Ronald Norwood
Senior
Osborn University High School
The Youth Initiative Project is a program devoted to improving the lives of youth with teen mentors. I am one of the many Peer Educators who is passionate about accomplishing our goal to fully service our peers, who face many issues. A pressing issue we see a lot of our peers face is gun violence. The rate of firearm deaths among kids under age 15 is almost 12 times higher in the United States than in 25 other industrialized countries combined (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This is a big problem for America because it is so easy for young children and teens to get access to weapons that could potentially harm them. No child should even have access to firearms that can cause harm to others.
In one recent study 81% of children played with guns. This is something we all should be cognizant about because young lives are being influenced by the power of a gun. This is one of the main problems with young children in our community. They find guns that their parent may have left out and they decide to play with them and as a result they may kill themselves or someone else. Children are no longer afraid of guns because they have been exposed to them their whole life. In today’s society they may not take that second thought that’s needed to think about the decision they need to make about pulling the trigger. I see and hear it everyday in our schools and community. I hear my peers talking about how they “just got done shooting someone” for some type of material thing. We as a people have lost our fundamental values and our treasured beliefs.
Studies have proven that aggressive behavior may carry on over into adulthood and can foster an environment where teenagers feel unsafe. For example, many teenagers are commonly involved in physical fights. A national study reported that 42.5% of high school students were in at least one physical fight in the year preceding the survey, and 26% of students carried a weapon, including a gun or a knife, at least once in the past 30 days. Problems that teens may have had that used to be taken care of with just a fight now is resolved through the use of guns. Students hearing gunfire in their neighborhoods more than twice a week are twice as likely as other students to own a handgun. Likewise, teens living in inner city neighborhoods cite self-protection as the main reason to own a gun. Despite these facts, I believe we as a people have deeply embedded in our hearts a common goal to rid our community of all its illegal weapons, and eliminate the element of teen gun violence that is robbing our community of progress.
Senior
Osborn University High School
The Youth Initiative Project is a program devoted to improving the lives of youth with teen mentors. I am one of the many Peer Educators who is passionate about accomplishing our goal to fully service our peers, who face many issues. A pressing issue we see a lot of our peers face is gun violence. The rate of firearm deaths among kids under age 15 is almost 12 times higher in the United States than in 25 other industrialized countries combined (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This is a big problem for America because it is so easy for young children and teens to get access to weapons that could potentially harm them. No child should even have access to firearms that can cause harm to others.
In one recent study 81% of children played with guns. This is something we all should be cognizant about because young lives are being influenced by the power of a gun. This is one of the main problems with young children in our community. They find guns that their parent may have left out and they decide to play with them and as a result they may kill themselves or someone else. Children are no longer afraid of guns because they have been exposed to them their whole life. In today’s society they may not take that second thought that’s needed to think about the decision they need to make about pulling the trigger. I see and hear it everyday in our schools and community. I hear my peers talking about how they “just got done shooting someone” for some type of material thing. We as a people have lost our fundamental values and our treasured beliefs.
Studies have proven that aggressive behavior may carry on over into adulthood and can foster an environment where teenagers feel unsafe. For example, many teenagers are commonly involved in physical fights. A national study reported that 42.5% of high school students were in at least one physical fight in the year preceding the survey, and 26% of students carried a weapon, including a gun or a knife, at least once in the past 30 days. Problems that teens may have had that used to be taken care of with just a fight now is resolved through the use of guns. Students hearing gunfire in their neighborhoods more than twice a week are twice as likely as other students to own a handgun. Likewise, teens living in inner city neighborhoods cite self-protection as the main reason to own a gun. Despite these facts, I believe we as a people have deeply embedded in our hearts a common goal to rid our community of all its illegal weapons, and eliminate the element of teen gun violence that is robbing our community of progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment