For my research essay I will be examining how one state has a higher murder rate compared to the neighboring state who has considerably less strict gun laws. Throughout the past few years some states have become more stern in terms of gun laws as a result to lower the murder rate. Other states have remained to keep their laws the same because thats what they deem traditional. Statistics provided by Neighboorhoodscout.com, has revealed that the murder rate of Chicago, Illinois compared to St. Louis, Missouri is much higher due to the fact that Chicago, Illinois was at the top of the list and St. Louis, Missouri was two spots away from the bottom of the list. Based off this evidence it leaves people to wonder if states enforce strict gun laws why is their murder rate is so much higher than states who have gun laws that are not as strict?
During the process of my research I was able to discover that in Chicago,Illinois that most gun related crimes have been committed with guns outside that city or state. This means people are bringing guns from other states into Illinois to commit crimes. Another report showed that the gun laws of Missouri could be argued to be one of the weakest gun laws. This was discovered in the article when the author stated how the regulations in Missouri are similar to other mid west and deep south states, claiming them to be lenient. However even though these laws are lenient they still have lower murder rates in comparison to states with strict gun laws. A noticeably difference between the two states would be within Missouri, their gun laws have remained the same due to their traditional views. Missouri’s traditional views of allowing people to easily obtained guns would eliminate one of Illinois problems. The on going problem in Illinois is most gun related crimes are committed with guns outside of that state. If Illinois where to lessen their gun laws people would not need to bring guns outside the state.
Sources:
1) Does Chicago Have the Strictest Gun Laws in the Country?
The Essential Content of the Article: This article goes in depth about Chicago’s gun laws stating if they are in fact the strictest gun laws or not. Throughout the article it uses quotes from people such as the Chicago police officers and Donald Trump. Later in the article it uses a table and pictures of shootings within Chicago since 2010 to help support their claim.
What it Proves: This article proves that Chicago, Illinois may have strict gun laws but that does not necessarliy mean they are the strictest laws in the country. The article also proves that residents within Chicago do not follow the strict gun laws because people continue to bring in guns from different states.
The Essential Content of the Article: This article reveals each fact in terms of gun laws in Missouri. This article informs the reader about the different gun laws Missouri has within its state borders and how some of the gun laws in Missouri are similar to other mid west and deep south states.
What it Proves: This article proves Missouri’s gun laws are very lenient and how Missouri is susceptible about gun trafficking because their laws are so weak but neighboring states are stricter and it could be a possibility guns are being exported from Missouri. Another point that was proven was likewise to other mid west and deep south states Missouri shares similar traditional values in terms of gun laws which could be one of the reasons Missouri’s gun laws are lenient.
3) Top 30 Highest Murder Rate Cities
The Essential Content of the Article: This article shows a ranking system of the highest murder rates ranking from 30 to 1, 30 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. Data collected for the ranking system involves, cities with 25,000 or more people, the number of murders reported to the FBI to have occurred in each city and the population of each city.
What it Proves: This article emphasizes the ranking system of the highest murder rate listing the different cities in order from 30 to 1 and some states have more than one city in this list proving that some states murder rates are higher than those who did not make the list.
The Essential Content of the Article: This article reveals that Illinois is very strict in terms of gun laws.In terms of registration for a gun it is not required expect the city of Chicago. Within the city of Chicago a registration for any firearm is required
What it Proves: The article points out the various laws within Illinois and informs the audience about each specific law.
5) NRA-ILA
The Essential Content of the Article: This article reveals the facts about gun laws within Illinois. The article also goes in depth about certain requirements that need to be met before obtaining a firearm as well as requirements for purchasing a firearm online.
What it Proves: This article emphasizes not only what is needed to obtained a firearm, as well as the laws that pertain to firearms but also particular things that exceptions depending on the gun law.
Rowan Counterintuitive 
Feedback Provided. Do you mind informing me if I did the assignment the correct way such as did I go in depth about the essential content and what the article proves as well as in my first two paragraphs am I missing anything and did I word my paragraphs properly ?
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Thank you for your detailed question, Socrates.
Your first two paragraphs are a good start, but I wonder if you could say just as much in a couple of sentences. Please consider that this paragraph of yours:
can be rendered much more simply and clearly as:
And your second paragraph:
is easier to follow when trimmed to this:
Once you eliminate all the needless language, you can easily see the bones of your argument, Socrates, and evaluate its strengths. It becomes obvious that you need to be more specific about the actual laws, whether the out-of-state guns do in fact come from Illinois, whether the murder rates in both cities are actually related to gun laws, etc. Those questions are obscured until your claims are laid out simply and clearly.
Source 1. You manage to DESCRIBE the article without saying what claims it actually makes, Socrates. Do the authors conclude that Chicago’s laws are the strictest or not? What crucial information does the chart supply? Etc.
Source 2. Again, your DESCRIPTION entirely evades the question it should answer: What is the Essential Content?
DON’T DO THIS: The study examines the behaviors in Professor Hodges’ composition class and compares it to the behaviors of every other writing course at the college. It puts all the data into a useful chart that makes it easy to compare both student behaviors and the professor’s own behavior so that readers will be able to see how they acted in several categories including tardiness.
DO THIS: The study concludes that while Professor Hodges is always early to class compared to other professors in the Writing Arts department, his students are more often late.
We learn nothing from the first example.
We learn the Essential Content from the second example.
Grade So Far: L
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