Youth Gun Violence
Surprisingly, there are a large amount of gun violence that occurs in American schools and communities and still continues to be a major health concern (“Ruggles”). “Each year, nearly 3,000 youth are killed and approximately 16,000 are injured by guns.” States Kelly Ruggles. Kelly says that although an individual must be eighteen years of age to buy a rifle or shotgun, and at least twenty-one years old to buy a handgun, the youth still manages to get their hands on these weapons. The YRBSS did a research on how many youth teens have recently had possession of a gun (“Ruggles”). The YRBSS did this by administrating a survey questioning: ‘‘During the past 30 days, on how many days did you carry a gun?’’ the results showed that the popularity of youth reported that 6.1% carried a gun on them in 2003 within the past thirty days. Researchers found through this study that the youth that have reported gun possession have the strongest associations with alcohol, tobacco and other drug use (“Ruggles”).
After the multiple mass shootings that occurred in 2012, the Obama Administration acted to make schools and communities a safer place from gun violence (“Ruggles”). Trained police officers are now being placed into schools in case there is an incident or to discourage anyone that may be thinking of bringing a weapon to school (“Ruggles”). In addition, an increase in guidance counselors were hired at schools to provide greater mental health support for the youth (“Ruggles”). The Obama Administration also made sure schools have an emergency preparedness plan in place just in case there is an incident (“Ruggles”). Lastly there was encouragement in schools to implement evidence-based strategies to make a better environment (“Ruggles”). There still remains no way to permanently prevent youth from bringing weapons to school, but with these new set of rules and suggestions, schools will be a much safer place.
After the multiple mass shootings that occurred in 2012, the Obama Administration acted to make schools and communities a safer place from gun violence (“Ruggles”). Trained police officers are now being placed into schools in case there is an incident or to discourage anyone that may be thinking of bringing a weapon to school (“Ruggles”). In addition, an increase in guidance counselors were hired at schools to provide greater mental health support for the youth (“Ruggles”). The Obama Administration also made sure schools have an emergency preparedness plan in place just in case there is an incident (“Ruggles”). Lastly there was encouragement in schools to implement evidence-based strategies to make a better environment (“Ruggles”). There still remains no way to permanently prevent youth from bringing weapons to school, but with these new set of rules and suggestions, schools will be a much safer place.