Gun violence has been a long existing problem in the USA, with mass shootings an almost daily occurrence, unnecessary firefights, and firearm suicides all across the country. The USA needs to take action against these long running issues. Two ideas with strong potential include gun control, and improved mental health care.

As of mid-April 2023, there have already been 160 mass shootings, that’s a rate higher than once a day. In Cleveland, Texas, a mass shooting killed 8, another in Columbia, South Carolina, killed 9, and in Macomb, Illinois, a mass shooting took 10 lives. These shootings have only accounted for 209 deaths and 563 injuries so far this year. 

In the same time, more than 11,500 people have been killed in gun fights. Robert Singletary, a 24 year old Florida-man, turned himself in after shooting at a 6-year old and her father, over a basketball rolling into his yard. In Maine a man named Joseph Eaton, 34 years old, killed four people including his father, and his mother, who previously picked him up from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. While fleeing on highway I-295, Eaton fired on multiple vehicles, striking a family vehicle, and wounding passenger Paige Halsey. 

Gun violence only accounts for about half of firearm deaths. In 2021 54% of firearm deaths were suicides. As both firearm murders and suicides are on the rise, the rate of suicides remains the highest cause of all gun related deaths. It’s now easy to conclude that improving both mental health care and gun control are important. These are both resources the government can provide and if they did, deaths nationwide would be set to decrease.