Common Assignment

Gun violence is a major issue in Philadelphia and other big cities in the US. There are over 117,000 people shot every year, including almost 8,000 children and teens. Gang-related violence is a major cause, often related to drug deals and rivalries. Many teens get involved in gangs at a young age. In Philadelphia alone, there have been 1,468 shootings this year, with 350 fatalities. This violence makes residents feel unsafe in their own homes and everywhere else in the city. It also takes a toll on emergency services. Poverty and lack of education contribute to the problem, as many young people turn to gangs for money. It is crucial for the city and the country to take action to address this epidemic. All right. Hello. My name is Nate Hudson, and this is going to be my common assignment podcast One quick note before I begin I have the script here. I'm going to try and Stay as much on the script as I can But I may go off the script and expand on some points But I have the script here for whoever's listening to read it along as I go So today I'm going to be explaining one of the most important legal slash ethical issues that is plaguing the city of Philadelphia and really Every other big city across the United States, which is the rampant uncontrolled amount of gun violence The best way I could think to describe the severity of this issue is by providing some rather awful and unfortunate statistics So every single year in the United States there are over over a hundred and seventeen thousand three hundred forty-five people shot on average And that includes over seven thousand nine hundred fifty seven children and teens as well So the way I look at this. I'm a football fan and The average NFL Stadium holds around sixty thousand people sixty five thousand people so a hundred and seventeen thousand people That's almost two full NFL stadiums of people who are shot every year in the United States on average which is just insane to me to think about and An average day in the United States will see about three hundred and twenty seven people shot and a hundred and seventeen of those people are fatally killed and The majority of these crimes are the result of gang-related violence which occur usually in large cities or at the outskirts of large cities like Philadelphia or Chicago, New York and These are generally caused by drug deals robberies and rival gang quote-unquote wars what I mean by that is just you know like rival gangs going after each other and shooting each other when they cross paths things like that and Many of the children teens who are included in the number of people shot are Unfortunately also the result of gang-related violence because many teens who are involved in this kind of lifestyle Usually begin during their mid-teenage years like 14 to 15 years old a lot of kids in high school Get into this unfortunate lifestyle very early, which is very sad to think about and unfortunate The total number of people shot also includes things like suicides legal interventions and unintentional events, but the majority of this numbers Gang-related violence or violent crimes for that matter Clearly By looking at the nationwide statistics we can see that this type of violent crime is a massive problem in our country More specifically though. I wanted to dive into more specific statistics for the city of Philadelphia We're over 1.5 76 million people live so as of November 29th, 2023 There have been total 1,468 shootings in Philadelphia since the beginning of the year 1,218 of these have been non-fatal and 350 have been fatal and When I first read this data, it was extremely disturbing to me Especially as a college student who attends Temple University has to walk these streets every day To get to class, you know 1,400 shootings in about 11 months is just an absurd amount and it's so clear to me that this needs to be controlled or dealt with in some way because This cannot continue on as it is But gun violence is as I just said an increasingly bigger and more urgent matter and there must be action taken by the city and the Country as a whole to combat this horrible epidemic that is plaguing our cities So the first group of stakeholders I'm going to argue for are the residents of Philadelphia who live in and or around the city where the gun violence is very bad and What I also mean is like, you know, this is this group includes people who obviously live here, but I also want to Clarify that this includes, you know, temple students kids that are living here professors that are walking these streets Maybe tourists that are coming in to visit the city So this group of stakeholder they include All of those people all those groups of people And the argument I'm going to make for these stakeholders that this issue needs to be immediately dealt with because the amount of gun violence in Philadelphia makes the majority of these people feel unsafe in their own houses Streets restaurants grocery stores barbershops and almost everywhere else in the city Because of this out-of-control gun violence many of these people don't feel safe walking anywhere Especially at night or in the early mornings and it makes it extremely difficult for them to To do regular everyday things like walking to work walking to class walking their dog getting exercise seeing friends without looking over their back and and and being fearful of their life quite frankly and Yet residents of the city must constantly watch their back for people trying to rob them murder them commit any sort of violent crime on Them which is a terrible it's an awful way to live people cannot get away from gun violence They can't get away from gun violence. They can't get away from gun violence Commit any sort of violent crime on them Which is a terrible it's an awful way to live people cannot keep living like this Living in constant fear of these kinds of things is not a healthy way to live and I believe It definitely contributes to the poor mental health of average people