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Kayla Burr
Professor Malcom Campbell
UWRT 1103
April 11, 2016
Rural Communities: Gun Culture or Gun Control?
My senior year in high school, Shaundasia Robinson, a girl I had played sports with since
7th grade was shot in the head and killed instantly. She was killed while spending the night with a
friend. The friends mom and boyfriend were having an argument when the boyfriend pulled out
a gun. A few moments later an accidental shot was fired and Shaundasias life was taken. She
was a 17 year old girl who had dreams of getting out of our rural town and becoming a renowned
pediatrician; but tragically her life was cut short by a senseless act of gun violence. According to
The United States Census Bureau, our town of Wadesboro, North Carolina, only has about
approximately five thousand people; due to that our community is very close and everyone is
well known to each other. In our small town there is a very close knit community, her death sent
shockwaves through our community. Althoug it did not ignite a change, it instead ignited more
gun violence. Coming from a rural area, guns are a staple in the community, through gangs,
drugs, hunting, and tradition. Many people hunt, but tThere is also a lot of gun violence;
unreported gun violence at that. The definition of gun violence, according to Mark Singer and
Karen, includes being a witness or a victim to a gun pointing or shooting. There are not many
people in my community, but and I can almost guarantee that majority of those who have guns,
have guns that not everyones guns are not registered. Drugs and gangs are also becoming a big
problem in rural communities, which almost always bring gun violence along with them. I can
remember going to school and seeing guns in fellow students cars. in the parking lots and there

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There were even a few students who would bring them into school with them. Guns and gun
violence are everywhere a staple in rural communities.
Studies of gun violence are often done, but they tend to focus on urban areas with very
little attention being given to rural areas and the gun culture that consumes them. Studies have
been done Slovaks study along with others done have to concluded that the gun culture in rural
areas has a large impact on the children that grow up in that those environments. Due to
theBecause of this gun culture in rural areas, many people believe that children who grow up
around guns become immune to them;. I can tell you through my personal experience that that is
far from the truth. Knowing that there were guns around me no matter where I was always had
me on edge. My grandfather was a Vietnam War veteran, an avid hunter, and shooter who had
tons of guns in his home. As a child when I would spend the night there, I would often have
nightmares of being accidently shot or people breaking in. Due to my personal experiences with
this topic, I have decided to dedicate my time to finding out more about the gun culture and gun
violence in rural areas, with a focus on the effects that it has on children, along with possible
solutions to gun violencethis problem. There are many questions that I would like to find
answers to throughout my research, including: Why is the gun culture in rural areas unchanging
throughout the years? What are some effects on children who are constantly exposed to guns?
What are the obstacles that stand in the way of eliminating the gun culture? What are things that
can be done to protect children from the gun violence? What causes people to get involved in
gun violence?
These questions will be fundamental as I dig deeper into the underlying gun culture that
has taken over marinated and continued to grow in rural areas, specifically. I want to find ideas,
answers, and solutions so that the children of tomorrow might be protected and never be face-to-

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face with a gun. I believe that if the gun culture in rural areas was minimized or even eliminated,
that children would be safer, and the world would be safer as well. Many well-known shooting
massacres have occurred in rural areas or are done by a person from a rural area, including:
Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, the Charleston Church shooting, and the shooting in a
Mississippi movie theater in July 2015 (Stegall). I think it is important that we search for
understanding and solutions to stop this tragic gun violence that is affecting our country every
day.
The articles and news all seem to focus on the gun violence and tragedy in urban areas,
and very rarely reflect the gun violencesame problems surrounding occurring in rural
areas. According to Singers and Slovaks report, the rate of violent victimization is the same for
rural youths as for urban adults. This means that the same number of urban adults are being
affected as rural youths,; the catch is that the population in urban areas in multipl is several e
times higher than the population in rural areas. Singer and Slovak also includes in his their
report, that firearm mortality rates in rural areas are two times the national average. For
example, if the national average is 10 deaths a week, the number for a rural county community
would be approximately 20. According to Brian Walsh of Time Magazine, he believes that cities
have become safer due to the increased police presence. This could be a possible explanation
due to the fact that city cops are more often seen than rural officers. You can catch a city cop
walking around or often out on a call, which creates an omnipresent feeling, while rural officers
are very rarely seen due to the fact that they have to patrol in their cars, to be able to cover all of
their beat. This is a very creative and well thought out explanation as to why rural areas are
more dangerous than urban areas, but I do not feel as if this has that much of an impact on the

