Gun Control
In 2015 13,286 people were killed in the United States due to firearms, according to the Gun Violence Achieve and 26,819 people were injured (those figures exclude suicide). In 2015 there were 372 mass shootings and 64 school shootings in the United States. So many people die annually from gunfire in the U.S that the death toll between 1968 and 2011 eclipses all wars ever fought by the country. If that doesn't make you think we have a gun control issue, I don't know what will. America needs to make stricter gun control laws in order to prevent more deaths.
Buying a gun legally in the United States is not a difficult task. In order to purchase a rifle or shotgun, the only requirement is to be 18 years old. And in order to purchase a handgun you have to 21 years old. Background checks are only required if the seller is federally licensed but it is not required that the seller be federally licensed to sell. Unlicensed gun sellers sell at gun shows and there are no definite numbers available for how many gun shows there are each year. The department of Justice estimates that there are 2,000 to 5,200 gun shows held in the United States each year. That’s as many as 100 each week.
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This is obviously a big risk. Of all the murders in the U.S in 2012, 60% were by firearms compared with 31% in Canada, 18.2% in Australia and just 10% in the UK. Requiring background checks and mental health screenings as part of the process to buying a gun would not fix all the gun problems we have but it would make a difference. One law alone can't fix everything but the U.S needs to start