One of the biggest issues people never really pay attention to is gun violence. Gun violence increases every year, and many people lose family members to gun violence at an early age. So far, the state government hasn’t done anything about it as more and more people are owning guns every day. Despite New York Residents owning guns to keep themselves protected, gun violence in New York will continue to be a bigger problem because of gun shops giving guns to people legally.

Gun Violence Affects Teenagers

Around New York, there have been a lot of cases of gun violence that involve teenagers. Sometimes, teenagers are in the wrong place at the wrong time or they are involved in gun violence which results in the teenagers losing their lives. Recently, in the news, a mother lost her 16-year-old son to gun violence with three other teenagers almost a week ago. There’s also been a mass shooting that even killed more teenagers too. Many teenagers are owning guns at an early age, which should be illegal. The state government needs to discuss teenagers owning guns and how to stop that from happening. Many teenagers are turning to gangs and involving themselves in homicides, ending up dead at a young age, or going to prison due to gun violence. Gun violence has ended in teenagers losing their own lives through either death or prison.

Gun Are Being Given Legally

Because of the 2nd Amendment, people are allowed to own a gun for protection, but it also causes an increase in gun violence too. People decide to own a gun for different reasons other than protecting themselves, using it to kill somebody for a reason or for gang related situations. The state government needs to think about the kinds of people that want to own a gun. There are not even thorough background checks to make sure that the person is capable of owning a gun. Since people are just handing guns to just anybody, gun violence increases. There are people out there who use guns to kill and most likely own guns legally. There should be changes in how people should legally own a gun before being handed one, either a better background check or making sure it’s a good reason for the person to have a gun before giving it away.

Gun Violence Emergency

Around the beginning of this month of July, Andrew Cuomo, New York Governor, has brought on a meeting about gun violence. He realizes the big increase in gun violence that’s happening in New York, mainly in NYC. Cuomo is currently finding a way to prevent gun violence in New York with “a new gun-violence prevention office within the Health Department.” The state government is currently putting in $139 million “in state aid for the various initiatives, comes amid a surge nationwide in gun violence” to help with lowering crime rates that increase with gun violence. Even our current president is going to plan a bill to prevent more shootings. Ever since coronavirus has started, gun violence resulted in over 40,000 deaths. Republicans are even blaming Democrats for this increase because they are allowing people to own guns legally or illegally, resulting in the increase of gun violence. This emergency should’ve happened years ago and it took more deaths in 2020 for gun violence to be considered a major problem in New York. 

Police And Gun Violence

The police are supposed to be the ones to handle gun violence that is happening in New York but they have been struggling. There have been so many mass shootings lately and it looks like the policemen are unable to stop it. Even though they have been tracking down illegal gun selling, it hasn’t stopped gun violence. The police are realizing that no matter what they do, the shootings will never go down because people have guns that they pass to others to use for themselves. The police also have been arresting people that are involved in the gun shootings but gun violence is still increasing in New York. There have been so many guns being passed around and the police just can’t keep up with it. Gun violence will continue to increase no matter how many arrests police will make due to gun violence, as many people are given guns. 

The Use of Guns for Protection

Even though people have the right to own a gun for their own protection, it still increases gun violence. The amount of people owning a gun legally ends up with people being shot and killed. Most gun violence is not even self defense; it ends up being murder. Allowing people to own guns causes people to lose their own lives. Especially teenagers who die too young to even grow old and could possibly have a successful career. There should be a different way for people to protect themselves without even thinking about using a gun. If people need protection from someone, they should ask the police for help or install a security system so they know somebody broke into their house. The person can also ask a friend or family member to stay with them for a while until they know that they are safe. Nobody should own a gun unless they are working for law enforcement or they are in the military.

Solution(s) to Gun Violence

So far there haven’t been any solutions to gun violence but since Andrew Cuomo has brought on the issue of gun violence, Congress plans to have an anti-crime bill being made right now. A solution can also have detectives investigating illegal gun distribution that’s occurring around New York so the mass shootings can decrease. Andrew Cuomo is even putting in over 10 million dollars to workforces so they can fight gun violence. Congress needs to also change their gun laws so that it will be harder for criminals to easily own a gun. There needs to be a policy for selling guns legally, and they need to do a background check on people before handing them a gun. If those gun law changes are stronger, there would be less people owning a gun and less shootings happening.