Muhammad Faizan

Prof. Olga Chajet

ENG1101/0112 ML

April 4, 2023

Reflective Annotated Bibliography

My research question is: Why are students now more than ever victims of gun violence?

As a citizen of the United States and a student in college, I understand the importance of this
issue for society. Gun violence is a major public health issue in the United States, and it has been
the subject of much debate and controversy over the years. The country has one of the highest
rates of gun violence in the world, with tens of thousands of people dying each year from gun-
related incidents. This issue is even more detrimental when it comes to school shootings. Young
kids are losing their lives in a place where they are supposed to be safe.

Source Entry #1

Joan Tupponce, "Why do school shootings keep happening in the United States?" VCU
News, VCU, 17 June 2022,

https://news.vcu.edu/article/2022/06/why-do-school-shootings-keep-happening-in-the-
united-states

Tupponce, Joan. “Why Do School Shootings Keep Happening in the United States?” VCU News,
https://news.vcu.edu/article/2022/06/why-do-school-shootings-keep-happening-in-the-united-states.

Summary✅
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The article explains why school shootings keep occurring in the US and what are the possible
factors that lead to these shootings. The article explains that the US has a population of 334
million but the number of civilian gun ownership is the largest in the world at 390 million. A
lack of school's security also plays a role in school shootings. The students are not cross checked
for what they are bringing into the school. The third reason causing gun violence is social media.
There are a lot of self-proclaimed thought leaders on social media who preach nasty ideas to a
mass audience and there are no checks for that. There are thousands of online podcasts and
videos that promote violence. Bullying also plays a vital role in school shootings, and it is one of
the factors that is often not looked at. Schools don't perform a great job at handling bullying.
Schools should come up with policies for preventing bullying because most of the time the
shooters are school students who have faced bullying and want revenge. Screening a person who
buys a gun is important, as is running a background check to determine whether the person has
been involved in crimes previously or not.

Rhetorical Analysis

The audience intended for this article is those who are interested in the topic of school
shootings, including students, teachers, parents, and concerned members of the community. The
purpose of this article is to provide insight on school shootings, their causes, and ways to prevent
them. The writing style is informative and objective, and the author presents facts and research
data to support their claim. The genre of this article is informational journalism. The author
avoids using pathos and uses logos instead. The author, Joan Tupponce, is a freelance writer with
20 years of experience.The VCU News platform is credible.

Reflection

The facts provided in the article are authentic and I did not know that bullying could lead to gun
violence. School shootings are a serious problem that not only impacts the students and their
families but also the entire community is affected. This article provides valuable insights on
school shootings and raises awareness about the steps that need to be taken in order to prevent
school shootings and prevents students from being a victim of gun violence.
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Notable Quotes

1. "From a professional perspective, it reminded me there are too many people with guns,
the wrong people with guns and that nothing is going to change." (Pelfrey, Ph.D., an expert
in the field of homeland security)

2. "School shootings happen in the U.S. at an alarming rate, but they rarely happen
elsewhere in the world. Eighty or 90 percent of all the school shootings in the world happen
in the U.S. They are concentrated here." (William V. Pelfrey Jr.)

3."As a policing expert, there is no reason anyone who is not military or law enforcement
should ever have an assault rifle." (William V. Pelfrey Jr.)

Do not leave so much space

Source Entry #2

Maya Rossin Slater, Surviving a School Shooting: Impacts on the Mental Health,
Education, and Earnings of American Youth." Stanford Institute for Economic Policy
Research (SIEPR), June 2022,

https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/health/surviving-school-shooting-impacts-mental-
health-education-and-earnings-american

Summary
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Bullying seems to be getting worse and more prevalent every day.Gun availability is also getting
much simpler in modern times. If they meet certain requirements, anyone can purchase a firearm;
background checks are not done. Students who are innocent are also hurt by guns. The lives of
the survivors of school shootings have also shown to be affected in the long run. They struggle
with a variety of mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, and trauma. According to the
report, people who have survived school shootings also struggle to finish their education and are
less likely to enroll in college. In addition, compared to their classmates who had not
experienced a school massacre, survivors made less money as adults. This article emphasizes the
requirement for laws that take survivors' long-term impacts into account. The researchers
suggested providing mental health and educational facilities to the survivors so they would not
feel left out from society, as well as implementing policies to prevent future school shootings.

