Did you know, about 1.4 million people died from firearms from 1968 to 2011? That includes suicides, homicides, and accidents. 13,286 people died from guns in 2015 in America. We should stop gun violence in Oakland and all of America by banning all automatic guns. Three reasons why are a lot of people die, illegal gun sales take place which brings guns into dangerous areas, and young people are dying from gun violence.

The first reason why we should ban automatic guns is that guns kill a lot of people. 13,000 people died in 2015 in the U.S by guns, excluding suicide. This text comes from Barbara Parker, a Oakland City Attorney and she says “In the last decade, 406,496 have been killed by guns in America”. This matters because  400,000 people are the population of 4 average U.S cities. So it means a lot of people are dying because of guns.

The second reason is that people sell guns to each other illegally. People can sell guns to kids under age to commit suicide and hurt others in the school. They can also sell guns to dangerous people and bring guns to new areas that have no guns at all. This text comes from a council member of Oakland Rebecca Kaplan said in her article “ The spread of gun dealing and gun violence and take action against the proliferation of guns and illegal gun dealing”. Illegal gun dealing matters because guns can get into the wrong hands like criminals with a terrible record.

The last reason why automatic guns should be banned is that a lot of young people die from gun violence. This text comes from a medical Doctor from Oakland’s Children’s hospital Michael D. Bell and he says “There were 629 children 0-11 year olds and 2,353 12 to 17 year olds shot or killed in 2014”. This matters because innocent children are also getting hurt by guns and it’s affecting their families.

Banning automatic guns in America would kill fewer people. It would save lives. Old guns like the musket only shot 2 rounds per minute. Now we have guns that shoot 45 rounds per minute. A website called Everytown research said “everyday, 100 americans are killed with guns and hundreds more are shot and injured. The effects of gun violence extend far beyond these casualties”. Banning automatic guns to stop killing people would help stop deaths in America and deaths per year would go way down.

Banning guns can stop illegal gun sales  because they wouldn’t have anyone to sell to. Guns won’t be given to criminals with a warrant or kids for school shootings. An example of an illegal gun sale is in the book Violent Ends by Neal and Brendan Shusterman, where this kid named Kirby gets a gun from an illegal gun sale and commits a school shooting. Banning automatic guns to stop illegal gun sales matters because it can’t get into the hands of a criminal for a mass shooting or a kid for a school shooting.

Banning automatic guns would stop the deaths of young adults. It would not give them access to any types of guns for school shootings or suicide which are common these days. I got these statistics from the AFSP and it says “In 2017, firearms accounted for 50.57 percent for all suicide deaths”. This matters because kids would stop getting killed on accident or from suicides. Kids can have easy access to guns to commit a school shooting or kill themselves

To stop gun violence in Oakland and all of America, we need to ban automatic guns. It’s important to ban all automatic guns because they kill innocent people, can be sold to dangerous criminals, and young children are being killed. As the reader, you need to spread the word about how automatic guns should be banned and this Op-ed should urge you to take a stand.