Category: Chicago

Essay on Gun Violence in Chicago

Posted on | by Laureen

Essay on Gun Violence in Chicago

Growing up in one of the most dangerous cities in the United States knowing that my city had gun laws stricter than any in the whole Nation concerned me knowing that gun control does little to nothing to stop gun shootings. Firearms had never been an issue throughout the previous centuries in the United States until it abruptly became a reoccurring dilemma in the twentieth century. Guns should not be taken away from United States citizens as it violates our 2nd constitutional right even though the Democrats want to find a way to defend ourselves. The Left group also says that guns are the problem when in reality it’s the man behind the gun. Left groups have been protesting in hopes of gun control and have also been publishing misinterpreted statistics in the news, as well as the increase in the use of propaganda posters and articles contradicting rights regarding guns.

The political definition of a “Left Group” is a group of individuals who tend to be known as left-wingers who are generally known as Liberals who are in favor of free healthcare, stricter gun control laws, free and accessible public education, open borders, and many more attributes. Left-wingers want to push out false information for example; Assault Weapon (AR) but, what the media doesn’t show is that the word AR actually stands for “Arma Lite”. This proves that the Left Wingers want to put out false information to convince the population of something that is not true. Not only do they say that AR stands for Assault Rifle, but they also force the lie that all these “Assault Rifles” are automatic, when in reality they are semi-automatic and only fire bullets 1 at a time. There are also banned accessories that enhance the performance of an AR like, “Triggers” which help the weapon turn into a fully automatic weapon as well as, foregrips that help you keep steady aim and be more precise at what you are shooting at. Several states have also banned magazines that hold a capacity of 10 or more bullets. One false statement I read on a website named Gifford’s Law Center, the article stated that fewer people die from gun violence in states where gun laws are stricter. This is a false argument because Chicago has one of the strictest gun laws in the United States yet, young men are killing each other at an alarming rate as well as Chicago has the highest homicide rate. Around early August Chicago once again had one of its most deadly weeks but it hardly ever mainstreamed in the media due to it not fitting its narratives. The news only wants to put out information that contradicts gun rights. As shown even though Chicago has one of the strictest gun laws, it changes nothing. Criminals are still going to find a way to get their hands on guns while innocent civilians have nothing to protect themselves with. Just in that first week in August in Chicago, there were 52 people that were wounded, and 7 people died from just that first Saturday of the month. That following day another 17 people were shot and killed in West Side Chicago (Where I grew up) and there were 32 shootings in a span of just a weekend!

When roaming the streets in America, you never know if a dangerous criminal is on the run and trying to find someone to hold them hostage. Although America’s crime reports have drastically fallen 74 percent since the 1900’s, around every minute and thirty seconds a person in the United States is sexually assaulted. That’s around 350,000 assault cases every year and that’s not even counting on other crimes. According to the Daily Signal around 7.14 percent of Americans have a weapon on them and about 16.5 million have a permit to conceal a weapon. On average 80 percent of all gun-related homicides are gang and drug related as well. Criminals are named criminals because they break the law and why would we want to restrict law-abiding citizens when all it’s going to do is prevent the citizens of the United States of America from being able to defend thy selves? Restricting citizens from also buying AR-15s defeats the purpose of defending themselves properly. If an intruder comes into my home, I want to make sure he gets injured and not be able to attack and hurt me. Taking away an AR-15 would give the intruder a way more possible chance of making it out alive and maybe escaping if I only used a simple 9mm handgun. On the other hand, getting shot in a vital organ by an AR-15 is slim to no chance of surviving which is why it’s important to allow citizens to keep their right to bear arms. According to NSVRC, 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted or raped in their lifetime. Women tend to not be able to defend themselves in most cases and that is why they are most likely to become a victim in these gruesome acts of sexual violence instead of the left wing allowing bear arms as it is, they want to restrict us to defend ourselves. There are only 23 states that have a law enacted that prevents college adults from carrying a concealed weapon on campus. And according to ThoughtsCo. less than 26 of young adults carry a concealed weapon or own a gun. Also, Women have a 1 in 5 chance to be sexually assaulted on campus and we can reduce that number by encouraging students to purchase a weapon for their own safety. According to Norc.org, about 18 percent of low-income families own a weapon inside their home. It is also said that low-income neighborhoods tend to have more violent crimes around the communities and by increasing the amount of gun ownership in these low-income homes we can prevent and reduce the high amount of violent crime that tends to go on in these communities.

