By Edgar Garcia
Since large amounts of shootings have taken place within the US, this has led debates on gun control and how guns affect people, from the violence that comes with them to the safety and rules needed to handle one carefully.
According to Pew Research, nearly every American will know at least one victim of gun violence in their lifetime, whether that be through homicide, suicide, police shooting or accidental firings. In 2020 alone 45,222 people died from Gun Violence.
Chair of Criminal Justice at UTRGV Gordon Crews has studied crime and gun violence for years. He cautions that access to a weapon is one of the major factors for gun violence.
“One thing you can do is eliminate the capacity to do that [access a weapon]. Bottom line, if I’m going to commit violence, I’m going to commit violence. If I don’t have a weapon, I’m always gonna have my hands ,” Crews said. “If I decide to do violence and I have access to that [weapons], I can do a lot of violence.”
Public Information Officer in the Brownsville Police Department Martin Sandoval said gun violence is about education and accessibility .
“The best way to keep your gun safe is education,” Sandoval said. “You have to teach your children that that is not a toy and that there are serious consequences.”
He also said that a lot of violence we see with guns, especially mass shooters, can be resolved with education and the prevention of reach from children.
“When it comes to violence, it is because that gun has become accessible to that person. As we’ve seen recently, a lot of these young kids, these teenage kids ,that grab the gun from their parents, go to the school and do something terrible. They made that gun accessible to him. And that’s where the biggest factor lies. You have to make these guns safe,” Sandoval said.
Assistant Chief of Police at UTRGV, Van Slusser has some tips for making sure people stay safe and stresses the importance of education.
“Those who choose to own firearms, should know how they work. They should receive training, how to operate their firearms safely, how to carry them safely. A big thing is how to store them safely, in the home, when they’re not being carried. So it’s always important to keep the firearms locked up, away from any unauthorized users, away from any children,” Slusser said.
Gun violence and damage that comes from firearms all come back to education.