in the city No person should have to constantly live in fear of someone taking their possessions or even their life while doing normal everyday things That people who live in the suburbs don't even have to think about This is the most important reason that action must be taken on this issue because no government That genuinely cares about its citizens would allow them to live in such an awful state regarding violent crimes And this isn't in my script, but I also wanted to mention philadelphia emergency Services, I also include them in this kind of group of stakeholders This includes, you know, the philadelphia police department emts fire department Um, I think that the amount of violence just makes their job so physically and mentally exhausting That you know people don't want to become police officers anymore emts because you know They're having to either chase criminals go to crime scenes or save people's lives like life Life-threatening wounds that they sustain from these these gun fights Every single day and it's so physically and mentally exhausting on them that um, I wanted to include them kind of in this stakeholder group because they also Want this to stop? So the second group of stakeholders i'm going to present and argue for is the stakeholders Which ultimately end up committing these violent crimes? So these are you know, the people that end up joining gangs or the people that end up shooting, you know Committing these violent crimes on one another and um My argument for this is In many of the cities in the country, it's so the poverty is so extreme Um either directly in the city, it's less common to have it, you know downtown in the city more around the outskirts Of the city like where temple is in relation to philadelphia but um Most big cities while most big cities in the united states have a lot of poverty in some areas Philadelphia, especially is one of the poorest cities outskirts, um rather of a city in the country, I mean the poverty rate is is Quite insane, uh when you look at it and um Outside of center city the other surrounding areas of the city are among the poorest in the entire country And since it's so poor it means, you know The education systems in these areas are horribly funded and they're not they're not very good at educating students And this is because they can't you know upgrade their elementary middle high schools Teachers are not paid very much so teachers don't want to work in these school districts And it becomes really hard to find people who will come teach at these schools in these extremely poor and crime rated areas And so because of that fact Uh students that enter into the system in extreme poverty They're not getting a solid education and on top of that even if they were getting a solid education Their families aren't able to you know afford college So they're not getting a solid education and they know they're not going to be going to college so this just further kind of contributes to um The lack of an education system that's in these areas So understandably at least to me many of these kids look to find other ways to make money, you know You know many of their families are probably living paycheck to paycheck, you know They're trying to help their families out, you know get some money for themselves, which is very understandable to me and unfortunately, a lot of these kids will end up turning to drug dealing which can make them a lot of money very fast, but Um, it also makes themselves involved in all these violent gangs and these people So even though their intentions may not you know to be they might be pure there may not be you know To end up in being involved in this lifestyle, you know that like I said their families may be you know Living paycheck to paycheck and you know, they're just trying to help themselves out help their families out get a little extra money for themselves Um, even though that may be their intention, you know Eventually they're going to run into someone dangerous who's going to rope in rope them into this gang type of lifestyle And then once they're roped in, you know, you can't really get out of it and that's why it's so difficult to to combat because these kids are getting into these these gangs and they're getting involved with this gun violence and they're making money at the same time, but they've um They're they're living this horrible life and they're creating this violence in the city that is completely uncontrolled and that's why it's such a problem So, um in a way, I absolutely understand how many of these young kids get involved in this violent and dangerous way Of living in these poor areas because like I said, their families are so poor They're just kind of trying to do what they can to help at a young age So in conclusion the solution to this problem to me is extremely difficult on a national level Because on one hand you have regular people in these areas Who are saying that you know gun this gun violence is completely out of control and action needs to be taken immediately And on the other hand you have people That are saying it's their second amendment right to own a firearm and I agree with both of these people, you know Somebody in philadelphia living, you know near temple university might say hey i'm hearing gunshots every night. I'm fearing for my kids my family You know, um something needs to be done but a farmer in iowa may be saying You know, this is it's my second amendment right to own a firearm to defend myself and to defend my family So even people in the city where there's these crime these um Uncontrolled crime cities, you know, maybe there's a single mother that you know needs to own a firearm and saying hey, you know There's there's there's robberies on my street almost every night. I need to be able to protect my three kids So I need to be able to own a firearm and I absolutely understand Um where she is coming from as well those people are coming from as well so A gun violence in this country is out of control