Mass Shooting in the USA
Mass Shooting is one of the crimes in the United States that need to be addressed quickly to avoid loss of more lives. According to the federal bureau of investigation website, mass shooting is a single occurrence where more than four people are victims of gun violence (Fbi.gov, 2016). To distinguish between mass shooting victims and the perpetrator, the official definition does not include the offender in counting the number of people shot. The rising number of mass shooting in public places is worrying, and the judicial system needs to act fast to toll the rise in figures.
According to bbc.com, there were 372 mass shootings in the United States in 2015, leading to loss of 475 lives and close to two thousand wounded (2016). Incidences of school shootings in 2015 alone stands at 64, with the data recorded on only occasions when a gun was fired in a school compound even if there was no one hurt. According to statistics, 13,286 lives were lost to gunshots and 26, 819 people were injured (Fbi.gov, 2016). These figures exclude cases ruled as suicide, perpetrators and people who were shot by police officers. Statistics indicate that close to 60% of fatalities in the USA are resultant of firepower (Fbi.gov, 2016).
One of the reasons for the high number of deaths from gunshot wounds in the United States is the gun ownership tradition of the Americans. The American conservatives believe that gun ownership guarantees the liberty of the people while some quarters have been advocating for the abolishment of gun ownership policies. The possibility of guns falling into the wrong hands is high considering almost every household owns a gun. Clearly, most Americans are unwilling to let their guns go with those supporting the gun ownership policy defending it by claiming that guns are not the problem, but people are (Morgan, 2013).
The criminal justice system in the United States has a role to play in reducing the high number of innocent lives being lost every day. Criminal justice system collects, analyze and present data for background checks hence giving greenlight on who should own and who should not be allowed to legally buy a gun (Jones & Stone, 2015). Considering the approximation that the ratio of guns to Americans is one is to one, and the high number of incarceration in the country, clearly, people with criminal records can buy guns in the country. The criminals, some of them unstable mentally or on drugs end up killing innocent civilians (Swanson, 2013). It is, therefore, clear that the criminal justice department improves their data collection and tighten the requirements for civilians to own guns.
The punishment for illegal shipment of illegal firearms and ownership should be reviewed to discourage the business in the United States (Jones & Stone, 2015). The criminal justice system is in charge of indicting and offering the corresponding sentence for criminal offenses in the United States. Most of the shootings are done with unregistered illegal firearms, hence raising the question about control of illegal firearms in the United States.
The juvenile justice system should also work closely with schools to ensure that children with a criminal record are handled effectively before walking into the school with an automatic firepower and kill several children (Morgan, 2013). When parents are allowed to own a gun, the background checks should include checking the behaviors of their children to ensure that access to the gun poses no threat to the general population.
In conclusion, the United States criminal justice system has a role to play in reducing the number of fatalities due to mass shootings. Background checks should be through and also check other members of a household such as a spouse and children to ensure that access to the gun poses no threat to the population. It is also important that the criminal justice department imposes heavy sentences to illegal gun dealers and owners and also fight harder to eliminate illegal guns from the streets.
References
bbc.com. (2016). Guns in the US: The statistics behind the violence - BBC News. BBC News. Retrieved 8 March 2016, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34996604
Fbi.gov. (2016). FBI. Retrieved 8 March 2016, from https://www.fbi.gov/
Jones, M., & Stone, G. (2015). The U.S. Gun-Control Paradox: Gun Buyer Response to Congressional Gun-Control Initiatives. Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER), 13(4), 167. http://dx.doi.org/10.19030/jber.v13i4.9449
Morgan, P. (2013). Shooting straight. Ebury Digital.
Swanson, J. (2013). Mental Illness and Gun Control—Reply. JAMA, 310(1), 98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.7354
