Gun Control: The Role Of Violence In The Media

Guns are a big controversial topic within today’s society; concerning the regulations, the second amendment, and the violence that trails behind them. Every day on the news you would hear about someone being shot, it does not matter what kind of shooting. A school shooting, police shooting, or just some random person’s death being plastered all over the news. In any of those scenarios, you would always hear about the person who did the shooting. However, you would hear more about the gun than you would on the person who did the shooting. Why? The media slaughters the guns, blaming them as if they have a mind of their own. Although, guns are used to do the killing, guns are not to blame.
They are nothing but an innocent bystander in a game that is bigger than what we think. You always hear about the guns. You always hear about someone dying in a shooting, someone being shot to death by the police. Media covers those victims but what about the people who were fatally stabbed to death, the ones who died as a result of being beaten to death on the street. In an article published by Alan Gottlieb, he states “1,567 people were murdered with knives or other cutting instruments in 2014. Along with 428 people who died from a street fight in 2013” Do you remember hearing anything on the news about these numbers, or
any major death with a knife? No. Anybody being beaten to death? No. Society picks and chooses what they want to hear and what they want to blame. [Gottileb] Gun control, gun regulations, gun violence, gun elimination, they are all based around the same concept; trying to get the gun banned.
The anti-gun activists have a point. Gun violence has gotten out of control. There is a gun problem in America and it is worse in some states than others. They think it would just be better to get rid of them all or place tighter regulations on the owners and buyers so they cannot get them. Having more regulations is a good idea but would it do anything. Placing even more regulations and restrictions on guns will just make people want them more. If somebody wants a gun bad enough, then they will find a way to get a hold of
one. In an article published by Joseph Blocher in 2013, he goes on to say “ The primary target of such local regulation is a gun-related crime. And though the empirics are messy and contested, gun crime is clearly an urban problem.” If you think about it, he is right. Yes, gun violence is all over America, but you do not even really hear of any major shootings or violence down south. You mostly hear about it being in Chicago, Illinois, New York cities, Connecticut, and cities along with states that are extremely urbanized. The point is, no matter what you try to do, no matter what plan you think will help, it will not help the situation. People and guns just do not mix well. People will always want to have guns, they will always find a way to get a gun if they cannot get one legally. [Blocher]
People are the problem. Today’s society is the problem. They did not have this problem fifty or sixty years ago. If you want things to change with guns, and with the violence that follows them, then you have to change the people. Get them to change to see a drop in crime rates, get them to change to see a drop in gun violence. Everything leads back to us, the people. People changing is the solution.