Firearm Safety by KM & EL

We’re both eleven years old, and we are already tired of living in a world full of violence with guns. We are tired of people killing each other only because they have the means and the power. On May 24th, 2022, an 18 year old gunman with a rifle, Salvador Ramos, killed 19 minors and 2 majors with a dozen others wounded in Uvalde, Texas at Robb Elementary School around noon (Courtesy: New York Times). This is the second deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook and it Robb Elementary happened just a few months ago. Earlier, he shot his grandmother a few blocks away. More than a dozen officers from many agencies responded to the scene but were hesitant to confront the gunman, parents were grief-struck and frustrated. But finally more than an hour later, Border Patrol officers went into the building and shot Ramos. This, with another mass shooting prompted a burst of negotiations for gun restrictions but have failed due to republican obstruction. President Biden signed a bipartisan bill on June 25th to stop dangerous people from accessing firearms.

Guns may be helpful in some situations, but most of the time they are more harmful. In the past 50 years, more than 1.5 million Americans have died by gunshots (Courtesy: NBC News). This is because most people buy guns to protect themselves from criminal invasions, but they don’t need them. And out of every 100 people with guns, 43 murder, 54 commit suicide and only 3 use it for some other reason which may or may not be good or bad (Courtesy: Pew Research). Also 79% of 2020 U.S. murderers had a firearm with them. That means that probably deaths per year by guns will decrease by more than 80% if they were banished from civilians. In 2004, there were 16626 deaths by gun and they have almost tripled in only 16 years. Gun numbers are on the rise, and we need to stop them before they become too popular.

There is a common misconception on how criminals get guns. Most people think that they steal guns, but actually, stolen guns account for only 10-15% of guns used in crimes and murders. This is because criminals want guns quickly and easily, but to steal a gun is hard and tends to take time. Most criminals get it from straw purchase sales which is purchasing a firearm anonymously with a companion on their behalf. So two people walk into a gun store, and one selects the firearm and the other provides identification to buy the gun (Courtesy: PBS).Or another scenario is when kids walk into a store and select the firearm, but an adult makes the purchases. Another big source is street dealers who get their guns from one of these ways and then they sell them illegally on the streets. The last way criminals get guns is from friends and family as gifts, sales, or thefts. When an arrestee's firearm is confiscated, studies show that they think they can easily get another one illegally. Let’s make firearms less available to criminals and the general public.

The history of guns stretches far back:

1364-First recorded use of gun, a hand gun
1380-Hand guns became popular in Europe.
1400s-Matchlock gun was invented.
1498-Rifling is invented
1509-Guns are able to be shot multiple times using wheel lock
1540-Rifling appears in firearms
1630-First flintlock
1637-First use of firearms proof marks
1750-1850-Dueling pistols invented
1825-Percussion cap guns invented
1835-Colt revolver invented
1840-Pin-fire cartridges
1850-Shotguns become general
1859-First rim-fire cartridge
1861-1873-Breech guns, Gatling gun, center-fire cartridge, cartridge revolver, & the Winchester rifle were all invented
1877-1892-Double-action revolver & automatic handguns were invented

Guns kept evolving to become more and more dangerous. Guns were always harmful and always intended to do harm (Timeline Courtesy: PBS).

Who are most likely to have guns and where are guns most common? Men are more likely to have guns than women, and white men especially like to have guns (Courtesy: Pew Research). Those who live in rural areas 46% are gun owners, suburbs is 28%, and urban is 19%. Republicans are more than twice as likely to own guns than democrats. Most gun owners were exposed to a gun at an early age and they have fired a gun before 18. Handguns are the most common type of gun kept in a household. These are the reasons people own a gun in order of how many people said it: Protection, hunting, shooting, gun collection, & their job. There is mixed information about where guns are most popular, but usually Arkansas, Montana, & Wyoming come in the lead (Courtesy: Mother Jones).

What can you do to help ban firearms from citizens? You can start a petition and get people to sign it and show it to your state government to form gun regulations. To help stop the constant use of firearms you can start long-term projects to teach them how dangerous firearms are. You can start a protest for your government, especially your state one, so that they take notice and start implementing regulations and laws to prohibit dangerous people from getting guns. The following link will take you to a website for TEAM Enough, "Our youth-led initiative is on an unapologetic quest to demand our elected officials take action against gun violence. Why? We are sick and tired of living with the fear of being shot, and we know the facts: gun laws save lives. We are a program by Brady, one of America’s oldest and boldest gun violence prevention organizations. United as one, we are saying ENOUGH to gun violence." https://www.teamenough.org/

So move into action and voice your support to stop innocent lives from being taken.

We are passionate about how guns have ruined the lives of many Americans and that needs to change; we are eleven years old. We read about the Robb Elementary School Incident and that really hit us, and we wrote this because of how guns have taken so many innocent lives, and we wanted to do something to change that.