Rhetorical Analysis

The audience for this article is likely to be policymakers, researchers, and scholars who are
interested in the long-term effects of school shootings. The purpose of this article is to provide
insight on the effects school shootings have on their survivors. The writing style is academic and
research-oriented, and the genre of this article is research paper, with an emphasis on data and
statistics. The publisher is the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and the author is
a SIEPR Senior Fellow and an Associate Professor of Health Policy in the Department of Health
Policy at the Stanford University School of Medicine, which adds credibility to the article.

Do not leave so much space

Reflection

This article provides insights about the effect school shootings leave on a survivor and what the
long-term effects could be. Depression and anxiety are very difficult to deal with, and I think
trauma can increase these mental health problems. I think this article is accurate, the facts it
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provides are true. I think policies should be made to counter the challenges faced by the
survivors.

Notable Quotes

1."More than 100,000 American children attended a school at which a shooting took place
in 2018 and 2019 alone”.(Cabral et al., 2021)

2."The mechanisms driving these impacts may include the possibility that Blacks and
Hispanics feel a stronger connection to same-race victims of police brutality and that they
view these events as breaking their trust in institutions such as law enforcement." (Maya
Rossin-Slater)

3."When it comes to educational outcomes, studies have found that school shootings lead to
drops in student enrollment and a decline in average test scores." (Abouk and Adams,2013;
Poutvaara and Ropponen, 2018; Beland and Kim, 2016; Levine and McKnight, 2020).

Source Entry #3

Naaz Modan and Kara Arundel "School Shootings Reach Unprecedented High in 2022."
K-12 Dive, 21 Dec. 2022,

https://www.k12dive.com/news/2022-worst-year-for-school-shootings/639313/

Summary
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The article states that 2022 has been the worst year in history because there has been an increase
in school shootings. The article also defines the cause of school shootings, which is easy access
to guns. Guns are easily accessible, and there is no proper screening of what the use of this gun
will be. There is also another cause of school shootings, which is disputes among students. It has
also been observed that the shooters were mostly students ages 10 to 17. Some other factors
discussed in the article are mental health issues among students and a lack of school safety
measures. The article also discussed the effects school shootings have emotionally, physically,
and academically on the victims. The article also discusses that Several schools and districts are
taking measures to help prevent this problem. The article calls for policymakers to take serious
action against gun violence by enacting stronger gun laws and increasing funds for mental health
services and school safety measures.

Rhetorical Analysis

The audience of this article is teachers, students, and policymakers who are concerned about
increasing gun violence. The purpose of this article is to inform and educate the audience on the
seriousness of school shootings by providing statistics and data. The writing style of this article
is informative and straightforward. The genre of this article is "news and analysis" to provide an
overview of school shootings in 2022. The article is published on K-12 Dive, a credible news
source, and the authors are also credible news reporters.

Reflection

This article provides insights on why school shootings occur. The increase in gun violence is due
to everyone's easy access to guns. In my opinion, school security should be strict to prevent
someone from bringing a gun to the school. Also, mental health checks should be performed
both by parents and teachers. This article covers all aspects and provides solutions on how to
help prevent gun violence against students.
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Notable Quotes

1."Over the past two years we have not only seen incidents where they are loaded, but
where they are also being pulled out and used in the middle of fights in schools and on
campuses." (Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services)

2."I think Uvalde showed that sitting under desks in the classroom is not a good strategy. It
would have been much better in that situation if the kids ran out of the building." (David
Riedman)

3."In that decade - the decade that passed between these two murders of our children - no
substantial gun safety legislation was ever signed into law," said Rep. Lucy McBath, a
Democrat from Georgia who lost her 17-year-old son to gun violence in 2012, during a
congressional hearing on the Uvalde mass shooting last week. "We cannot afford another
10 vears."

Conclusion

I learned that not only students but also faculty members of the school, parents, and even normal
people are victims of gun violence. Without proper check and balance, these types of incidents
occur.Mental health issues among students, disputes among them, easy access to guns, and bully
culture are the main reasons for gun violence in school, and many innocent students suffer and
parents lose their children. I found the real reason why school shootings occur and what the real
cause of it is. I got to know about the feelings of the victim's parents, how they felt, and what
they want to do in order to improve the system. I learned about how these issues can be
prevented. I understood my question more after doing the research. I think my research can help
prevent school shootings by raising awareness about what the leading causes are and how to
tackle the situation. Providing facts about the topic can add credibility to the research and help
understand where we are and where we need to improve.