Why Gun Control Needs to be Stronger.

In this world, we tend to face so many problems that affect our lives as well as others. Sometimes, these problems can be completely out of our control like natural disasters and disease. However, some people in their world like to believe that gun violence is in that category. Because mass shootings and homicides happen so often, especially in the United States, citizens tend to think that there is nothing that we can do to prevent these attacks accept buy more guns for people to protect themselves and their property. Their main argument is that it is a right given to us by our founding fathers in the constitution. However, many things have changed since the days of our founding fathers. We have changed and created bills to fit our society and protect those who were previously unprotected like women, children, and minorities. Since we no longer live in a society where we need to revolt from a king or dictator, our gun laws should change as well to prevent more gun violence like the shootings at Sandy Hook and Orlando from happening.

Guns are a way of life in America. They are also a major problem. In the past 13 years in the United States, over 480 people have been killed in mass shootings and since 2000, there have been about 160 shootings. This is an enormous number! However, there has been little action in congress to make stronger gun control laws that would prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands. Not only would guns be regulated, but the amount of ammunition purchased at one time would also be limited. However, lobbyist and members of the NRA pay millions of dollars to members of congress to prevent any progress from being made. This result in more lives lost from unnecessary gun violence every year.

In this country, we look for ways to prevent gun violence. Some people believe that in order to prevent gun violence, we need to arm others with guns to protect themselves. Others think that we need to regulate who gets a gun and how much ammo they can purchase with it. However, after other countries have faced gun violence, they took different steps. In 1996, after 35 people were killed in a mass shooting in Tasmania, the Australian government completely confiscated all firearms from every citizen in the country. Instead of complaining and revolting, the citizens were understanding and for that year, the homicide rate dropped from 50000 people to 30000 and continues to drop to this day. Why can’t we learn from the actions of others? It is with this hesitation that our country loses more and more citizens to violence that could have been prevented.

As a student at Virginia tech, this topic is especially heartbreaking to me. When the shooting happened in 2007, I was in 5^th grade. Immediately after seeing what had happened on the news, I told myself, “I’m never going to go there! I don’t want to die!” Now, looking back on what I said, it was a stupid reason to not go to a school. However, a child should not have to say this. A child should not be swayed away from a college that is perfect for them because some man decides to murder multiple people. What is worse is that since I began my first day here, there have been several more shootings, including the Orlando night club shooting that beat Virginia tech in largest mass shooting in American history.

It is unbelievable how easily someone in this country can purchase a gun and end so many lives in a matter of minutes. It is even more unbelievable that congress has made no progress in preventing these events from happening. Mass shootings should not be things that come on the news once and month and that people should get used to. They should be tragedies that should be eliminated completely.

Analysis of "Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet"

            Amanda Hess, the writer of “Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet” illustrates the injustices of being a female on the Internet in this society and how hard it is to get justice for those who have been harassed via social media. She speaks about women in profession positions who have been emotionally and mentally abused by comments and threats from strangers online who intend on belittling their success and respect that they have worked so hard for. If these women look for help, they are turned away and are told to grow up.

            In the article she talks about her own experiences with an online stalker named “headlessfemalepig,” who wrote her vulgar emails, called her cell phone, and threatened to rape and kill her. However, because of the racy articles she writes for her job, she had become use to the rude comments and threats from viewers who disapproved of what she wrote. When she was finally told “You are going to die and I am the one who is going to kill you. I promise you this.”, she said she felt “disoriented and terrified” and reports it to the police. Unfortunately, she is turned away by police who don’t understand the danger because it has never happened to them before. The majority of the police department are men and have never been threatened that way that women have throughout their lives on social media. They didn’t even know what twitter was or how it worked. This lack of understanding or sympathy is heart wrenching and it is horrifying that women are expected to ignore these comments that so viciously stab at their self-esteem.

            As a female on social media, I am no stranger to these comments. Although they were never as extreme as a death threat, I would routinely get messages on Facebook and through text message that were quite vulgar and sexually explicit. Some would be as simple as “You’re really hot!” or “What are you wearing under that? Send me a picture!” Others weren’t as forgiving. When I would ask to be left alone, they would tell me that I should take it as a compliment or that I shouldn’t be such a bitch. Not only is this extremely rude and demoralizing, but I feel like the villain instead of the victim. We should not live in a society where women should be worried about going on the Internet and posting their ideas and opinions like so many men do. Equality and respect should exist everywhere, even on the Internet.

Analysis of "The Loneliness of the Interconnected"

            In “The Loneliness of the Interconnected”, Charles Seife criticizes how the world communicates information and slams ideas down others throat to believe through social media and news outlets. He seems to paint a picture of people with their heads cut off, blindly blurting whatever comes to mind on social media and expecting others to fully support it. If they do support it, we think of those people as sensible and smart individuals. If they choose not to believe it, we think of them as fools who cannot understand basic facts. For example, about 20 years ago, one medical researcher fabricated facts that said that vaccinating your children will increase their chances of developing autism. When parents began to read this report, some refused to vaccinate their children, hoping that the parents who did vaccinate would prevent disease from infecting their unvaccinated children. Even when the researcher admitted that he had lied about his report only ten years later, parents still refused to vaccinate their children. This has resulted in hundreds of unnecessary deaths from diseases that were defeated decades before. All because of lies that people still chose to follow. While Seife continues to harshly criticize how the internet and news outlets have ruined our thought process, he fails to mention how important these sources can be in raising awareness for things or events that aren’t even close to us. People are able to be informed on injustices and catastrophe that are happening halfway across the world like wars, famines, and natural disasters. In an instant we are able to donate money to the cause and share this information with countless others in our community or in our friend circle. We seek to find people who have the same beliefs as us, to makes us feel like we belong. However, we need people who oppose us and our beliefs, for if everything is one sided, our views will become stronger and more extreme like Seife says in the excerpt. With different beliefs comes different ideas which makes our society more diverse as a whole.