How Developed are the Gun Laws in America?

It has almost been a year since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and still little has been done to chance gun laws. I find this extremely disappointing because this seems to me, like another mass shooting waiting to happen. 

In my American Studies class we have been comparing the American government's spending to other governments around the world. Similarly, I compared american gun laws and regulations to other countries. 

America has overwhelmingly higher rates of gun related deaths than any other developed country. I think the question we should be asking ourselves is why America has so many more gun related deaths than all these other counties? Why is it that Japan had less than 20 gun homicides whereas the US had over 1200?

Canada had less than 200. Spain had less than 100. Australia had less than 50. All countries that are very much developed like the US and the US is experiencing 10x as much gun violence as them. 

Many people say that it is because of our pop culture in the US and that violent video games fuel aggression and cause people to become mentally troubled then leading them to kill people. I don't believe this because Japan is much like American where violent video games are extremely popular but they have one of the lowest, if not the lowest gun homicide rates in the world. 

I believe that the issue lies in the second amendment because it doesn't let the nation successfully control gun violence. The main purpose of the American government is to keep its citizens safe and how can anyone be safe when the US is one of the most dangerous developed countries in terms of gun safety. The second amendment was made at the beginning of this country and could it be that this amendment has become dated? Could it be that this amendment is taking a negative effect on our country? Does America have the capability to solve this issue?

Different Reactions

This past weekend me and a couple of my friends went down to the Riviera to watch Chance the Rapper preform his newest album "Acid Rap". We decided to take the Chicago "el" or "L"(however you refer to it). To get to the Riviera you have to make a line switch, so we got off at Howard and waited for the red line train to pick us up. 

While we were waiting I noticed an african american man waiting next to us. While it was a little chilly outside, he was covered in what seemed an excessive 7 different layers of cloths. I didn't really know what to think of it so I just continued talking with my friends. When the train arrived we decided to get on a train car that was a little less crowded, so we walked down the platform and got on.

After we found some seats I looked up and noticed that the man had followed us and gotten on the same train car. Also while there were plenty of empty seats, he stood by the door holding a boom box. When the doors closed he immediately ripped off his large overcoats and was left with a classic Michael Jackson outfit on. He proceeded to press play on his boom box and started dishing out some classic Jackson moves. One of my friends decided to video tape the dance.

What I found interesting about this experience was the reaction. On the train was a group of 4 white north shore kids, the Michael Jackson impersonator, and a group of about 5 or 6 african american adults. Also interesting was that we were sitting on completely opposite sides of the train car; no one was in the middle of the train car except for the Michael Jackson impersonator. 

Me and my friends sat there silently, and I remember not knowing what to do. I wasn't sure if he was trying to get money, or if he was just doing this for fun, but I sat there and could barely even look. I stared at the ground most of the time. Whereas the African American people on the other side of the train were all watching and most of them were video taping and a couple of them were dancing along. Not like the Michael Jackson person was dancing, but they were shuffling around and singing the words.

This experience made me wonder why we had different reactions. I know the song and I know most of the words but I didn't have the same reaction to sing along. I wonder if I was so timid because he was african american. I wonder what would have happened if the dancer was white. Would the african american people on the other side of the train started video taping him and singing along like they did in this video?