Future Legislation: The Future Of Violence

Future Legislation

Our nation has suffered too much at the hands of dangerous people who use guns to commit horrific acts of violence. As President Obama said following the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, “We won’t be able to stop every violent act, but if there is even one thing that we can do to prevent any of these events, we have a deep obligation, all of us, to try. “Most gun owners are responsible and law-abiding, and they use their guns safely. But to better protect our children and our communities from tragic mass shootings like those in Newtown, Aurora, Oak Creek, and Tucson, there are common-sense steps we can take right now. While no law or set of laws will end gun violence, it is clear that the American people want action,

Studies reflect that violence on campus is most commonly perpetrated by students, against students. In response to the Virginia Tech shooting, the U.S. Secret Service, Department of Education, and F.B.I. studied violence at institutions of higher education. As part of this study, 272 incidents of targeted violence were identified through a comprehensive search of open-source reports from 1900 to 2008. The incidents include various forms of targeted violence, ranging from domestic violence to mass murder. Most incidents occurred during the 1990s and 2000s. Across these 272 incidents, the perpetrators killed 281 people and injured 247 more. The perpetrators used guns 54% of the time, knives or bladed instruments 21% of the time, and a combination of weapons 10% of the time. Florida had the fourth highest number of incidents in the

He killed twelve people and wounded another 58.But just a few weeks later, another American community faced the unimaginable grief that cities like Tucson and Aurora knew too well. In Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a shooting in a Sikh temple left six people dead and four more wounded.

Despite witnessing these tragedies again and again and again, nothing could have steeled the nation for what would happen in Newtown, Connecticut. On December 14, 2012, the day had just begun at Sandy Hook Elementary when a man broke into the school and started shooting. Within minutes, twenty of Sandy Hook’s first graders – 6 and 7 year olds – were killed in their classrooms. The school’s principal and psychologist were among the six staff members who died trying to protect the children in their care.

The most recent shooting to come to mind is the Umpqua Community College Shooting that took place on October 1, 2015 at the UCC campus near Roseburg, Oregon, United States. Christopher Harper-Mercer, a 26-year-old student enrolled at the school, fatally shot an assistant professor and eight students in a classroom. Nine other students were injured. Police officers responding to the incident engaged the gunman in a brief shootout. After being wounded, the gunman shot himself dead. The mass shooting was the deadliest in Oregon 's modern