Mass Shootings in schools and social places has gained notoriety as a national security threat in the United States. The shooting at Santa Fe High School in Taxes raised a lot of concerns within the leadership of the US Congress. Nevertheless, concerns about mass shootings in the US took a back seat after debates about it fizzled out within a month. The US has six times more gun violence than its neighbor Canada and more than twice the rate in other developed nations (Lopez, 2018). The US has the highest rate of mass shootings in the world accounting for 31% of the total (Lopez, 2018). US citizens not affiliated with any terrorist group or anti-US government groups are mostly the ones involved these shootings. President Obama’s proposal to reduce the number of guns in civilian hands would have worked better in combating mass shooting in the US would have worked better than the new proposal of allocating security personnel to schools.
At the Federal government level, the Obama administration came up with proposals to curb gun violence but achieved little access. Obama administration came up with legislation that would make it hard for private citizens to own a gun, but members of Congress have always voted against strict gun laws. A gun control bill sponsored by Senator Joe Manchin in 2013, which sort to seal the few remaining loopholes on gun sales without background checks was voted down by members of Congress. This blame is put on gun manufacturing lobbyists who wield a lot of influence in Congress (Coaston, 2018). While congress has contributed dismally in alleviating this problem the attention should be directed to the Judiciary. The US court system should hand harsher punishments to gun offenders. Previously the courts have let loose trigger happy cops; the courts should hand harsh penalties to law enforcers who misuse guns under their possession.
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The Republican party is accused of not voting for the Gun Control legislation of the past. With the new Trump administration, new kinds of proposed solutions have emerged, but these solutions have not been implemented or debated in Congress. For example, some Republican members have proposed the use of drones to stop mass shootings in schools. Some have proposed deploying retired police or military personnel to schools to prevent this menace, and even arming teachers in classrooms. These measures aim at taking care of the shooter before they can kill anyone (Coaston, 2018). The current government has sought solutions which avoid the restriction of gun ownership by civilians. As such, some have pointed out that deploying security personnel to provide security against shooters is an expensive measure that can be easily avoided. The love that Americans have for handguns has made Congress find other solutions or find solutions that circumvent the restriction of gun ownership. State governments should be vigilant to enact legislations that will offer effective solutions to the problem of mass shooting and gun violence. State law enforcers should come up with their own mechanism of stopping this madness.
When President Obama was exiting office, a technology-related solution was proposed by his administration. However, there was little time to put the new idea into Practice. The new technology sought to have scanners that would only allow the owner of the firearm to use. This technology was thought out in response to the fact that a majority of these guns were owned by the parent or guardian of the shooter (McGregor, 2016). So smart gun manufacturer has emerged which manufacturer guns that would only allow the owner to fire. This idea is yet to be adopted by the government or mainstream America.
References
Henigan, D. A. (1991). Arms, Anarchy and the Second Amendment. Val. UL Rev. , 26 , 107.
Coaston, J., (2018). To Protect the Second Amendment, Conservatives are Dumping on the Fourth and Fifth. Vox.com, retrieved from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/19/17025886/right-wing-gun-control-solutions-school-shootings .
Lopez, G., (2018). I’ve Covered Gun Violence for Years. The Solutions aren’t a Big Mystery. Vox.com, retrieved from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-us-statistics-charts .
McGregor, J., 2016. President Obama’s Final Shot at Gun Control. Forbes Magazine. Retrieved From https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2016/11/04/how-to-regulate-guns-with-technology-and-smart-guns/#1271783543a7 .
