When thinking about controversial topics, many different examples come to mind. Out of those different topics, one of the most prevalent in our country today is the debate on whether guns should have more or less restrictions. Regardless of what the media and others say I believe that gun control is not the answer and implementing more laws to get rid of guns only complicates the issue further. I believe this is the case because of the extensive amount of research that I have done on this topic. The sources that I have used have been in compliance with and have opposed my beliefs, which only made my argument stronger. To strengthen my stance I had to look deeper into what exactly may be causing gun related issues in our country. While doing research, four major objectives were put into focus. The four core objectives that were found while researching this topic were to first, look at any details in the articles that oppose my viewpoint so a new perspective could be seen involving this topic. Second, to formulate a statement which allowed me to explain how the opposing viewpoint has helped me see the real issues of gun control and gun issues. Next was to formulate a personal argument using all the facts gained through research, as well as the certain parts of the issue. Proof is very important when trying to debate a certain topic. Facts and proof must be given to establish what is credible and true, which is why it is important to add how the sources are credible. Lastly I researched the role that mental health has on mass shootings of the past and shootings that have happened more recently. Using this information I have tried to think of possible solutions as well as research solutions that various authors have thought of.  Articles and other sources I have had available to me have assured me that the information I have used for this argument is legitimate and will provide a new insight to the issue.

To understand a subject fully you must first look at it from every perspective to truly grasp what others believe, and how their beliefs contradict yours. This way you can find flaws in your own argument as well as an opposing argument to form a new and better one without bias. While doing research it is good to start with extremes and descend to a viewpoint which is somewhat centered and non biased. The first viewpoint that I studied showed me that there are groups of people who would like to see guns disappear as a whole in order to fix our issue. Although this is the polar opposite to my beliefs I read on to see the reasoning behind this. To my surprise the article was quite intriguing and provided new facts and standpoints that I had not seen prior to my research. Such as a statement I came across that stated that as time has gone on the second amendment has been interpreted liberally and the American people have misinterpreted the amendment and have no reason not to attempt to have it repealed (Bovy). Although I do not feel strongly about this, it made me realize that the american people truly do have the right to say that they believe the constitution is outdated and could argue that guns laws could be repealed or replaced. While continuing my research I came upon an interesting video which displayed charts with facts about gun violence. These different graphs use visuals that show statistics and facts about guns in the United States compared to other countries. Along with this, the graphs also show these statistics in different situations such as homicides, suicides and mass shootings. This information was extremely eye opening and interesting. Although this information is accurate and had far less bias than the previous source, there was one thing that left me thinking. In all of these charts they have the facts for gun violence in general, but not once do they explain the details about how the guns involved were acquired or who was in possession of those guns. This was interesting due to the fact that gun control means more laws put in place to restrict legal gun users and owners. However, what is to be done about the large majority of crimes that are committed with guns that were purchased illegally. To add to this, what is to be done about things such as gang, and drug cartel violence involving guns. This video was very informational and helped me to open my eyes to a new set of data and information about gun control. Although, to me, there were some details left out or hidden. 

With extensive research on the opposing viewpoints of this issue facts and statistics began to separate themselves from biased statements and beliefs. Along with this new viewpoints and discoveries helped to separate the real issues from the not so real ones. While reading the article written by Phoebe Maltz Bovy, I came to a very important realization, not all people in the united states have grown up around guns or around gun owners.  This brings up an interesting quote with a bit of background of the authors life, “Then there is the privilege argument. If you grew up somewhere in America where gun culture wasn’t a thing (as is my situation; I’m an American living in Canada), or even just in a family that would have never considered gun ownership, you’ll probably be accused of looking down your nose at gun culture.” (Bovy). This statement really stood out because it made me realize that if you did not grow up understanding legal ownership of guns your views are different from those who have. For example, there is a large chance that you will blame the laws put in place when a shooting occurs, rather than accuse the criminal. But why has the United States become a country with so much gun culture. When looking at other countries there is not nearly as much violence as the United States. The US commits more homicides with guns, as well as mass shootings and even suicides than any other country (YouTube). Using this newly found information I started to wonder why this is and wondering what we as a country can do to lower these numbers. An author named Kimberly Leonard had an interesting take on how to do this. Leonard proposes that we institute gun information into daily things such as routine check ups (Leonard). For instance in her article she states, “Doctors already counsel patients about a range of safety issues, including avoiding lead paint, wearing seatbelts, getting vaccinated and dealing with the dangers of backyard pools. If the designation were to change, they could more often ask patients about whether they keep a gun in the home and, if so, how it is secured.”(Leonard). This quote is an explanation of Leonard’s idea to implement gun counseling into routine checkups, or specific appointments so owners can become more aware and educated on their responsibilities as a gun owner. I believe that if we were to start educating children on the severity and dangers of guns at a relatively early age they would learn to understand the true damage that guns can do. This would allow gun safety to work its way into our culture over time. These three sources have allowed me to add to my argument and create a new stance on this issue, which I believed has made my argument stronger and more appropriate.

