection. As we
examine the poll even further, we find that 32% own a gun for hunting, 7% own a
gun for sport shooting, 2% own a gun for their constitutional right, 2% own a
gun as a hobby, but 7% own a gun for the category of “other.” This means that 6.3 million American adults
own a gun for none of the reasons provided in the poll. 6.3 million Americans don’t use their guns
for hunting. 6.3 million Americans don’t
use their guns for sport. 6.3 million
Americans don’t use their guns for their Second Amendment rights. 6.3
million Americans use their guns for an unclassified reason, and in our
prosperous country, that is not okay.
Seeing how we have just examined the
way people think in our gun culture, now let’s make our way to how people act
in our gun culture. CNN reports that
there have been 74 shootings in just the past 18 months in our country. Even though James Alan Fox of Northwestern
University argues that there is no upward trend for the amount of incidents occurring,
there is still a trend of firearms taking commonplace in crimes. The National Institute of Justice reports
that 467,321 people were victims of gun
violence in just the year of 2011 alone.
Not only is this statistic presented, but the data continues showing
that 68% of all murders were committed
by a person with a firearm in that same year. Seeing that the majority of murders happen
with the pull of a trigger, parting ways from guns would be favorable for our
country.
When we go back to my introduction, I
talk about how education can literally stop the improper use of guns once and
for all. Unlike gun control, we can
focus on how to gradually shift our gun culture. In our elementary schools nationwide, we have
local police officers speak about drug abuse with the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education) program; this program teaches students on how to not start using drugs, instead of teaching students on how to protect themselves
from dealing with active drug users.
Unfortunately, there is no national program that educates the future of
America, our children, on the dangers and hazards of using guns. If we want to effectively change America’s
gun culture, we have to educate the youth of America on why guns are both
unsafe and harmful. Like the D.A.R.E.
program, we can teach our students on how and why we should not use guns,
instead of teaching them how to protect themselves from the dangers of guns. Basically, let’s not buy guns rather than
running away from them.
Seeing that gun control is a
sensitive topic in our country, I have a few suggestions and steps that we can
take to have our next generation not experience the harms that guns have so
very brought to us.
1. Allocate public and private funds toward creating gun education programs:
Understanding that there are only so many of us who are legislators, we
have to first have local businesses sponsor and support gun education programs,
so that we can teach our students the dangers of guns. Then your local congressman or congresswoman
will see that it’s in their constituency’s best interest in allocating federal
funds toward gun education programs. The
federal government will finally take notice, and we can have our young
Americans know how dangerous guns really are.
2. Let the program continuously be effective: Not only will the program be
expanded on a national level, but we can also take measure, by reporting
studies for example, on how effective the program is. This is the only way to keep education on
guns effective to the country’s student body.
These steps might finally lead us to
a solution that can save the lives of many.
Not only are these steps possibly going to be effective, but they stand
by the Constitution; in which gun control is not taken place, which would defy
the second amendment. Also, these steps
take place as actors of the first amendment, exercising the right of speech.
So when the title
of this article asks whether or not guns are glorious or gruesome, think about the
last innocent civilian who was shot by an armed man for no apparent
reason. That most certainly does not sound
glorious, and it sounds nothing but gruesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment