World

Philadelphia Needs Gun Control

Lauren Kuhn, Student Writer|February 23, 2023

American Flag in front of Pennridge High School.

Gun Violence has been a rising topic all around the world. The total number of deaths resulting from gun violence cases in 2022 was 44,296 in the United States. Many innocent people are harmed daily because of people being in control of a firearm and abusing that power. The United States Constitution’s Second Amendment states that legally you have the right to bear arms. Although the United States had the highest number of homicides by firearm: that rate being in the world’s most developed populations. With a country that holds less than five percent of the world’s population, civil-owned guns make up 46 percent of the world.

Moving closer to the US, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, there have been 29 homicides reported at the beginning of this year, 2023. As of January 30, 2023, there have been 114 nonfatal and 25 fatal victims due to these shootings. Last year in 2022, 514 people were killed in the city alone, with more than one person killed per day. Two thousand two hundred seventy-three people were shot in the town last year, less than in 2021 but more than in 2019, before the pandemic. In an interview with a Philadelphia police officer, Danny McGee, he is asked if gun violence will continue to grow or decrease over time. Mcgee states, “Not as long as there is a progressive District Attorney in Philadelphia, there will always be more gun violence because there is no fear of prosecution. In 2021 the Philadelphia police department made more gun arrests, yet there were still over 500 homicides. The number of prosecutions in those gun cases was deficient due to the District Attorney’s office.”

Comparatively, looking at Canada, there are about 35 forearms per 100 people, ranking fifth globally. In the year 2021, there were around eight victims of violent crime with a firearm that was present. There were also 297 victims of homicide, where a shooting was the primary cause of death that year. The rate of 78 percent per 100,000 people is the highest since 1992. When connecting gun violence and school violence, the rate is increasing entirely. As of December 20, 2022, there were 300 school shooting incidents on school grounds 2022. When in 2010, there were only 15, still 15 too many.

In the world we live in today, we need to take into consideration the lives that are lost every day due to gun violence. When asked how we can decrease gun violence, McGee states, “When a person is arrested with a gun, there needs to be a five-year minimum jail sentence.” With a response like this from a police officer that deals with such crimes daily and knows the ins and outs of the charges of gun violence, we can take this answer into thought.

Sources:
https://web.s.ebscohost.com/pov/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=4a8b66a7-5d01-4e49-8024-80e1fcd93b77%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9cG92LWxpdmU%3d#AN=28675316&db=pwh

https://maxwellmuseum.unm.edu/exhibits/temporary/gun-violence-brief-cultural-history Three types of laws could reduce gun deaths by more than 10% | Science