Gun Control in America
Gun violence and gun regulations are indeed hot topics in the United States. The Second Amendment, the American gun industry and a media instilled with violence and fear are all subjects in this national debate. While one side abrogates for stricter gun control laws to regulate who can acquire fire arms and to ban certain types of weapons, the other side insists that the guns are not the issue and that any form of gun control is a government attack against their individual liberties and the Constitution. Aside from side one choses to be, there is an undeniable reality: a substantial number of people die every year in fire guns related incidents (excluding suicides). Sadly, a part of this reality also involves teens and kids: many those deaths are related to gun incidents involving teens and kids, including school shootings incidents. By looking at how other countries have dealt with this issue in the past, one can find valuable lessons: following a mass shooting incident in 1996, the Australian government banned military style firearms, and a gun buyback program was started. This resulted in an effective reduction of mass shooting incidents and a reduction of murder rates.
An important part of the American people associates guns with individual liberties, as they believe is an unalienable part of preserving individual liberties against the tyranny of the State. Big part of this belief has its roots in the American Constitution: the Second Amendment explicitly states that “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (Lund & Winkler, n.d.). This notion is, however, debatable, as there is still controversy whether this Amendment directly protects a private right of individuals to keep and bear arms or is more like a right that can be exercised only through militia organizations like the National Guard (Lund & Winkler, n.d.).
Using the Second Amendment as basis, there are also claims that the right to bear arms is an essential part of the American culture, as the tradition of armed civilians goes all the way back to the very Founding Fathers. Some evidences suggest, however, that the gun culture of modern America originated about 150 years ago, associated to the birth of the American gun industry (Various, 2018). The development of the American gun industry essentially meant the transit from the artisan methods of manufacturing to the modern mass production factories, effectively creating the means to fabricate thousands of weapons per year. To create the market needed to sell this huge amount of product, it was necessary to induce an artificial demand on the American public, and that’s how the myth of an armed individual as symbol of the truly independent American was born. Nowadays, the modern American gun culture myth is supported and feed by media, gun manufacturers and sellers and a powerful lobby association known as National Rifle Association (NRA), who constantly bombard the American society with pro-gun propaganda, making us falsely believe that American culture is essentially linked to owning guns and exercise a false right to carry them around indiscriminately.
It is not surprising then, that the number of guns currently in hands of American civilians was estimated at 393 million in 2017 (Ingraham, 2018). This means that in 2017, American made 4 percent of the total world population and owned 46 percent of the entire stock of 857 million civilian firearms. Keeping this in mind, is no coincidence that almost 16000 people died in 2017 alone in fire guns related incidents (excluding suicides). This number includes 3200 deaths related to gun incidents involving teens and kids, including 10 school shootings incidents (Gajanan, 2018). Many people resist to link the volume of firearms in civilian hands to such high death toll, echoing National Rifle Association chief Wayne Lapierre’s long-touted notion that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” (Keneally, 2018) . At first sight, this belief appears to be justified, as there have been several situations where the presence of a civilian bearing a firearm did prevented the loss of innocent lives (11 times a good guy with a gun stopped a bad guy, saving lives, n.d.). Studies suggest however, that gun possession encourages an escalation in the level of confrontation because it provides a false sense of security and serves as an involuntary discharge vehicle of momentary anger (Keneally, 2018).
Part of this debate of “armed good guy vs bad guy” is related to school shootings. There are proponents that argue that armed teachers and/or the presence of armed guards in the schools could neutralize active shooters before the situation goes south. This could make things worse, though, as it would mean that now guns will be constantly present in a place where traditionally have not been allowed, increasing the chances that those guns end up in the wrong hands or that a violent confrontation of a guard or teacher with a student end up in an accidental or unintentional death. Moreover, treating the problem of mass shootings at schools as isolated and confined incidents, and ignoring its root cause as a manifestation of the more general gun violence problem that affects the American society, is not an effective way of dealing with this problem. There cannot be a solution to the school shootings while the root of the issue is not treated: we need more effective ways of dealing with civilian possession of firearms and the significant death toll associated with gun violence.
Coming up with solutions to the gun violence is severely hindered by the fact that we are limited in our means to investigate effective ways of dealing with it. There are active efforts to prevent research in the subject, with a strong current of opposition, leaded by the National Rifle Association (NRA), that systematically boycotts every effort in the direction of gun control. The clearest example of this is the Dickey Amendment. This Amendment, passed in 1996, effectively bans the Center of Disease Control (CDC) of using any funds to advocate or promote gun control (Keneally, 2018), meaning that even a simple study on the causes of gun violence can be fund deprived and shut down under the false pretense that is an effort to advocate gun control.
