Free Essay Sample on Deaths by Firearms: Prevalence, Injury, and Prevention

Introduction

Deaths from firearms are key social and legal concerns to people around the world. The statistics of the occurrence of deaths and unintentional injuries related to firearms are worrying. For instance, Tasigiorgos et al. (2015) stated that firearms injuries in the United States account for about 6.6% of the preventable deaths. Equally, firearms are used in 21% of muggings, 50% of suicides, and 67% of homicide cases, while 30000 deaths annually are caused by gunshots (Tasigiorgos et al., 2015). These high death rates are attributed to the lack of robust gun policies that have granted people unrestricted access to firearms, thereby increasing the risk of harming themselves and others. As such, regulations on gun ownership and use are vital to mitigating gun-related deaths and injuries.

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Gun Violence

Gun violence cases are increasing owing to the weak gun policies. Lee (2018) maintained that states having more households that possess guns and fewer firearm laws report more wrongful deaths from shooting. Some groups, such as the National Rifle Association, have opposed most firearm control policies even though the rising gun violence has increased the number of avoidable deaths. Such groups fail to recognize that regulating the ownership and the use of guns would reduce cases of accidental shooting significantly. However, Lee (2018) also cited other groups, such as Everytown for Gun Safety, which champion for regulations of firearms to prevent tragedies, such as the unintentional shooting of JaJuan McDowell, a 14-year old boy, by his cousin in 2016. The judge ruled that this incident was manslaughter and only sentenced the cousin for a few months in prison. The death was preventable and although it was accidental, gun safety laws would have helped avert such cases.

Children

Children tend to be more vulnerable to accidental deaths from firearms since they do not understand the potential dangers associated with operating guns. Firearms require specific techniques to use them and, as such, children may be aware that guns are lethal weapons but are unable to operate them safely (Arsenault, 2020). For young adults aged above 20 years, the gun-related tragedies are no longer considered to be accidental but self-inflicted deaths (Solnick & Hemenway, 2019). A case in point is when someone thinks that a gun is unloaded then shoots himself while handling it. Nonetheless, regardless of whether the wrongful injuries and deaths are accidental or self-inflicted, they result from careless use of guns. The strain from these tragedies is not only felt by the victims but also the healthcare system, which incurs considerable costs trying to treat firearm-related injuries and avoid deaths. For these reasons, urgent measures are necessary to prevent more harms and fatalities.

Conclusion

In essence, the solutions to this issue are five-fold. First, psychiatrists should counsel children and parents about the possible risks of holding guns at home. The second measure is implementing firearm safety programs to develop a non-violent culture. Thirdly, lawmakers should enact regulations to prohibit civilians from using firearms. The other remedy is that gun sellers should always conduct due diligence to ensure they are aware fully of each person buying the guns. If these gun sellers allow certain people, such as mentally-challenged persons or unlicensed gun owners to purchase firearms, they will be charged with negligence if the buyers harm themselves or others. Lastly, societies should push for the creation of databases on firearm injuries and wrongful deaths, which will be useful in researches to inform actions against gun violence (Tasigiorgos et al., 2015).

References

Arsenault, R. (2020). Do I have a wrongful death claim if my child died from playing with an unsecured firearm?. NBA law firm.
https://www.nbalawfirm.com/faqs/wrongful-death-claims-for-a-childs-firearm-related-death.cfm

Lee, K. (2018). Amid rising gun violence, accidental shooting deaths have plummeted. Why?. LA times. https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-accidental-gun-deaths-20180101-story.html

Solnick, S. J., & Hemenway, D. (2019). Unintentional firearm deaths in the United States 2005–2015. Injury Epidemiology, 6(1), 42.
https://injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40621-019-0220-0

Tasigiorgos, S., Economopoulos, K. P., Winfield, R. D., & Sakran, J. V. (2015). Firearm injury in the United States: an overview of an evolving public health problem. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 221(6), 1005-1014. https://practicalbioethics.org/files/gun-violence/Firearms-Injuries-JACS-Dec-2015.pdf