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Youth Gun Violence: Causes and Solutions

Gun violence, especially in the US, has been on the rise due to the country's liberal gun control laws. There are nearly as many registered guns as people in the US, and every day around 8 children are killed by guns. While school shootings gain widespread attention, gun deaths are the second leading cause of death for US youth between ages 10-19. Exposure to gun violence can negatively impact children's development and increase their risk of engaging in violence. However, countries like Australia have shown that swift government action to enforce strict gun control laws after mass shootings can effectively curb gun violence.

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Sanjana Ahuja
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219 views2 pages

Youth Gun Violence: Causes and Solutions

Gun violence, especially in the US, has been on the rise due to the country's liberal gun control laws. There are nearly as many registered guns as people in the US, and every day around 8 children are killed by guns. While school shootings gain widespread attention, gun deaths are the second leading cause of death for US youth between ages 10-19. Exposure to gun violence can negatively impact children's development and increase their risk of engaging in violence. However, countries like Australia have shown that swift government action to enforce strict gun control laws after mass shootings can effectively curb gun violence.

Uploaded by

Sanjana Ahuja
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Gun violence may be broadly defined as a category of violence and crime committed with the use of a firearm.

It has been on the rise all over the world, especially in the United States of America- a country notorious for its liberal gun control laws. There are almost as many registered guns as there are people in the USA (89 guns to every 100 people). Every day in the country, eight children are killed by guns. Every day. Is the world paying attention yet? Stories of school shootings are being heard every few weeks with the Virginia Tech Massacre, the Columbine High School Massacre and the recent shooting of 20 elementary school children at New Town, being the more well-known ones. But these shootings are far from being a new phenomenon- the earliest recorded school shooting in the United States dates back to 1764. The lethality of guns, as well as their easy accessibility to young people, are key reasons why firearms are the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 19.A majority of youth gun deaths are homicides. Suicides account for about one-third of all youth gun deaths, and unintentional shootings for about 7% of those deaths. Recent research estimates the economic costs of gun violence against children and youth at $15 billion per year. Studies suggest that children exposed to gun violence at home, at school, in the community, or through the media can experience negative psychological effects including posttraumatic stress, poor school performance, increased delinquency, risky sexual behaviors, substance abuse, and desensitization to violence. All of these effects can make children and youth more prone to violence themselves. Factors such as gun trafficking across state lines, overall crime patterns, and other socioeconomic issues in a state also play a role in gun-violence rates. The correlation of gun availability and violence is an unending chicken and egg debate. Is the U.S. dilemma of extreme levels of violent crime due mostly to easy gun availability and an exceptionally high ownership level or to other intractable societal factors? For example, England and Norway had achieved low gun homicide rates even prior to having strict gun controls. Shootings by youth are not rare occurrences in other parts of the world either. However, the major difference that can be seen between USA and other developed nations is the efficiency and swiftness with which their respective governments enforced strict gun laws post such incidents. There was the Dunblane massacre in March 1996, in which 16 children and one adult were shot dead by Thomas Hamilton who walked into a school armed with a range of handguns and opened fire. In April 1996, Australia experienced its worse mass murder in a Tasmanian seaside resort, where a gunman killed 35 and wounded 23, Prime Minister John Howard tightened gun control legislation and implemented a mass buyback of about one-fifth of all the firearms in circulation. Australia has not had a mass shooting ever since. What happened in Scotland and Australia was that a mass murder was followed by a tightening of gun laws. The Australian government bought back more than 630,000 weapons, and the British government took tens of thousands of guns off the streets with a similar program. This makes the buyback programs in LA and San Diego pale by comparison. It is generally agreed that there are four key ways to reduce youth gun violence- Reducing childrens unsupervised exposure to guns, engaging communities and strengthening law enforcement, changing the design of guns by including safety features, and most importantly, limiting the flow of illegal guns to youth.

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