{"id":224,"date":"2019-12-14T19:38:28","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T19:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/?p=224"},"modified":"2019-12-14T21:42:23","modified_gmt":"2019-12-14T21:42:23","slug":"assault-weapons-are-only-for-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/post-1-spring-2019\/assault-weapons-are-only-for-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Assault Weapons are  Only for Assault"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A.Whalen <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-very-dark-gray-color wp-block-paragraph\">Mass shootings are an increasingly prevalent occurrence in America, and steps should be taken to address this problem. Mass shootings account for a small percentage of deaths from gun violence, and yet they are often the focus of current gun debates. Media attention on mass shootings may result from evidence that we are able to quickly decrease fatalities and injuries<br> that result from mass shootings. Assault weapons are used in about 42% of mass shootings and have no clear use for civilians outside of inflicting mass casualties. Statistics compiled by Mayors Against Illegal Guns show that shootings involving assault weapons result in far more fatalities and injuries. In order to reduce deaths that result from mass shootings, the government needs to prohibit civilian ownership of assault weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"293\" height=\"193\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-225\"\/><figcaption>*Mayors Against Illegal Guns, September 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The data demonstrate the necessity of a ban, with assault rifles linked to 63% more deaths and 151% more injuries in mass shootings. An increase in injuries is due to of the nature of the weapon, which allows for quick transition between semi-automatic and automatic, allowing for rapid firing. You could argue that a 63% increase in death is insignificant because more mass shootings are conducted with other weapons. However, if we are looking to reduce overall gun mortalities in mass shootings, we should remove weapons that kill an average of three more people in each mass shooting. Currently, eight states have banned the purchase of assault weapons. Assault weapons are not meant for use in hunting or self-defense, and the only clear use for assault weapons is to inflict mass casualties. Although there is no way to prevent mass shootings completely, we can and should ban the purchase of assault weapons to reduce fatalities and injuries that result from mass shootings. A federal ban on assault weapons is necessary to stop the purchase and transport of these weapons, and measures should be taken to buy back previously owned assault weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">*Mayors Against Illegal Guns, September 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A.Whalen Mass shootings are an increasingly prevalent occurrence in America, and steps should be taken to address this problem. Mass shootings account for a small percentage of deaths from gun [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-guns","category-post-1-spring-2019","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}