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gun culture in rural areas. This only leads me to want to find other explanations as to why rural
areas have become more dangerous than cities.
Karen Slovak conducted a study on Gun Violence and Children: Factors Related to
Exposure and Trauma,. tThrough her research many interesting observations were found
including a statistic that 56% of rural youth had access to a gun. This led her to conduct a survey
among the youth, asking topics questions including: the amount of parental monitoring they
have, their gun exposure, seen the amount of gun violence they have seen, and the availability of
a gun to them. The strongest conclusion she made from this study is that, increased access to
guns and limited parental monitoring greatly increases the risk of childrens a childs exposure to
gun violence. She also found that, the highest occurrence of unintentional firearm-related
injury happened in the afternoon hours when children were out of school and their parents were
still at work (Slovak). With the lack of parental monitoring in the afternoons, this is the
timewas shown as the thime that children tend to get into the same most danger. I think that
school and community activities in the afternoons would be a good solution as a way to monitor
children until their parents got off work. to buy time until parents get off work would be a good
solution for this. These activities could include: sports, clubs, volunteering, educational
opporuntities, and tutoring. The most surprising thing that I learned from this study, was that 1
in 4 of the students reported having a gun specifically pointed directlyat them (Slovak). This
was astounding to me, I can only imagine the emotional and mental effects that an incident like
this can have on a teenager going through the developmental stage. This has led me to question,
what are the direct mental and emotional effects on children who have been face-to-face with a
gun?

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In an article study entitled, Gun Violence Exposure and Trauma Among Rural Youth,,
Mark Singer along with Karen Slovak study the mental and emotional effects on children. They
concluded that youth exposed to gun violence will typically have more anger, post-traumatic
stress disorder, and dissociation. Anger is something that we are all familiar with, just as adults
we know how to manage it. PTSD is not something that we typically associate with children, but
it is very common among them. Dissociation is the most serious of them all, I believe. It is
when a child seperates themselves from a situation, which can lead to feelings of isolation. All
of these emotions can take a tragic toll on a child. They also discovered that those exposed will
often express more violent behaviors, along with the fact that they and those exposed had lower
levels of parental monitoring. In the United States, every three hours a child is a fatal casualty
of firearm violence, which translates into a classroom of children every three days (Singer and
Slovak). This is a statistic that is staggering to read and comprehend. Through their study, they
concluded that, violence in one sphere of living may spill over to another (Singer and
Slovak). By this, I feel that they are implying that a child who is faced with gun violence at
home will carry over that anger and aggression from that particular situation into other spheres of
their lives.; including Including their school life where they spend a majority of their time with
those whom they may not particularly get along with. Once a child becomes is comfortable with
guns and sees it as an everyday occurrence they began to feel comfortable enough to have that
gun on them, and a single incident can cause them to use that gun, changing their life forever.
According to a Teen Help article in 2010, 784 juveniles were arrest for murder. That does not
account for those who were found innocent, had a mistrial, or were never suspected or convicted.
With the growing amount of violence in todays world you can only imagine that that number
has risen.

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As I read that previous statistic, that 784 juveniles were arrested for murder I began
to wonder why todays youth are so obsessed with guns and/or violence. According to a

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National Institute of Justice article, for teenagers from disadvantaged neighborhoods

carrying a gun is the only option they know. They see the people they associate with
walking the streets, carrying a gun, so why would they not do the same. This is also known
as the construct theory which was founded in 1997 by J. McCord (source). This theory is
based on the idea that what children see every day, is what they view as normal and try to
emulate. So if a child sees a murder occurring often, they most likely would not second
guess it and that would be their norm. This is why is important to monitor children, and
know the things that they experience and see on a daily basis.
The anger and confusion that children carry with them can greatly affect their lives
as the study has shown, those emotions can carry over into other spheres of their life. If
you take a step back to look around, when is the first time that children are exposed to
guns and violence? Is it when they see their first fight or their first shooting, it is when they
go hunting for the first time at 4 years old? With children being exposed so early to killing,
does that effect their development as they age? This is a common question, that many
parents and researchers have. (SOURCE) questions this along with the use of toy guns.
She examines the topic, if young boys are destined for violence; considering it is all around
them: on tv, their toys, and in the streets. She suggests monitoring your childrens TV
shows and their toy or even fake gun play. She also suggests that if you buy your child a
toy gun, ensure that it looks like a toy. I think that these are very reasonable suggestions to
monitor your children, as well as encourage gun safety at a young age.

