Harry Braglin

Period 4
5/30/17

Bullying and Gun Violence a Social Issue

Bullying and gun violence are 2 big issues in Americas youth today. Both are

very closely related to each other but are also very different. The definition of bullying is

unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or

perceived power imbalance. In 2010, about 56 percent of all students had witnessed a

bullying crime during school hours. As a result of the bullying 15 percent wouldnt show

up to school while being bullied. In 2016 more than 1 of every 5 kids was being bullied

although only 64% of them spoke up. The way that has shown to help the prevention of

bullying are classes and seminars teaching kids that bullying is wrong and how to stand

up for yourself if you are being bullied this helped 25% of the students stand up and get

help with dealing with your bully.

In the definition of bullying it is said that there is a real or perceived power

imbalance, in 2010 there were about 310 guns in circulation in the United States, that's

about 90 guns per 100 people. In 2013, around 1,000 children between the ages of 0-18

died due to a gunshot and about 9,000 more were injured. In 2016, 63% of people said

that the primary reason they own a gun is for protection. If a grown up is saying that

then a school aged child is definitely gonna want some kind of protection against a bully

and if their parent says the gun in the house is for protection the child can feel like they
need it and take it if they know where it is. In the last year 141 children died by gunshot.

290 per 100,000 is the homicide rate in St. Louis, thats 3 times the rate in Honduras the

homicide capital of the world. The gun bullying doesnt just show up in a child's

imagination they had to have seen it from somewhere and about 4.5 billion women have

reported being threatened by a gun by an abusive partner. In the show One Tree Hill,

they have an episode where an old friend of one of the main characters was being

bullied so he brought a gun to school to protect himself, and when the bully started

talking he pulled the gun from his bag and shot one bullet. He hit a girl in the leg and

then hid the gun and ran to a nearest classroom as if he didnt just have the gun. While

in the classroom he had about 10 hostages and they all try to communicate to him that

he wasnt forgotten but hes prepared to kill anyone of them. Towards the end of the

episode he stands in the hall with the main character's uncle and the uncle is trying to

talk to the boy with the gun to not kill himself and he is unsuccessful and the boy

commits suicide, but then the main character's Dad walks in the hall and picks up the

gun and in cold blood murders his own brother because hes jealous of how well the

brothers life turned out. This was a very good example that it shouldnt be that easy to

get a gun for anyone.

With classes and seminars I think we can lower the rate of bullies and we can up

the knowledge of gun safety. If the people getting guns had to do more than just walk
into the store like fill out an application it would be a safer world than now and we dont

have to completely get rid of guns, we just have to teach everyone to be nice and use

guns for their purpose and not abuse them.

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