Violence in America

Sandy Hook Massacre On Dec. 12, 2012, 20-year-

old Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Conn. with an AR-15 assault rifle. 30 minutes later, he killed himself, after killing 20 1st grade students and 6 school staffers, including the school’s principal.

Sandy Hook Massacre The shooting took place

just months after James Holmes killed 12 people inside an Aurora, Colo. theater during a midnight viewing of the film The Dark Knight Rises. Holmes also used an assault rifle.

Inner-city gun violence Meanwhile, many cities in

the United States, including Philadelphia and Chicago, saw spikes in the number of reported homicides in 2012. Philadelphia recorded 332 homicides, while Chicago had just over 500. Both were the highest total for each city in five years.

Suicide Meanwhile, the Centers for

Disease Control recorded that, in 2010, nearly 20,000 people committed suicide by firearm. This total is nearly 8,000 persons higher than the total number of people murdered by firearms in 2010.

Gun Debate The Sandy Hook shooting

in particular has led to a national discussion on the causes of firearm deaths in the United States.

Since the shooting, three major areas of concern of arisen during debate.

Availability of guns Many people believe too

many guns – notably assault style rifles with high-ammunition magazines – are available in the United States.

Others believe the problem is that too few people have weapons available to defend themselves.

Violence in the Media A growing chorus has

argued that the violent nature of the media – whether through movies, television, video games or music – has influenced people to commit gun crimes.

Mental Health Still others believe that the

key issue in gun violence is related to mental health issues. People who use guns to kill often have unresolved psychological or neurological issues. And the health care system is not doing enough to help these individuals.

Your job The task of this course is to provide comprehensive,

multimedia coverage of this issue, via a self-created and maintained website.

Members Issues

Teams

Antoine Aluqdah Erica Blackwell Schanelle Bouie Paige Mitchell

Violence in movies/television

Violence in Video GamesNews Coverage and

ViolenceViolent media and public

reaction

Members Issues

Teams

Ashley Williams Asia Cobbs Rickiea Cohen Tia’s Hammond Frantasia Walden

Mental Health and ViolenceSuicideGun violence and gang

warfareCounseling and Social Work

IssuesPost-traumatic stress disorderDevelopmental issues and

violence

Members Issues

Teams

Timothy Alston Tanisha Morris Ashley Reding Ivana Whitfield

Federal Gun Control Debate

National Rifle AssociationState/Local gun lawsGuns and schoolsCommunity

Organizations/Gun Debate

How to accurately and appropriately rewrite stories

Blogging/Rewrite

Find a news story or research article related to your beat. (Google Alerts can help).

Read over the piece in its entirety. If the news piece references other

news stories, or a news site or video related to the subject, go to these sites. You may find the original source of the information here.

How to accurately and appropriately rewrite stories

Blogging/Rewrite

Once you have an understanding of the story, rewrite the information in your own words. Under no circumstances are you to just cut and paste an original piece and claim it as your own. This is plagiarism.

Exception – you may cut-and-paste a quote, but you need to specify where you got the quote from with a reference or hyperlink.

  

You must give credit to the original source of the information in each article. Provide a reference to the original article (or video or social media entry) in your rewrite.

Create a title for the story. Edit,, check for AP Style, and

post.

Sources  Colin Powell   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/13/colin-powell-gun-control_n_2467890.html   NRA   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZb8EXUrQTo   Obama Sandy Hook   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_8zXJcoxHY   Solider/Dealer http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/484/doppelgangers 32:20   Django http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUdM9vrCbow