In order to keep the gun rights that our founding fathers set in place to protect the Bill of Rights the media needs to stop being biased. The media has biased thoughts on many controversial topics, for example, Pro Life vs. Pro Choice, the 2020 election, Animal Testing, Climate Change, Student Education, and many more. The media also influences young teens to believe a topic that isn’t what it seems like. They only show the good parts of it the media always wants the story to fit its narrative. For example, the Alabama High School Football shooter happened in the same month that the El Paso shooting happened. An African American male shot up a football game where around 10 people were shot and rushed to the hospital. You really didn’t hear this story on the news because it didn’t fit the news agenda, and this is not what they want to mainstream. The news has a selective choice of reporting and showing the population shootings of white male supremacists that support our “narcissistic” president. Another example is the Dayton shooting where a white male shot 27 people and killed 10 bystanders in under 30 seconds. This shooting happened 24 hours after the El Paso shooting occurred, but it didn’t get the same mainstream as the El Paso shooting. The male shooter at the Dayton shooting previously participated and voted for the Democratic party which does not fit the agenda of the media outlet. Connor Brett (The Dayton shooter) supported Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as well as an organization called “ANTIFA”. In my opinion, I would consider “Antifa” as a terrorist group, since all they do is violently protest and harm and disrupt the peace of the public. The definition of “Antifa” according to Cincinatti.com, is that Antifa protests the far-right side (Republican Ideology) and is considered a “militant group. Being a supporter of Democratic candidates also does not fit the news agenda which is why they didn’t mainstream the news on the Dayton shooter as much as the El Paso shooter.

Media outlets like CNN, Fox News, BuzzFeed, Vox, and many more are known for releasing fake information misleading the public to believe statistics or reports that are misinterpreted, not true, or taken way out of context. Not only does the media have to stop reporting news that fits their agenda they also have to report true and accurate statistics about gun-related deaths in the United States. For example, in a Vox news video about “Gun Violence,” they mislead you to believe that the increase in legal gun purchases is equal to the amount of gun violence. The video states that America was number one on the suicide list compared to other countries with the best “Human Development” and half of those suicides are with guns. First of all, using suicide as a political tool to restrict citizens from having their basic human rights restricted is all kinds of wrong. Vox strictly narrows it down to only show how high gun-related suicides are in the United States so they can prove that guns should be regulated and taken away from us. What Vox did was that they only showed the “Humanly Developed” Countries and with that, we are at the top of the list for suicide rates but in reality, South Korea, Poland, and Japan have some of the highest suicide rates per capita and they also have some of the strictest gun laws. Restricting gun laws does little to nothing to change violence and gun-related deaths. The only thing that restricting guns is going to do is allow more illegal crimes and basically help criminals perform illegal actions simply because they don’t have to worry about anyone else carrying a gun. After the Firearms Act of 1996 in Australia gun-related suicide only decreases slightly every year. According to the American Public Health Association suicide rates have only decreased 4.4 percent with men and around 2.2 percent with women every year. Once again, I bring it back to the Gun Control does nothing to help people out and reduce crimes. People are somehow still going to get their hands on a gun whether that means for protection or for gang/drug-related means. In 2018 despite the 1996 ban, there was a slaughter of family in Australia that killed 7 people and 4 of them were children (Lopez). Not only that, the video is filled with false interpreting information that takes it out of context or it always focuses and provides information that targets the United States as having the worst Gun Death toll in the world.

