Informative Essay Adolescent Gun Violence in America

On an unseasonably cold March morning in 1993, high school sophomore Edward Gillom exited his first period classroom and made his way through the crowded hallways of Harlem High School. After engaging in a heated argument, allegedly over a girl, with Ronricas â€Å"Pony† Gibson and Ricoh Lee, Gillom pulled out a .38-caliber gun and opened fire. Gillom’s shots fatally wounded Gibson and left Lee with a non-fatal gunshot wound to the neck (Washington Ceasefire, 2011 pg 1). The shooting in Harlem, Georgia sparked national attention as one of the first high school shootings and added to the alarmingly high rates of gun violence by adolescents during the 1990s. According to the Virginia Youth Violence Project, forty-two homicides took place in†¦show more content†¦Heller, the court ruled that â€Å"the Second Amendment protects a pre-existing individual right to keep and bear arms†¦including, ‘the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation’† (National Rifle Association, 2011 par 4). Although the Constitution gives individuals the right to bear arms, it does not exclude â€Å"prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places†¦or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of firearms,† (Romano Wingert, 2011 par 13). In recent years here has been much discussion among the nation’s lawmakers and their constituents as to whether or not the Second Amendment is still constitutional; the question is whether or not the Second Amendment should be revised, to prohibit the sale of firearms to those who do not meet certain conditions and qualifications, or even removed from the constitution. According to a national survey of 1,005 high school students, conducted by Vittes, Sorrenson and Gilbert, â€Å"63.7 percent of high school students believe that regulating the sale o f guns does not violate the constitution† (2003, pg 12). In the same survey, 64.6 percent responded that they would support stricter laws addressing the sale of firearms, and 82.2 percent of those surveyed, believe that the government should make and enforce laws making it more difficult forShow MoreRelatedSchool Safety2079 Words   |  9 Pagesacts of violence occurring on a daily basis. American citizens should never have to cope with the negative impact of school violence, no matter how often they hear about the tragedies (Jones, Parents 1). In the past, schools were viewed as a safe place for children to get an education. Recently, the concern over violence in schools has taken a toll on many parents, school administrators, and legislatures (Eckland 1). Studies have shown that there are over 3 million acts of violence in AmericanRead MoreEffects of Reading Comic Books5082 Words   |  21 Pagesscenes. The Bayeux tapestry in Normandy (c1100) has sometimes been claim ed to be an early example of a strip cartoon (Sabin, 2005). A. Rise of the Comic Strip Rodolphe Tà ¶pffer, a Swiss artist, formalised his thoughts on the picture story in his Essay on Physiognomics in 1845 (Comics, 2007). Satirical drawings like Punch in newspapers were popular through the 19th century. In Germany in 1865 the strip Max and Moritz, by Wilhelm Bush was published in a newspaper. Comics as we know now were firstRead MorePopular Culture and Violent Behavior Essay11795 Words   |  48 PagesDeveloped Asia and the United States of America. Despite this easy accessibility of popular culture - film, television, music and radio - to young people, popular culture and adolescence are not mutually exclusive with the effects and the range of mass media affecting one in three adults in America. [3] Thus, the appeal for this investigation was personal and lay in my yearning to discover whether this correlation between violence and popular culture really existed,Read MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagesappear on appropriate page within text. Copyright  © 2011, 2007, 2005, 2002, 1998 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying