Running head: CRIME PREVENTION POLICY1

CRIME PREVENTION POLICY 12

Crime Prevention Policy Targeting Gun Violence in School

Paper

Crime Prevention Policy Targeting Gun Violence in School

Executive Summary

School shooting is a common problem in the United States. After many years of trying to solve the problem, it still exists. Each year, there are significant reported cases of school shooting, and the charges for the students involved in the shooting are always not as severe as charges pressed against adults when they involve themselves in the same activities. Considering there have been amendment in policies to reduce shooting but none of them have been successful in helping to eliminate the problem, it is right to conclude that a new crime prevention policy, one that has not been implemented before, needs to be put in place to prevent cases of gun violence and school shooting. Since children have access to guns because their parents and guardians have been given ownership to guns, the best solution presented is having their parents and guardians not being given the right to own guns. Other recommendations exist. Still, the paper presents the cases of school shooting and centers its argument on the idea that school shooting can be reduced by limiting gun ownership for parents and American citizens in general.

Context and Importance of the Problem

Schools can no longer be considered safe places for children due to the increased rates of school shooting going on in these places. Whereas there was a reduction in the percentage of shooting from 1992 to 2017, the levels of school shooting started to increase after that (Frederique, 2020). It is the increase that is making schools to be places that are considered dangerous for students in the recent years. The cases of violent crime in schools go as high as 71 percent. The percentage is high considering that the cases of violent crimes are tied to school shootings. Therefore, American schools are at risk of gun violence.

The problem remains important because overcoming it helps to promote safety in schools. Considering the cases of gun violence in schools are high, students attending school no longer feel safe about going to school. In the cases where there have been shootings, school activities have been suspended, and students have suffered the consequences of shootings, such as gun injuries and the loss of lives. The problem has not only affected students but also the families affiliated with the different students. In essence, parents of children remain afraid of taking their students to some of the schools, imagining the worst cases. Therefore, it is essential to solve the problem because it helps to address the problems and challenges that students are going through and those that students express as they attend school. Ignoring the problem would lead to more devastating effects as it would encourage the cases of gun violence in school.

Cases of School Shooting

School shooting occurs in schools in the United States for various reasons. The primary reason why school shooting takes place is revenge. Among the children that have been involved in school shooting before, 87 percent of them state that they were involved in the same to get back to the students who hurt them before (Alfred University, 2022). Eighty six percent of the students involved in the same stated that they were involved in school shooting because other students picked on them, and in some cases, bullied them. Therefore, the involvement was also revenge.

Other issues also play a role when it comes to gun violence. The percentage of these students who carry out school shooting because they do not value life is 62 percent, and those who are responding to the physical abuse they have experienced at home form 61 percent. Still, other causes of school shooting include mental problems, conflict with parents, drug abuse, the witnessing of violence through the media, and boredom. The different causes that can be linked to gun violence are many, and this is one reason why it proves difficult to solve the problem, as it would require solving many different dynamics to it.

So far, there have been more than 10 cases of school shooting this year (Education Week, 2022). Last year recording a significantly high number of school shootings and at least 34 schools recorded these cases. Considering the current time of the year, there is likelihood that this year’s cases of school shooting will be more than those recorded last year. The relatively high cases of school shooting are a reason for individuals to be concerned about, as it means that there are more students at risk of being shot this year than the previous one.

As the different cases of school shooting take place, it is important to note that children in the United States are not given permission by any legal authorities to have guns. Therefore, they have access to guns because their parents, guardians, or other adults around them, are allowed by the law to own guns. According to the second amendment, citizens have the right to bear and keep arms, unless they have a record of negatively involving themselves in using the arms to put the lives of other individuals at risk (Lindgren, 2014). In one way or the other, the children under them get access to these arms, and this ends up promoting the cases of gun violence in the different schools.

Pre-Existing Policies, Policy Alternative, and Research

For some time, there have been debates on whether the law should allow citizens in the United States to own guns or not (Taylor, 2016). Considering that students have access to guns because their parents and guardians are allowed to own guns, the discussion on citizens being allowed to own guns is important to the discussion on school shootings. As long as the policy of gun ownership continues being upheld, the cases of gun violence in schools will continue taking place. The argument put across to support gun ownership is that it is traditional, and it keeps citizens safer. As a tradition, it would be difficult to do away with it because individuals show that they are already used to the same. As a means of safety, the American population considers its need to protect itself from individuals who are likely to cause any harm, and they see gun ownership as a solution that promotes safety.

The argument presented against gun ownership is that the activity has resulted in increased cases of gun violence and mass shootings. The cases of school shootings that are taking place in the United States forms an excellent example of this. Gun ownership has created the capacity of students being involved in school shootings, and without parents being allowed to own guns, students have no place to remove these weapons a use them in schools as they desire. The other argument presented is that gun ownership does not bring about safety, but promotes the conflict that individuals are trying to avoid. In essence, a person thinks that owning a weapon gives them the power to protect themselves, but it does more than that. It gives them the confidence to further conflict with those around them as they know that in the case of any retaliation, they will not fall victim without putting up a fight and defending themselves.

As much as these discussions are ongoing, it is important to note that they have remained to be discussions. There have been no steps undertaken to stop the American citizens from not owning guns, and this has shown negative implications by promoting gun violence in schools. The cases are so many, to the point that in 2019, “a young boy brought a loaded gun to his day care” (Corbett, 2019). In public schools, cases where students bring guns to school go unreported because there is no reporting system put in place to help the relevant authorities report such cases.

Roughly 4.6 million children in America live in homes where there are loaded guns, and they have access to them without their parents’ knowledge (Corbett, 2019). What this means is that there are roughly 4.6 million children with the potential of going to school with loaded guns and carrying out shooting without their parent’s knowledge of what they are doing until the event has been carried out. When one includes the number of parents that would willingly give their children guns with the hope that they would protect themselves in school from shootings and other cases of violence, the numbers go higher.

For the time that gun ownership has been in place, different solutions to the problem of school shootings have been sought. One of the recommendations put across is to have better social norms that make gun ownership come with responsibilities. The proposal is a cultural issue but not a policy issue. The policy already exists where individuals are allowed to own guns but not to use them in ways that cause harm to innocent people. For this reason, those who use them negatively end up being brought to account by facing the law. However, the different cases of mass shootings prove that individuals still break the law. Hence, the suggestion made with regards to have better social norms involves a way of living that allows individuals to respect each other’s’ rights. All individuals concerned with gun ownership are concerned with their rights, but when it comes to their responsibilities, only a few care about them (Corbett, 2019). Hence, promoting better social norms involves promoting responsibilities that individual need to undertake.

Part of responsibilities as a social norm that promotes safety is ensuring that guns do not fall into the hands of the children within a family. As much as parents can be responsible by themselves, they need to ensure that they do not put their children in compromising situations by putting them in places where they can easily access the guns that the parents have. Therefore, parents always need to ensure that they lock up the guns in places where their children cannot reach, unless under circumstances where the parents are using the guns. Preventing children from having success to gun ownership helps them keep out of trouble by avoiding being the cause of shootouts in schools, and ensures that they have sufficient time to learn about being responsible individuals.

The other solution offered is having schools educating parents on the ways of gun storage such that they will not be placed in ways that allows their children to have access to them (Corbett, 2019). The education can take different forms. Parents can be called to schools for training on the same, and children can be sent home with information that educates their parents on the proper and safe ways to tore guns. The activity will be essential in letting parents know how important it is to safely store their guns, and it will make them aware of what is happening so that none of them will have an excuse hen their children are found guilty of gun ownership.

Other than outlining norms, laws can also be formulated when it comes to the ways of storing guns so that they limit the access that students have when it comes to guns. It is important to note that there are no federal laws that show the ways in which guns should be stored (Corbett, 2019). Therefore, defining ways of storing firearms, in the same way that Massachusetts does, can help in reducing the number of gun violence in schools. Also, pressing criminal charges on children can work to promote a reduction in the cases of gun violence by reducing the cases of shooting.

The Disabilities Education Act makes it possible for students found with charges of weapon violation to be expelled from school (Redding & Shalf, 2002). Also, parents are liable when their children are found with guns and breaking the law. There is an ongoing debate on whether the charges against the parents should be placed as criminal charges or not. As much as it is not parents who commit the crime but their children, the law tries to address the issue the parents storing weapons in a way that their children have access to it. Therefore, this is identified as a significant challenge in the United States, and law implementation needs to be around it.

Some of the proposed policies have tried to be implemented. Still, the reality remains that there are still many cases of gun violence in the United States’ schools, and they are not about to end soon. Therefore, there is a need for an alternative policy to be put in place to help eradicate this problem in the country. Considering that the major problem arises from students having access to guns, the policy implementation that would bring about change is restricting both parents and guardians from owning guns so that children will not have access to the same.

A case study of a country that has sought the banning of gun ownership and has seen a change in the implementation of the policy is Australia (Ramchand & Saunders, 2021). Before the banning of gun ownership in the country, Australia was characterized by mass shootings, homicides, and suicides. In 1996, there was a case of mass shootings in which 35 individuals were killed. As a result, the government took an initiative to ban the ownership of guns in the country. Australia banned the importation of firearms. It also revoked ownership for those who had possession to the same. It put in place a policy that would see the country issue new licenses to individuals who wished to own firearms. However, they would need to take a training course that would allow them to know about firearm safety.

After this took place, there was a resultant decrease in the deaths of individuals that resulted from firearms, and this proved that putting in place the policy that prohibits individuals from owning guns is essential in helping to overcome the existing gun violence in schools. The argument had been presented that guns help to keep individuals safe. However, this is not true as guns promote the violence that is seen. As much as it gives an individual the idea that they can protect themselves, it also makes them know that they can start conflict and use their gun as a weapon. Therefore, the best solution is to confiscate guns from all civilians, and only allow the police to have them in the same way that Australia does. When guns are taken away from every individual, attackers will not have any weapons to use. Therefore, violent children in school will not have weapons, and any violent act they begin can easily be contained.

