Top Ten Ways to Reduce Gun Violence in the U.S.

Gun violence, while declining, is still a major problem in the U.S. Here are ten ways to reduce it.
The Top Ten
1 End the War on Drugs

The War on Drugs has made violent crime skyrocket, especially gang-related crime. It does this in two ways. One, drugs are still easily accessible, because of black markets. Black markets bring murder, theft, extortion, bribery, and other crimes, just like it did during the 1920s during prohibition. Secondly, the US does a pretty terrible job of rehabilitating criminals. Therefore, if one goes to jail for several years, they are likely to come out violent and unchanged. Almost every single economist states that by ending the illegality of drugs, the crime rate will drop significantly.

2 Educate people about gun responsibility

Let's be honest. There are lots of people who don't deserve to own firearms. These people might have significant mental health issues. They might have a serious criminal record. They may treat guns like toys, instead of deadly objects. They may leave them out in the open, accessible to children. These people should not own guns, and in a perfect society, they wouldn't. Sadly, they do, and there's little that we can do about it. After all, there will always be black markets. If more communities stressed the importance of gun safety and responsibility, gun deaths will fall. The evidence supports this. When more responsible people own guns, crime rates drop.

3 Increase mental health funding

It's no secret that our mental health system is a complete joke. It's also no secret that a disproportionate amount of murders are committed by people with mental health issues. If we drastically increase funding, crime will fall.

4 Reform the prison system

The prison system needs to focus on rehabilitation than on punishment. There's little evidence that suggests that longer sentences reduce crime. Actually, many studies claim that they actually increase crime, by exposing inmates to violence and oppression on a day to day basis for years. Obviously, one is not going to come out of jail unscathed.

5 Address the violent culture in America

It's no secret that we have a culture of violence. I mean, look at what's on T.V.. Half of the shows have someone beating someone up, shooting them, triggering an explosion, etc. It should be stressed to everyone that violence isn't admirable or attractive, and that it shouldn't be glorified like it currently is. Guns are a deadly weapon, and should only be used if necessary.

6 Decrease poverty

One of the main causes of gun crime is poverty. To combat poverty, education can be improved, welfare can be reformed to encourage work, the government can create a pro-growth tax plan, etc.

7 Discourage alcohol consumption

Alcohol is involved in around 40% of all crime. While we shouldn't ban alcohol, there are several things that we can do to discourage its abuse. We can raise taxes on alcohol. We can teach about its dangers in schools. We can copy South Dakota's policy of stripping people of their right to drink if they harm someone while intoxicated.

8 Ask communities to be more involved

Evidence shows that when communities are more involved in its citizens' lives, violence decreases. Communities should be encouraged to help console past offenders and possible future offenders.

9 Make a bigger effort to combat racism

Blacks disproportionately commit crimes in the U.S. Black families are also, on average, more impoverished. If we work harder to eradicate racism, poverty would be less common in black communities, which would lead to less violent crimes.

10 Make a bigger effort to combat sexism

Domestic abuse is a major crime in the country, and it can turn violent. By empowering women and doing more to discourage sexism, violent crime will decrease accordingly.

The Contenders
11 Ban private gun sales

Nobody should be allowed to buy a gun, except the police and the military. If you want to hunt, you'll need to check out a gun from the government, and check it back in when you're done. We need a zero tolerance policy, it's just not worth it to let this go on.

12 National red flag law
13 Increase waiting periods
14 Don't make certain people angry

Probably my most important comment on the entire site in a while, so hear me out for this one:

Gun violence, or actually any kind of violence ever in the US or anywhere in the world, can be reduced greatly by just not making certain people angry. Who are those people? I dunno, it could be anyone. But for all we know, violence has a starting point when someone gets mad due to something. It could be from a terrible upbringing someone had as a child, as certain authority figures who were supposed to be responsible didn't have the right responsibility. It could be a person losing their job for bull**** reasons that they know are bull****, something that is on the hands of the supervisors in charge. Understand how villain origin stories are created, because in all cases, someone got wronged and wants to take it out on others for messing them up.

While all of the items on this list can work, they work better by not making the wrong people angry and desperate for revenge of some kind. Those angry people can end up doing/distributing drugs, losing their mental health, and end up poor, racist, and drunk. They may just illegally find ways to get weapons to commit violence. What people who have high positions over others need to understand is that those under you can be the worst nightmare if you make them feel mentally unstable in any form. Anyone in a supervisory position must tread lightly because you do not want someone to snap.

15 Make school non-compulsory
16 Disarm the police
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