By Kayla Kinsey
Opinion Editor
and Sofia Williams
Managing Editor
On April 7, three teenagers were shot and wounded at Dockweiler Beach during a spring break party. The Los Angeles Police Department claims there were between 500 to 1,000 attendees on the beach where a series of fights occurred, eventually resulting in gunfire. Officer J. Chavez of the Los Angeles Police Department said that two teenage girls and a teenage boy were shot, taken to the hospital, and are now stable. However, this incident of gun violence is indicative of a larger national firearm issue at hand.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the police did not make any arrests, even when the disturbances continued after the shooting. After the attendees fled the scene, a nearby 7-Eleven store on Imperial Highway was crammed with about 100 people, where candy and other items were stolen.
Per CBS News, Lucky’s Donuts, a store in El Segundo, was ransacked, and a worker was allegedly attacked by those fleeing the beach. With numerous accounts of violence occuring on April 7 in the South Bay community, safety measures must be raised and awareness toward gun violence should be publicized.
According to The Gun Violence Archive, an ongoing online account of gun violence incidents in the United States, there have been over 13,000 firearm-induced deaths in 2023. The rapid increase in fatalities due to the sale of firearms represents a national issue exacerbated by easy access to weapons.
Per BBC, more than 50 people are killed each day from gun violence, which is significantly higher than those in Canada, Australia, England, and many other countries. This data proves that safer measures need to be upheld by the government, along with cultural changes surrounding gun safety to reduce premature fatalities and to ensure safety of communities across the country.
The Second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution gives Americans the right to bear arms, and sensible gun laws are needed to help reduce the misuse of these firearms. Currently, the major laws to help control gun violence include The National Firearms Act of 1934, The Gun Control Act of 1968, The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986 and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service Improvement Amendments Act of 2007. These acts are designed to regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms to individuals who are unfit to use them. However, the acts are not far-reaching enough to address the national issue of gun violence. These laws still fail to rid the country of the major fatalities that it currently endures.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the death rate among children increased by 50% from 2019 to 2021 due to instances of gun violence. As children increasingly become targets of gun violence, a growing issue with gun control is revealed. Additionally, access to firearms has increased youth suicide rates by 26%, increasing the risks of more relaxed gun control. The Dockweiler and Monterey health support within students’ communities. It is imperative that students utilize the various resources available to them at Costa, such as school counselors and other support systems. Students must protect themselves and others not only by avoiding potentially dangerous situations, but also by caring for their own mental wellbeing in the face of violence.
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