The United States of America has a gun violence problem.
In 2019 so far, it is estimated that 1,722 people have been killed by a gun. This crisis is indisputable, yet the debate over gun control between the left and the right seemingly has no end in sight. Even with background checks in place across the nation, gun violence is still a systematic issue, so much that it is arguably American, in nature, to be killed by a gun — no matter one's economic status or geographic location, from inner cities to "safe" suburban school districts. Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization which "...researches a range of vital issues surrounding gun violence, develops data-driven solutions, and works with lawmakers and people… to pass common-sense laws and policies that save lives."
Despite the laws and policies in place, which restrict the acquisition of guns, gun violence is so prevalent across the nation that it has arguably become an American issue.
In order to emphasize this crisis, Everytown for Gun Safety's webpage features an effectively designed infographic with a patriotically somber navy blue backdrop, and reads "Americans are 25 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than people in other developed countries," capitalized and surrounded by an American flag made up of bullets. This statistic used by Everytown for Gun Safety can be found in the American Journal of Medicine, from a study conducted by the World Health Organization, but is broken down in an article from IFL Science. The study, which gathered data on the rates of gun violence in the U.S. in comparison to other "High-income" countries, also states that while the U.S. population is half the total population of the other 22 nations, "82 percent of all firearm deaths took place on American soil." Gun violence has become a part of American culture, and this death and inhumanity are inherently un-American in nature. Steps must be taken to combat trends of gun violence and preserve our very livelihood, and we must ask ourselves what it means to be an American, and "Is this who we are as a nation? Or are we something more?"
Gun violence in the U.S. does not discriminate, and so innocent people from all walks of life are killed. Every. Single. Day.
Every day, 100 Americans are killed by gun violence, according to the CDC's Fatal Injury Reports from the years 2013 to 2017. The sheer number of Americans killed due to gun violence further highlights the fact that any one of those 100 people a day is someone's family member, friend, neighbor, or co-worker. On Everytown for Gun Safety's page titled "Learn What It Takes to Keep America Safe," the organization pointedly states that "Support for the Second Amendment goes hand-in-hand with keeping guns away from criminals and other dangerous people. But, it's simply too easy for the wrong people to get guns, leading to all kinds of violence-from deadly domestic abuse to suicide and school shootings."
According to The Washington Post, a Duke study "...found that policies that prohibited people with a domestic-violence restraining order from owning a gun are associated with a 7 percent reduction in intimate-partner homicides." Everytown for Gun Safety's desire to save lives and prioritization of helping others over quarreling in the political arena reiterates our nation's ability to reduce the horrific numbers of gun violence from the Atlantic to the Pacific, "And we can do it in a way that still respects the Second Amendment."