Seeing how gun control has worked in other countries, one can less but agree that this would be the real solution to our gun related problems. The case of Australia is an example of how gun control can effectively reduce the number of deaths associated with firearm. Australia, a country traditionally associated with tough rednecks and pioneers and with a long tradition of hunting and bearing arms, passed tough gun control laws following a mass shooting in 1996. A ban on the selling and importing of semiautomatic guns and other military style firearms, followed by a generous gun buyback campaign were enacted by the government. This resulted in an effective reduction of mass shooting incidents to zero and a reduction of murder rates to less 1 killing per 100000 people in 2014, showing that gun control programs can be effective in reducing deaths associated with firearms incidents (Leaf, 2018).
We need to deal with school shootings and gun violence in the American society in a more effective way. The modern American gun culture, a fabrication of the gun industry as a mean to create markets, needs to be controlled and the influence of pro-gun lobbyist in our government reduced. Our scientists need to be able to research more deeply and freely this issue, as we would do with any other issue affecting the American people, and we need to come up with solutions that involve some degree of control over who can own a gun and what kind of firearms should be in civilian hands. There cannot be a true solution to the school shootings and the senseless deaths of teens and children while we don’t address the gun violence that is deeply rooted in the American society.
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 130, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a medium' or simply 'media'?
Suggestion: a medium; media
...mendment, the American gun industry and a media instilled with violence and fear are al...
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Line 1, column 527, Rule ID: ONE_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use the numeral 'one' with plural words. Did you mean 'one chose', 'a chose', or simply 'choses'?
Suggestion: one chose; a chose; choses
...s and the Constitution. Aside from side one choses to be, there is an undeniable reality: ...
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Line 3, column 481, Rule ID: DOUBLE_PUNCTUATION
Message: Two consecutive dots
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...t be infringed' Lund & Winkler, n.d.. This notion is, however, debatable, as ...
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Message: Two consecutive dots
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...e the National Guard Lund & Winkler, n.d.. Using the Second Amendment as basis...
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Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... including 10 school shootings incidents Gajanan, 2018. Many people resist to lin...
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Line 7, column 587, Rule ID: ADMIT_ENJOY_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the gerund form: 'resist linking'.
Suggestion: resist linking
...s incidents Gajanan, 2018. Many people resist to link the volume of firearms in civilian hand...
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...ood guy with a gun.' Keneally, 2018 . At first sight, this belief appears to ...
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Message: The verb 'did' requires the base form of the verb: 'prevent'
Suggestion: prevent
...nce of a civilian bearing a firearm did prevented the loss of innocent lives 11 times a g...
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Message: Two consecutive dots
Suggestion: .
...gun stopped a bad guy, saving lives, n.d.. Studies suggest however, that gun posse...
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Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
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...funds to advocate or promote gun control Keneally, 2018, meaning that even a simp...
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...eaths associated with firearms incidents Leaf, 2018. We need to deal with scho...
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, look, moreover, second, so, still, then, well, while, kind of
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 49.0 19.5258426966 251% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 22.0 12.4196629213 177% => OK
Conjunction : 45.0 14.8657303371 303% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 32.0 11.3162921348 283% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 70.0 33.0505617978 212% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 188.0 58.6224719101 321% => Less preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 48.0 12.9106741573 372% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 6784.0 2235.4752809 303% => Less number of characters wanted.
No of words: 1344.0 442.535393258 304% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.04761904762 5.05705443957 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 6.05480020807 4.55969084622 133% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.77766473591 2.79657885939 99% => OK
Unique words: 555.0 215.323595506 258% => Less unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.412946428571 0.4932671777 84% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 2091.6 704.065955056 297% => syllable counts are too long.
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 16.0 6.24550561798 256% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 17.0 4.99550561798 340% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 7.0 3.10617977528 225% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.77640449438 225% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.38483146067 114% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 40.0 20.2370786517 198% => OK
Sentence length: 33.0 23.0359550562 143% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 76.6832934869 60.3974514979 127% => OK
Chars per sentence: 169.6 118.986275619 143% => OK
Words per sentence: 33.6 23.4991977007 143% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.3 5.21951772744 44% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 8.0 4.97078651685 161% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 11.0 7.80617977528 141% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 10.2758426966 78% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 29.0 5.13820224719 564% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.83258426966 62% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.33115094088 0.243740707755 136% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0974684247792 0.0831039109588 117% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0872566590348 0.0758088955206 115% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.18194530692 0.150359130593 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0883389206292 0.0667264976115 132% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 19.2 14.1392134831 136% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.98 48.8420337079 78% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.92365168539 141% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 16.2 12.1743820225 133% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.6 12.1639044944 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.79 8.38706741573 105% => OK
difficult_words: 299.0 100.480337079 298% => Less difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 11.8971910112 118% => OK
gunning_fog: 15.2 11.2143820225 136% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.7820224719 136% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.