Gun Violence in America by Katie Groome

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Sargent Ben Jenkins was shot and killed, only 47 years old, when he stopped on the highway to help a motorist. The motorist murdered Sargent Jenkins, and he proceded to take his police uniform and patrol car and drive off. Ben Jenkins was married, with four children and five grandchildren. This was the most recent shooting today, March 27th. This was one of the several deadly shootings that have occured today. So far.

I know this is said a lot, but living in Sparta really is like living in a bubble, especially when it comes to gun violence. Not being exposed to gun violence and violence in general contributes to a lot of us, including myself, being unaware of its prevelance in the rest of the world. Undeniably, we are lucky to be living where we are. Yet, just because gun violence, gang brutality and other forms of violence are much less common in our town and area does not mean we should shy away from the fact that other areas of the country are experiencing these things. Because of this, I thought researching and sharing some of the facts about gun violence in this country would be helpful.

 80% of deadly shootings are gang related in America
On average 100 Americans are killed each day due to gun violence
Around 36,000 Americans are killed with guns every year
Since 2014. gun homicides have increased over 30%
Black Americans are 10 times more likely than white Americans to be murdered with a gun
About 1,500 children are killed with guns every year

 Currently, as I finish this blog post, it is March 28th, and I decided to check back on the number of shootings that occured yesterday. I began this blog post at around 7 pm yesterday, and after that, for the rest of the night a total of 43 known shootings occured in the U.S., many that were deadly. There are a lot of reasons why I think people living in areas with less gun violence, like Sparta, choose to rarely acknowledge that it is happening elsewhere; fear, ignorance, the idea that it almost never affects us. None of these reasons, though, make it okay to stay in the unknown. Luckily, gun violence is not something many people in our town are concerened about on a day to day basis, but there are so many others that do.

Gun Violence Quotes & Sayings | Gun Violence Picture QuotesRemembering Their Names: Children Killed By Gun Violence In The St ...

Comments

  1. DanielleMarch 31, 2020 at 10:35 AM

    Such sad statistics and you're right, we do tend to live in a bit of a bubble.

    ReplyDelete

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