When it comes to gun control my main thoughts were that there should not be any more laws and restrictions than there already are. Although I still strongly believe that there should not be an extensive amount of new laws that should be put in place. I myself believe that instead of adding new laws there should be laws that are replaced with better ones. If we were to ban guns there is always a way for someone to get one illegally. To add to this, gun laws cannot stop events caused by terrorist acts or gang violence, two of which make up the majority of mass shootings in the United States. Lastly the term “mass shooting” can be classified as any group homicide exceeding 4 people. This can be related to terrorist activity and gang based activity whereas in the current media it is a shooting in a public place which is uncommon for a shooting. To begin the argument that people can always acquire weapons illegally I would like to point out the tragic shooting in Newtown connecticut where a gunman opened fire on an elementary school. When looking back on this shooting, people wondered how the weapons were acquired in the first place due to the shooters past with mental illness. This incident showed that anyone can acquire a weapon illegally, whereas the process to legally buy a weapon is extensive consisting of background checks and evaluations. Even to gain your license to own a gun you must attend classes and take tests to prove qualification for gun ownership. When looking at how many crimes are actually committed with weapons that were legally purchased or exchanged it is a very low percentage. In fact when a crime is committed with a firearm there is about a 3% chance that that crime was committed by a legally exchanged firearm (Greenberg, 1). When moving to the topic of terrorism, I believe that there is no way gun control can prevent a terrorist attack involving a firearm. I believe that the best way to prevent this is to have citizens who legally carry guns who can put an end to such a situation. An example of this is the shooting not long ago at a nightclub in orlando. One article writes, “By every account, the shooter Omar Mateen was ideologically and theologically motivated—he called 911 to pledge his loyalty to the leader of the Islamic State before starting his homophobic attack”(Gillespie). this quote proves that Omar Mateen was in fact a terrorist. To add to this Mateen also chose a location where another person with a firearm was not likely to be present due to the fact that it was not a hostile environment but a place to have fun and relax. Moving to gang violence, the city of Chicago seems to jump off the page whenever gun violence is brought up. Chicago has some of the harshest gun laws in the United States. With this in mind Chicago also has some of the worst gang violence and firearm homicides in all of the United States. In an article about Chicago’s violence the author states, “At the year's midpoint, 323 people have died in Chicago violence — one more homicide than a year earlier. With the bulk of the summer still ahead, the city is on course at that pace to top 700 homicides for a second consecutive year”(Gorner). This quote shows the extensive amount of violence in Chicago regardless of their extreme gun laws and bans. So after seeing these statistics what would lead the people to believe that more gun laws can help prevent gun violence. Lastly when thinking of the term mass shooting usually visuals of events such as the Orlando shooting and Las Vegas shooting runs through the public’s minds, but this is not what classifies a mass shooting. A mass shooting can be classified as, “Using the widely accepted definition of at least four killed,” (Gillespie). This means that any shooting over four people can be defined as a mass shooting. The issue with this is the media covers all the major mass shootings which are mostly in places that are not usually thought of as dangerous places. However what the media does not talk about is each and every occurence of gang violence. Compared to gang murders over four people, the number of shootings we see on the news is an extremely small fraction. Not to be mistaken, four lives is four too many, but why blame law abiding gun owners for a small percentage of our population. 

With all these topics and perspectives at hand, there is one that has not been overly addressed. This topic is that of mental health and the role it has in mass shootings. The solution to this issue could be the answer to preventing the majority of mass public shootings. When thinking about mass shootings most people think of it as domestic terrorism, but what if it was not that at all, but just a mentally confused person who has trouble controlling their actions. Not to say that their actions can be justified because of this, but they can at least be explained and hopefully fixed. An author for “Frontiers in Public Health” states in one of her articles that, “researchers found mental problems to be related to trauma from broken homes with prior physical or sexual abuse, psychotic behavior with symptoms of schizophrenia or schizotypal personality disorders with paranoid delusions and psychopathic behavior of narcissism, a lack of empathy, a lack of conscience, and sadistic behavior.” (Rubens). This quote explains that with some shooters, there is usually a disturbed individual who grew up in unhealthy and abusive homes as a young child. So what is to be done about these people who could have potentially dangerous conditions. A possible solution to this would be to make sure households are safe for children and to make sure they are in good hands and on the right path. This can refer to abusive parents as well as parents who just don’t care and let their kids do as they please with possibly the wrong kind of people. The issue with diagnosing mentally unstable people is that it is not a very easy task to complete and the clinicians who diagnose these patients may not always be correct in their diagnoses due to the fact that it is a very inexact science (Swanson). In fact after certain experiments and trials, it was found that predicting the violence in certain patients was “only slightly more accurate than flipping a coin” (Swanson). This statistic is astonishing mostly because there is only a 50% chance that a potentially violent patient will only be diagnosed 50% of the time and the other 50% of the time they are cleared and put back into society without any restrictions. The issue with this is that now those patients can pass a background check and, if desired, could purchase a firearm legally. Due to this information it is clear that one of the first steps that should be taken to end mass public shootings would be to advance technology when it comes to mental health screenings and diagnoses. 

When thinking about controversial topics, many different examples come to mind. Out of those different topics, one of the most prevalent in our country today is the debate on whether guns should have more or less restrictions. After my extensive research I still believe that gun control is not the answer and implementing more laws to get rid of guns only complicates the issue further. However, I have gained more knowledge on certain things such as mental illness as well as certain statistics involving the United States’ gun violence. After forming this argument the  proof that I had researched was inspected and found to be credible and true. Lastly I researched the role that mental health has on mass shootings of the past and shootings that have happened more recently. After concluding my research my views have changed in different aspects. Instead of searching for new laws to change or replace, I came to the realization that this was not the answer. To begin to decrease the issue of gun violence we must start at the source of the issue. Whether it be gang violence or screenings for mental illness we must search for solutions to the small issues and slowly start to fix the big issue. 