needs to be stopped. That's that's definitely something that um is true Something needs to be done about this violence but on the other hand Law abiding american citizens have a right to own a firearm because of the second amendment and taking that away from good people who don't Abuse it Um, it seems very unfair to me But It's very clear that something does need to be done about this because the amount of people killed every year by gun violence in the united States is unprecedented and needs to be stopped So the most common solution I hear from people that think something needs to be done is they say, you know, let's ban all guns Let's let's ban guns. Let's implement a full ban on guns for for everyone. No one's allowed to have guns And initially, you know, you're like, yeah, you know, I think that would work if we ban guns then, you know How how are people going to use guns if we if we ban them? then there's going to be no gun violence because there's no guns, but that seems very unrealistic to me because um What what that law would essentially be doing is taking away guns from law abiding citizens who don't use them to commit violent crimes um Many things are completely banned and illegal in the united states such as illegal drugs Illegal drugs are are the possession of illegal drugs. That's a crime You're not allowed to possess these drugs yet People get their hands on them all the time And I think if we were to fully ban guns the exact same thing would be happening, you know Law abiding citizens would say yeah, i'll give i'll give my my guns up, you know It's the law but you know people in these areas would find their way to get hands on guns and that's That that would be an even bigger problem because then these people who are committing violent crimes have have a weapon and The people that um, the law abiding citizens have nothing now to defend themselves because they have given up their guns so um That's exactly how I see that scenario playing out um So my solution to this problem actually has nothing to do with guns at all instead my solution is that this area where violent crime is out of control like Um philadelphia or if you take the bronx in new york, that's another terrible terrible crime area um it needs to be better funded by by the city and A lot of these massive cities like philadelphia a lot of the money that they they have the tax money Uh their government money it goes to building these these skyscrapers these high-tech buildings restaurants tourist sites And after all of that There's only a little bit of money left for these areas that happen to be in extreme poverty And I think that if we're able to fund these areas better and improve the education system And the infrastructure and living conditions. I think it would greatly Reduce gun violence because these kids and young adults don't have to resort to joining a gang Or dealing drugs or doing that kind of thing to to get money for themselves and their family If we were to improve these areas and make it more suitable for teachers to live families average people And we made it more suitable to make a decent income in these areas it would end up being a much nicer area to live in and I think violent crime would be greatly reduced because There would be so many different ways for kids and even adults to make a decent income and support themselves and their families So the city of philadelphia what they need to do is they need to take A lot of the money that they're putting i'm not saying take all of them All of the money and put it into these areas But i'm saying the city of philadelphia needs to reallocate a lot of their funds Into helping and improving these neighborhoods that are very close outside of center city where they are using all of their money So that's from a policy standpoint In philadelphia, that's what I would do They need to spend less less taxing government money on improving center city and much much more on improving the areas around it Looking at national policy, however um What I would do to solve this issue is I would constitute a ban on all military-grade assault weapons Like fully automatic assault rifles submachine guns things of that nature I believe that there's absolutely zero reason for any of these weapons to be in the hands of citizens Any citizens whatsoever nobody needs a fully automatic assault rifle to defend themselves or a submachine gun Nobody no law-abiding citizen needs or a non-law-abiding citizen needs any of those kind of guns um for self-defense a simple handgun or at most a small shotgun would Be more than suitable as a self-defense weapon more than suitable. You do not need a fully automatic weapon for a self-defense I think banning these assault weapons would would um greatly decrease the amount of mass shootings we see. Uh, um in this country annually, you know, you've very um, occasionally, you know, you'll see on the news there'll be a mass shooting And you know, it's it's an awful sight to see every time it happens. It's terrible and everybody mourns for a few days, um, and That's kind of when this discussion is brought up But I think if we were to ban assault weapons, uh fully automatic guns of that and things of that nature um those mass shootings would definitely be greatly reduced because it's Much much harder to commit a crime like that with a small handgun Or even a shotgun or a hunting rifle or something like that. It would be almost impossible to to uh to do that um so I think if the united states and the city of philadelphia were to implement both of the policies, uh, I described and um I think over a long enough time period, you know, it wouldn't happen overnight It would probably take a few years for you know These these areas to improve with their education systems and their infrastructure. It wouldn't happen overnight but over a long enough period of time, I think There would be a great reduction in mass shootings obviously and also inner city gun violence. Um in this country as a whole