cuchulainn
Member
From the BBC's children's site.
The kid's numbers are way high. She probably used old numbers from the early 1990s.
The kid's numbers are way high. She probably used old numbers from the early 1990s.
Updated 01 January 2003, 14.25
Life in the US with guns
Melissa thinks there should be stricter gun laws in America.
She lives in the US and thinks guns are dangerous.
"In social studies class we talked about how so many people are killed by guns each year.
About 15,000 people are killed intentionally by handguns in the United States, however in Great Britain, no more than a few dozen are killed each year.
Accidents
That 15,000 doesn't include suicides (about 18,000) and unintentional deaths (about 1,500).
Altogether that's about 34,500 people who were killed by guns alone. Every day there is news about a murder victim, or a child who was accidentally killed by a gun.
Lock-down drill
We have to do "lock-down" drills at school, where we turn out the lights and sit in the back of the classroom away from the doors and windows, as if an intruder had come into the school.
On April 25, 1999, at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, two shooters killed 13 people, and afterwards killed themselves.
Police
My country's lack of gun control has taken the lives of thousands each year, and we need to do something about it.
My social studies teacher said that police officers in England often don't carry around a gun in their belt, but every officer in the U.S. has a gun at their side.
People say they need the guns as protection, but they wouldn't need the protection if we had gun control."
Melissa, Pensylvania, USA