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Gun safety and gun culture is a conversation that often dominates headlines, you are
either for it or against it. It is not very often that people can meet in the middle and find a
solution to the problem. The most common solution is to have stricter gun laws for people trying
to obtain guns, but how logical and easy is this idea to achieve?. It is easy to say that we need
stricter gun laws, but finding effective ways to enforce them is a challenge in itself. The problem
with just saying that America needs to have stricter gun laws, is that they will not apply to people
who already have obtain guns. With almost all people citizens in rural areas already obtaining
owning guns and you also have to account for the passing down of guns from generation to
generation,. Aa law that would limit those trying to obtain guns would have no real effect in the
present day.
Rebecca Kaplan, a CBS news writer, examines solutions for gun violence; one of her
solutions that I was most taken to was the option to address illegal firearm sales. This would
focus on the gun-trafficking sales that go on with no certification or background checks. I think
that this is one of the best options for the present and for the future. Virginia governor, Terry
McAuliffe, issued an executive order of this sort after a TV reporter and cameraman, were shot
on live TV. His executive order aimed to increase prosecutions of gun crimes, encourage
reporting of these crimes, and to trace all guns used to commit a crime (Kaplan).The executive
order was aimed to increase prosecutions of gun crimes, encourage reporting of these crimes, and
to trace guns that are used to commit a crime. Again, I do believe something like this is the best
solution, but it would take time and strict enforcement.
Another solution that is more proactive than reactive, is to establish a gun-safe
community, with programs that advocate a live safe environment for the community. These
programs could include community activities for children that encourage them to stay away from

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guns and other forms of violence. Other options could include gun certification classes, training
classes, and teachings of alternative techniques to address problems the temptations that arise
with guns.
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As I have learned more about the gun culture and gun violence in rural communities, I
am much more knowledgeable about the effects on children. I have answered some of my
inquiry questions, but there is still a lot more for me to learn. Although, I have discovered
innovative solutions to the gun violence problems that consume the rural South. As I continue to
research I hope to find out more about why gun violence is so prominent and why the gun culture
has remained so prominent in rural areas, along with other preventative mechanisms.
The gun culture in rural areas has always been a problem, but often the attention if put on
urban areas. The gun violence in rural areas is not getting worse, but it is not getting better
either. It has remained constant at this pace, and will continue to do so until a change is brought
out. The effects that this gun culture is having on children is very large and impactful. It is
effecting childrens development, emotions, and future. There are many solutions available to
provide assistance to the situation, although to this point none have come to fruition. As I
researched more and more, there is an obvious need for assistance and guidance in implementing
these programs and initiatives to protect our rural communities and our children.

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Works Cited
Farago, Robert. Gun control is not the answer: Opposing view. USA Today. USA Today. 4
Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
Hardy, Bethany. Boys and Guns: Whats a Parent to Do? Understanding and Raising Boys.
PBS Parents. n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.

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Kaplan, Rebecca. Five ways the U.S. could reduce gun violence. CBS News. CBS News. 04
Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
Singer, Mark, and Slovak, Karen. Gun Violence Exposure and Trauma Among Rural Youth.
Violence and Victims 16.4 (2001): 389-400. PrintWeb.
Slovak, Karen. Gun Violence and Children: Factors Related to Exposure and Trauma.
National Association of Social Workers 27.2 (2002): 104-112. PrintWeb.
Teen Violence Statistics Teen Help. Teen Help. N.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
Turk, Leslie, and Stack, Liam. Gunman Kills 2 and Himself at Movie Theater in Lafayette,
La. Nytimes. New York Times. 23 July 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
United States Census Bureau. United States Census Bureau. United States Census Bureau. 01
July 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

Walsh, Brian. "In Town vs. Country, It Turns Out That Cities Are the Safest Places to Live."
Time. Time Magazine, 23 July 2013. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.
Why Do Some Youth Become Violent and Carry Firearms? National Institute of Justice.
Office of Justice Programs. 25 June 2008. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.