America is a great country full of fast food, wonder, and happiness, but gun violence continues to be a persistent problem.

America needs to have stricter background checks in order to obtain a firearm, and limit availability of military-grade weapons.

The United States has the highest gun ownership rates in the world, and this shows with the amount of gun violence and shootings that occur in the country.

Other areas of the world that aren’t in war zones like Europe, Japan, or Australia don’t have these problems, and change is needed.

One of the ways to solve the gun violence problem in the United States is to strengthen background checks required to obtain firearms.

The United States must have stricter gun laws to limit the number of people with mental disabilities and extensive criminal backgrounds from attaining firearms.

Vox reported that, “America has six times as many firearm homicides as Canada, and nearly 16 times as many as Germany.”

This evidence shows that other developed countries around the world do not have the problems that America faces regarding firearm violence.

These countries like Canada and Germany have much stricter gun laws, and the results show regarding firearm homicides.

Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser explained, “57 percent of citizens favored a gun permit requirement.”

This shows that the majority of Americans are in favor of gun permit requirements when obtaining firearms. Stricter gun laws would decrease the amount of gun related homicides in the United States, as shown by other countries like Canada and Germany. And polls show a majority of Americans favor new legislation that would restrict certain people from firearms.

Another change that America could make to reduce gun violence would be to prohibit the sale and possession of military-grade weapons.

Military grade weapons, for example the AR-15, assault rifles, and the AK-47, should not be allowed to be used by the public. Most Americans support firearm use for activities like hunting and for self-protection.

In both of these cases, military-grade weapons like the ones mentioned are not needed.

Vox stated that many recent mass shootings were carried out with these types of weapons, like the Parkland shooting in Florida.

Also during many of these shootings, the perpetrators are also armed with bombs and grenades. Civilians should not be allowed to purchase these types of weapons.

Plus, what beneficial purpose do weapons like these have for regular people? Restricting the use of military grade weapons would reduce the probability of shootings and reduce the mortality rate.

Some people may say that firearms are necessary for protection from criminals, however people don’t need military-grade weapons to protect themselves from gangsters.

Vox reported that the US alone owns 42% of the world’s civilian firearms. This is a ridiculous number, considering there are plenty of developed countries who have less shootings than the US.

This means that having more firearms does not help prevent shootings.

The opposition has a point when they claim that firearms are a right in the Constitution and people should have the right to obtain firearms. But this only goes to a certain extent.

No one needs an AK-47 to “protect” themselves from criminals, and with stronger background checks, criminals wouldn’t be able to obtain firearms in the first place.

But Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser report that since 1972, the number of people that support background checks for firearms never dropped below 70%.

This means the majority of people support background checks for firearms. While it may be useful to use firearms for hunting and other recreational purposes, it is important to note that you still don’t need military grade firearms to shoot a deer. A shotgun will do fine.

In conclusion, America needs to have stricter background checks, and limit the availability of military-grade weapons to reduce the gun violence problem in this country.