It is important to note that this policy cannot be used as a solitary one. In the example of Australia where gun ownership was banned, the state did not stay blind to the fact that there are individuals who would still need guns under different conditions. Therefore, the state developed a policy that would make it difficult to own guns, including having individuals train for the safety of gun ownership. In the same way, the United States needs to formulate laws that concern the few individuals who will be allowed to own firearms, and this should take place after the confiscation of firearms.

An example of a law that can help individuals is the promotion of parental monitoring. The law needs to be clear on what parents need to do so that they ensure their children do not take advantage of the guns and involve themselves in school shootings. Having parents monitor their children helps to reduce criminal activities that the children could possibly involve themselves in (Garbarino et al., 2002). The other action towards policy change that can be taken to help prevent criminal activity when it comes to school shooting is restricting gun ownerships on the basis of the probable mental health complications that children are likely to develop when they are situated in specific homes.

Mental illness is a significant cause of gun violence in the United States (Metzl & MacLeish, 2015). Children that grow up in families where their mental health is compromised end up having higher probabilities of involving themselves in school shootings compared to children who grow up in families where their mental health is well-taken care of. Therefore, the government should have more consideration when giving gun licenses to individuals. Whereas it is good to lack criminal record, it is also good to ensure there are no compromising situations that will promote the likelihood of gun violence. By doing this, there will be promotion of safety in schools and a reduction of the cases of gun violence.

Conclusion

School shooting is common in the United States. The problem still exists despite many years of trying to find a solution to it. However, the argument presented shows that school shootings exist because school-going children have access to guns, and the best ways to prevent the cases of gun violence in schools is to limit gun ownership for the citizens of the United States, including those who are parents and guardians to children. Violent crimes in schools have hit a record high of 71 percent. Children are no longer safe in schools due to the existing dangers of school shootings. It is important to address the problem, as ignoring it results in devastating implications that encourage gun violence in schools. Students give different reasons for engaging in school shooting, and on top of the list is having revenge against other students. Other reasons include not valuing life and living in abusive homes. So far, there have been more than 10 cases of school shooting this year, and there is a risk of continuous such experiences. At the moment, citizens that have good records against criminal activities are allowed to own guns in the United States. There are ongoing debates on whether gun ownership should be promoted or done away with. It is seen as a means of promoting safety by allowing individuals to defend themselves. On the other hand, it is seen as the cause of conflict because it gives individuals the confidence to be involved in conflict knowing they can always defend themselves. Approximately 4.6 million children in the country have access to guns because their parents or guardians own guns. Therefore, the best solution to the problem is to prohibit civilians from gun ownership. Australia has implemented this law and it has worked out positively for them. Additional policies include monitoring children and further restricting gun ownership on the basis of the metal health effects that parents have on their children.

Policy Recommendations

Three policies are recommended, and they are all tied to each other. The most significant policy is the prohibition of citizens from gun ownership. As seen, there is a trickle-down effect from citizens owning guns to school shootings that take place in the United States. The citizens form the population of either parents or guardians to the different children. When they have the guns and they store them carelessly, the children get to have access to these guns. Then, the children utilize them by going with them to school and being involved in shootouts. Therefore, this policy addresses the core of the problem, which is gun ownership in the United States. Since it has worked in a country like Australia, there is basis for argument that it will work in the United States.

The second policy is to monitor children that have access to gun ownership. After implementing the first policy, some parents may still need guns. Under such circumstances, they will need laws that ensure they take it as their responsibility to monitor their children and ensure they do not take and use the guns wrongly. This results in the need for laws on monitoring children whose parents have guns. The last policy is to make consideration for mental health when issuing gun licenses. A significant percentage of students are involved in school shooting due to their mental health and challenges they go through at home. Hence, parents that put their children at risk of mental health complications should not be given gun licenses.

References

Alfred University. (n.d.). Why do shootings occur? www.alfred.edu. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from 

Corbett, E. (2019). Kids Brought Guns to School at Least 392 Times Last Year. Here’s What Experts Say We Should Do About It. Fortune. 

Education Week. (2022). School Shootings this Year: How Many and Where. Education Week. Retrieved from

Frederique, N. (2020). What do the data reveal about violence in schools? National Institute of Justice. 

Garbarino, J., Bradshaw, C. P., & Vorrasi, J. A. (2002). Mitigating the Effects of Gun Violence on Children and Youth. The Future of Children, 12(2), 73–85. https://doi.org/10.2307/1602739

Lindgren, J. (2014). Foreword: The Past and Future of Guns. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 104(4).

Metzl, J. M., & MacLeish, K. T. (2015). Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms. 

Ramchand, R., & Saunders, J. (2021). The effects of the 1996 national firearms agreement in Australia on suicide, violent crime, and mass shootings. RAND. 

Redding, R. E., & Shalf, S. M. (2002). The legal context of school violence: The effectiveness of federal, state, and local law enforcement efforts to reduce gun violence in schools. 

Taylor, J. (2016). Arguments for and against the laws on gun ownership in the USA.