For my research project I decided to look into gun control issues; more specifically should normal civilians be semi-automatic assault rifles. With the vast number of shootings and mass murders that occur do to gun violence in the United States each year, I became very interested in the topic of gun control. I wanted to narrow my topic to something more specific since gun control is very broad, and decided on the issues of regular civilians being able to purchase semi-automatic assault rifles. When these assault rifles are purchased they are semi-automatic, meaning that they aren't fully automatic like the ones used by soldiers in war, but with a little bit of rigging they can easily become automatic. I have never been personally affected by someone I know dying at the hands of gun violence, but my morals have led me to believe that there should be stricter gun laws to protect citizens. As a citizen of the United States, who is currently of voting age, I believed I am qualified to address this issue, because gun control laws affect me; whether directly or indirectly. Gun violence knows no one race or profile, so in the future there is no guarantee it won't affect me or someone close to me personally, which is why I wanted to research and look into the laws and issues of gun violence more. 

My first article I researched for this project, compared statistics of gun control violence to the number of deaths in all American wars. Through research I found out that since 1963 more American have died from gun related tragedies compared to the death total of all American wars. This article also bought attention to the fact that gun violence is not just homicides, but it also includes suicides (U.S. Shootings Since 1963 Have Killed More Americans Than All Wars Ever, 2016). The point of this article was to bring light to the issue of gun violence and how it has truly had an effect on the American public. In this article there was no real bias, because it was informative and just relayed information on gun violence in America. The author of this article is credible, because he is a journalist for a national news media outlet, The Huffington Post, and mainly writes columns on crime related topics. 

My next article outlined the link between gun possession and staying safe in the case of gun assault. The article was a study from 2003-2006, that followed random people to see if them possessing a gun would have any affect on their safety if they were caught in the middle of gun violence. The study found that even though people may have owned guns they were not more safe then someone who did not own a gun, when it came to cases of gun violence (Investigating the Link Between Gun Possession and Gun Assault, 2009). The article had no bias, because it was a study, so it was just plain and simple facts; there was no real room to take sides. The articles author Charles Branas, is credible when it comes to studies on firearm debates, because this is not the first study he has ever done on the topic. 

The final article I researched was on the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting tragedy that occurred in 2012. This article really focused in on my topic of assault rifles, because it was following the tragedy and discussed the issues of Americans being able to purchase assault rifles, and the terrible outcome of these weapons getting in the wrong hands. The author of this article addressed the fact, that if this shooter did not have a semi-automatic weapon, he probably would not have been able to kill as many people as he did in the time period of the shooting, because a regular gun would not have been able to get shots off that fast (Assault Weapons Are Weapons of Mass Destruction and Should be Banned, 2012). The article was biased, because it was written after a mass murder had occurred in which an assault rifle was used in the shooting and the author has advocated for gun control before. The author, Robert Creamer, however is credible due to him advocating for gun control for the democratic party. 

When it comes to the issue of gun violence, it is a very debatable topic, because people feel strongly about whether guns should or should not be allowed by citizens of the United States at all, and if they are allowed whether or not citizens should be allowed access to military weaponry. The sources that I was able to find all agree that gun violence is real, and people are being affected by it. The sources also bought my attention to how gun violence affects the American people, and have made me believe that people should have a right to carry guns, but not weapons of war. In the future I may revise my research question to address whether or not a specific type of semi-automatic assault rifle should be accessible to civilians, because currently I am very broad on the type of assault rifle I am 

