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Persuasive Essay On Gun Related Violence

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Every year, more than two thousand people die in the United States from gun-related injuries. The population groups most affected by these avoidable deaths are children and young adolescents. The misuse of firearms is a problem in the United States and also a bigger problem worldwide, of course. However, the incidence of firearm use does vary from country to country. According to the United Nations Report on Firearm Regulation, Crime Prevention, and Criminal Justice (1997), the United States has "weaker firearm regulations and higher numbers of deaths involving firearms than all other industrialised, and even most developing, nations." The study also showed that the total firearm death rate in the United States in 1995 was 13.7 per 100,000 people, "three times the average rate among other responding countries and the third highest, after Brazil and Jamaica." More than half the homes in the United States possess firearms, so it is hardly surprising that they are among the ten leading causes of death, more than 30,000 deaths annually (Wintermute 1987, p. 3107). While most people have guns primarily for hunting and sports, many owners also have them for personal protection and security purposes. The public health approach to violence prevention attempts not only to reduce the occurrence of violence, but also to limit the numbers of fatal and nonfatal injuries when such events occur. To prevent gun-related violence, indeed any type of violence, it is important to understand the

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