GUN CULTURE

U.S. GUN CULTURE

BACKGROUND.....

(www.slate.com)

• The gun culture is a culture shared by people in the gun politics debate, generally those who advocate preserving gun rights and who are generally against more gun control.
•  In the United States, the term is used solely to identify gun advocates who are legitimate and legal owners and users of guns, using guns for self-defense, sporting uses, hunting, and recreational uses (target shooting). By contrast, the term is used differently in the UK and Australia, where it refers to a growing use and ownership of guns by criminals.
• Many people also compare the U.S. GUN CULTURE with the RACIST CULTURE OF 60's
• According to political scientist Robert Spitzer, the American gun culture as it exists today is founded on three factors: the proliferation of firearms since the earliest days of the nation, the connection between personal ownership of weapons and the country's revolutionary and frontier history, and the cultural mythology regarding the gun in the frontier and in modern life.

GUN VIOLENCE........

• Gun violence may be broadly defined as a category of violence and crime committed with the use of a firearm; it may or may not include actions ruled as self-defense, actions for law enforcement, or the safe lawful use of firearms for sport, hunting, and target practice.
• Different gun violence activities include suicide, homicide, robbery, assault, and other acts of violence.
• At least eleven assassination attempts with firearms have been made on U.S. presidents (over one-fifth of all presidents); four were successful, three with handguns and one with a rifle.
• In 2009, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 66.9% of all homicides in the United States were perpetrated using a firearm.Two-thirds of all gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides. In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicide deaths, and 11,078 firearm-related homicide deaths in the United States.
• The Congressional Research Service in 2009 estimated there were 310 million firearms in the United States, not including weapons owned by the military. 114 million of these were handguns, 110 million were rifles, and 86 million were shotguns.
• Such violent acts have resulted into killing of many kids inside their own school, also an increase in hate crimes against the people of asian origin.
• The government needs to make stringent laws to prevent this GUN CULTURE from taking more and more innocent lives.

  

  (www.veteranstoday.com)