The “Left Wing” is something that you believe in, for example, people who want the stoppage of killing unborn babies are called “pro-lifers”. Many people who are Left-wing mostly are in support of open borders, Pro-Choice, stricter gun laws, free education, and many more controversial topics along those lines. Instead of only mainstreaming topics that support the Left Wing, the media should be corrupt in a way that they showcase both sides so the People of the United States of America can see what the big issue is here. Not only do Left Wing media channels state some false information they also do it to rig the election in order to elect someone for their own personal gain. Many Democratic states for example Illinois a democratic states one of the strictest gun laws in place yet so many young adults are killing themselves. Many left-wing media don’t show how there are shootings in Chicago basically every day because this proves that gun violence can’t be controlled and try to move their way around this situation in order to try and convince the public that guns have to be restricted. Media reporting only left-wing biased information will have a negative effect on the outcome because most of the generation now is very ignorant and will believe anything they hear. If students now hear bad information about topics like gun laws, it is going to change their beliefs about why we should have stricter gun laws in the United States. Reporting false information about someone is also impactful because it can result in their name being known as something terrible. The Media should not get as much attention for publishing misinterpreted information and companies like Google and Facebook try to blacklist and remove channels, articles, posts, and videos of right-wing agendas. This is why you hardly see any news articles favoring gun rights, all they want to do is restrict us from using our guns as a way of self-defense. According to The Future of Freedom Foundation, the reason the founding fathers placed the 2nd amendment was to ensure that we can rise up and defend ourselves from robbers, murderers, rapists, torturers, and tyrants (Hornberger 1). Adolph Hitler was one major example of why we shouldn’t take guns away from citizens in one of his quotes he states, “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected peoples to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so…” (Hitler) We all have the right to defend ourselves and they are trying to restrict us from doing so.

In conclusion, A man and Women have the god given the right to defend ourselves and we as the People of the United States of America have to stop hiding the opinions and facts of the right side. The new incoming generation has to see both sides in order to see what the real deal is and not only see the left-wing agenda that is streamed on about every platform there is. We need to shine light on the Right-side viewpoints of many controversial topics like gun control, so we won’t have to worry about tyranny when have the right to defend ourselves with our AK, AR, and pistols.

Works Cited

    1. “’AR’ Stands for ArmaLite • NSSF.” NSSF, 23 May 2011, www.nssf.org/ar-stands-for-armalite/.
    2. Bosman, Julie. “Chicago Has Its Worst Weekend of Gun Violence in 2019 as 7 Are Killed.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Aug. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/us/chicago-violence-guns.html.
    3. Cullen, Terence. “Assault Weapons Have Sinister Accessories Beyond Bump Stocks.” Nydailynews.com, New York Daily News, 7 Apr. 2018, www.nydailynews.com/news/national/assault-weapons-sinister-accessories-bump-stocks-article-1.3543115.
    4. “Gun Violence Statistics.” Gifford’s Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, lawcenter.giffords.org/facts/gun-violence-statistics/.
    5. “Left Wing vs. Right Wing.” Diffen, www.diffen.com/difference/Left_Wing_vs_Right_Wing.
    6. “Scope of the Problem: Statistics.” RAINN, www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem.
    7. Cole, Nicki Lisa. “The Surprising Demographics Behind American Gun Ownership.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 3 July 2019, www.thoughtco.com/who-really-owns-guns-3026230.
    8. “Dayton Shooting: What We Know about Connor Betts’ Politics.” Google, Google, www.Google.com/amp/s/amp.cincinnati.com/amp/1942122001.
    9. Instructions, Submission. ‘The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) from the American Public Health Association (APHA) publications.’ American Public Health Association (APHA) publications. n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2019. http://ajph.aphapublications.org/
    10. German Lopez. ‘Australia is often held as a model for gun control. That doesn’t make it immune to mass shootings..’ Vox. 11 May 2018. Web. 1 Oct. 2019. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/5/11/17345214/australia-mass-shooting-margaret-river-osmington
    11. Jacob G. Hornberger. ‘Gun Control and Tyranny – The Future of Freedom Foundation.’ The Future of Freedom Foundation. 1 Mar. 2018. Web. 2 Oct. 2019.