Research question – Why is there been an increase in Gun Violence in the U.S over the past years leading up to 2021 and how to prevent it?
Entry #1
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/14/2021-gun-violence/
Reis Thebault, Joe Fox, Andrew Ba Tran, “2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades. So far, 2021 is worse.” Washington Post, 14 June 2021.
After reading through the article, there has been an increase in gun violence in the past 2 years leading up to 2021, stating that 2021 is becoming the worse it has been in the previous 5 years has the number of casualties in shootings increased, according to the post, mostly due to covid-19 affecting the country as the deaths from shootings increasing every day which was peaked at 58 per day, and now averaging 54 deaths due to shootings each day.
Based on the reading, I would say that I can definitely agree that gun violence is increasing an absurd amount in the past year because, at the end of 2020, gun violence was at this peak in decades, but 2021 was, even more, worse than 2020 and that’s saying a lot. Based on the chart provided in the article, it can be said that throughout 2015 to 2019 the average amount of deaths was close to 40 per day, and in 2020 that number would increase to around 54 deaths each day, and now in 2021 the number is at its highest with around 58 deaths per day and the year has even finished which is even scarier thought to think about. The unanswered questions that need to be answered in the text are why there is an even more jump in deaths in the last 2 years and what can be done to fix it because this number is steadily increasing every year. A better understanding of the reasoning behind why the increase that be happening can help better understand the article.
This article is telling me about my research question that covid-19 surprisingly is one of the many reasons behind the excess number of shootings in 2020 being called “the deadliest year of gun violence”. I really like the authors writing style in this article because it first points out the eye-popping issue first at hand then goes into pictures to further point out the increases. In this case, the genre makes sense for what the authors are trying to say: the increase in shootings resulting in deaths. The Washington Post is one of Americans’ daily newspapers and can be very credible. As for the authors, Reis Thebault can be credible as he works on National and breaking news with a BA in journalism, same can be said about Joe fox getting a BA in journalism, Andrew Ba Tran having multiple awards in journalism alongside having the BA in government can be very credible.
One quote that is very important in the article is that “gunfire killed more than 8,100 people in the United States, about 54 lives lost per day”.
Entry#2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/23/2020-shootings/
Reis Thebault, Danielle Rindler, “Shootings never stopped during the pandemic: 2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades.” Washington Post, 23 March 2021.
After reading the article, the main point being said is that 2020 was a “record year” for gun violence as it was the highest its ever been in the past 5 years when it comes to the deaths, it states that 19,380 people were killed and 39,427 people were injured, that means that the number of deaths has increased dramatically by 5,000 people and the number of gun injuries increasing by 20,000 people, this is more than any other year in the past two decades according to the article. It can be said that almost 300 children were shot and killed which increased by 50 percent from the previous years. It can also be said that in June of 2020 when the coronavirus was spreading, the number of firearm sales spiked to 2.5 million and the overall amount of guns purchased in 2020 was around 23 million guns, comparing that to 2019, that’s a 64 percent increase.
Based on the article, I would say that I agree with the text saying that 2020 was the deadliest year for gun violence because I feel that due to covid-19, there was in increase deaths in children. After all, the article states that “when most children weren’t attending class in person, experts say it highlights the severity of suicide and domestic violence”. What this document tells me about my research question is that 2020 was a record-breaking year of gun violence and was also a record-breaking year in purchased guns which can give an understanding of what might have happened last year during the virus. When reading the article, I would say the writing style was very easy to understand because they would give you a bunch of text which would result give you a chart with the information around it. Washington post can be a very credible source as it is the main source for newspapers in New York.
One quote that is very important in the article is that “In 2020, gun violence killed nearly 20,000 Americans, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, more than any other year in at least two decades. An additional 24,000 people died by suicide with a gun.”
Entry#3
Austin Sowa, “Gun Violence Prevention”, Children’s defense, 21 September 2021.
The `Article “Gun Violence Prevention” talks about how shootings and gun violence, in general, can be reduced long term. Some of the different ways to prevent shootings stated in the text are Universal Background Checks and that is to prevent and reduce child and teen deaths due to gun violence. The second way could be to Prohibit firearm Access for High-Risk Groups which can prevent the harm of families and not give guns to people that were in the past convicted for domestic abuse or other violent crimes. The 3rd one mentioned is to not allow children to have access to any sort of weapon, if they accidentally fire them and harm themselves in the process. The 4th prevention would be to have a child safety lock required on every gun purchasable so that all guns can limit accidental discharges. The 5th one would be to ban any high-power Assault rifles or weapons that were used in the military. The last one would be to fund Gun violence Prevention research to get more info and more of an idea to tackle the problem that is gun violence.
Based on the article I would 100% agree with all the ways to prevent gun violence, I feel that way because all of these issues for extremely huge topics that should be talked about. To start Universal Background Checks would change gun sales as a whole because it prevents teens or convicted felons from not having access to high-powered guns and that alone can decrease mass shootings. The second issue will also lower the number of deaths because people convicted of Domestic abuse should go nowhere near any sort of weaponry because they clearly couldn’t control themselves when it comes to their fists, who knows what they might do with a loaded weapon.
I believe the 3rd way is also correct and should be talked about more because they’re many instances where Guns aren’t kept in safe or locked places and their kid finds the gun and plays with it which 9 times out of 10 results in something harmful happening which should be acceptable in any way. Requiring safety locks on all guns should be a thing because not only does it help the person using it, it can prevent children from using it too which won’t result in another death due to guns. The fourth solution should most definitely be a solution because banning Assault weapons can decrease mass shootings and more deaths in schools because most of the school shootings involve any type high powered rifle used to harm others and banning that will decrease shootings at schools. Last but not least, funding gun violence is a must to increase the safety of any person, also allowing citizens to gain more information on the topic at hand to give them a further understanding. This article tells me that all 6 of these issues will limit gun violence extremely and can prevent so many accidental things around guns. Children’s Defense Fund is highly rated and very credible to companies, working for around 50 years and the author is very creditable because he is the founder which can be very credible to the website.
One quote I would pick out in the article would be that”Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for all children and teens ages 1-19. In 2019, 3,371 children and teens died from guns—enough to fill 168 classrooms of 20 children.”
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