Moreover, evidence about which policies would be effective at reducing violence remains limited (3), and the types of bills that are enacted depend on the political party in power
It is clear that gun violence is a huge issue in America. A large percentage of gun violence is due to impulsive behavior. Applying a waiting period of just a month, a simple solution, could/will tremendously impact the amount of impulsive acts of gun violence.
One avenue for reducing gun deaths is to draw on insights from behavioral economics and psychology, which suggest that delaying gun purchases, even for a short time, might be an effective policy tool. Visceral factors, such as anger or suicidal impulses, can spur people to inflict harm on others or themselves, but tend to be transitory state
Political parties play a huge role in the ideals and willingness to enforce restrictions like this. The second amendment is so protected that congress won't allow the Center for Disease Control to study gun violence. Research has been done on countless other things, such as automobiles, that have caused high numbers of fatalities. So why would they not be allowed to research gun violence and firearms? I believe its because people assume if they allow research to be done, then they will either try to strip citizens of their guns, or enforce stricter gun laws. If citizens are that worried about something of that matter happening, its evident that their is an issue.
One study found that waiting period laws that delay the purchase of firearms by a few days can reduce gun homicides by roughly 17%
Homicides are another act of gun violence, in fact, 67% of homicides involve a firearm as the medium of killing. Homicides are usually an impetuous act where the perpetrator acts out of angry and passion. If someone is having a break down due to extreme stress and anger build ups, or having a surge of impulsivity and anger, they currently can easily access a gun. This is why it is crucial to enforce waiting periods. I think a waiting period of 1 month allows enough time for the impulsive mindset to cease, and potentially allows the person, to an extent, to move on. Typically, if the perpetrator is that set on killing a target or mass amount of people and they will wait the month, then this isn't an impetuous act, its a premeditated plan. People like this won't be impacted heavily by the waiting period, the will plan around it. The waiting period isn't meant to stop this type of violence, it is more so to stop impulsive outbreaks.
Suicide attempts are often impulsive, singular episodes that involve little planning
Creating a "cooling off" period can also prevent some suicide attempts. When a person decides to kill themselves, it is often an impulsive decision. Preventing them from being able to have immediate access to a gun can save their lives. Implementing a waiting time for possessing a gun is a great start to reducing the deaths caused by firearms in America.
delaying immediate access to firearms, waiting periods create an important “cooling off” period that can help prevent impulsive acts of gun violence, including gun homicides and suicides
By instituting an amount of time between the time a person goes to purchase a gun and the time they receive it, it prevents the impulsivity someone can and will have and allows them a time period to calm down and think about what they are doing. Many shootings are caused by impulsivity, the shooter gets in an angry, manic like state and impulsively decides to shoot others. This cooling off period is a great way to aid in the decrease of gun violence.
. If teens are only talking to other teens who also feel lonely and depressed, they won’t hear different points-of-view.
Social media promotes and helps users find people with common interests and beliefs. This, although, can become detrimental to young peoples though process. Groups of people, consisting anywhere from 5 users to millions, who have the same point-of-view have come together to convince impressionable people that they should join them, or severely harass and cyber-attack those who go against them. This has been a huge problem during the election. Democratic groups would send their thousands followers to attack anyone who supported trump or even had an American flag shown in a video. Likewise, Trump supporters would send hate messages and threats to democrat's. It got the the point where the majority of people didn't respect people having different opinions from their own ,they didn't even care to hear their argument. This separation of people caused depression and anxiety towards those who were being attacked, and those who didn't want to choose. It makes the internet a toxic and lonely place when people can't come together due to different beliefs.
When a teen sees that a friend is ignoring them, the teen feels anxious, ignored, frustrated and unimportant.
Media platforms allow users to view when they are being ignored. Teenagers will purposely ignore people, knowing they can see that, to make them feel bad or unwanted. This is very common when teens what to make someone feel unincluded our out of the group. The feeling of intentionally being ignored or left out leads to increased feelings of loneliness and depression.
rates of depression and suicide are so high that members of Generation Z are “on the brink of the worst mental health crisis in decades.”
Social media and the internet is the main variable that has changed between the generations of teenagers. The media is the main reason for this spike in mental health issues.
teens are becoming more sheltered and less independent than any generation before them
Statistics have shown a rapid decrease in independency among the teenage generation when the internet is popular. Social media provides a space where teens can sit entertained by a screen for hours. Additionally, teen's attention span has also plummeted to an all time low. With the creation of vine and tiktok, the videos last anywhere from 6 seconds to 3 minutes at maximum and then a new video is shown. This short time spans that they are use to cause teenagers to become easily bored. Even watching a 10 minute YouTube video can now be seen as "too long" and doesn't hold their attention.
The use of social media as a means to increase self-esteem may, on the contrary, cause their self-esteem to decrease due to CBP
Many people turn to social media as an outlet to find support for how they are feeling, however, many people use this against them and use their vulnerability against them. This is another issue that causes an increase in depression and loneliness in teens.
The fact that cyberbullying perpetrators do not need to know their victim and do not see the results of their actions are among the factors that can increase the frequency of CBP
Cyberbullying is a huge negative outcome of social media. Media platforms allow users to anonymously harass and intentionally bully others. Users have formed groups with friends and strangers to repeatedly bully one person. This is causing a major influx in anxiety and depression among teens which can lead to suicidal thoughts. The cyber world can be very dangerous. Alongside of cyberbullying, people can create accounts with fake personal information pretending to be someone else. They do this in order to lure teenagers in. From that point, some will catfish for money, some will groom adolescents, and some will try to meet up with teens in order to kill, rape, sex traffic, kidnap, etc. The online world is so risky and there are many people who want to take advantage of young teens. It is imperative that parents monitor what their teen has access to and who can reach them on the media, because it could save their life. Additionally, the internet has many groups that manipulate teens into dangerous activities. A game where a person ties something around their neck until they pass out to feel a "high" has ended the lives of appoxamitly 900 teens. Peer pressure is a huge factor in the popularization of these games. Teens what to feel like they fit in and are like, so it is common for them to follow the crowd.
This specific finding is in accordance with a previous cross-sectional study conducted with female adolescents showing that peer and media influences (e.g., attractive celebrity and peer images) constituted stronger predictors than parental influences of BID symptoms and eating disorders (Shroff and Thompson [49]). It is also consistent with empirical evidence showing that females are more prone to be adversely affected by peer and media influence than males (Brown and Tiggemann [ 8]; Nesi and Prinstein [40]).
Many females who have been through traumatic experiences view the influences who are showing off as if they need to be like that person. This causes an increase inn eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction. The media and how society views these young girls is causing damaging outcomes.