Argument Supporting Increased Gun Control in the United States

In America, the average amount of people shot per year is 100,000; over ten thousand defenseless people are murdered. The Second Amendment’s proclamation that “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” has been an extensive topic of debate. Moreover, the amendment has been one of many debates over the several years throughout America. The discussion of gun control is often debated as to whether or not it is morally right to legally bypass the Second Amendment to avoid unlawful uses of arms. The Second Amendment allows citizens to carry firearms specifically for protection, gun control hinders that right and places civilians’ lives in danger. In short, the U.S. government’s intrusive restrictions on gun laws prevent law-abiding citizens from defending themselves with firearms.

Guns are one of the most controversial and debated-upon topics in America today. In the Constitution, Americans are given “the right to bear arms,” and many Americans are proud of and believe strongly in that right. Though, that right has been constantly misused. Homicides by gun are at a higher rate in the United States than any other country in the world, mass shootings are at an all time high (many of which have occurred in the past two years alone), and terrorism has been at an all-time high. So, naturally, it is a topic that needs to be discussed. In the articles Change Your Gun Laws, America (1), author Fareed Zakaria provides the readers with some harrowing statistics on guns and insight over how the U.S. laws on guns need to be managed.

America is the most well armed nation in the world, with American citizens owning about 270 million of the world’s 875 million firearms (Marshall). Indeed, this is more than a quarter of the world’s registered firearms. The reason why Americans own so many guns is because of the Second Amendment, which states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” (Rauch) This amendment guarantees U.S. citizens the right to have firearms. Since this amendment is relatively vague, it is up for interpretation, and is often used by gun advocates to argue for lenient gun laws. Hence, gun control is a frequently discussed controversial topic in

An un-armed population will have a difficult time protecting itself from criminals that clearly do not care about laws and would most likely be more successful in committing a crime if their intended victims are incapable of defending themselves. While there are numerous reasons, including social, economic and mental health, as to why criminals commit crimes, having access to guns is not one of them. The 2nd Amendment of the Constitution states, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (U.S. Const. amend. II). Protecting the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution is vital because limiting or outright denying law-abiding citizens the ability to possess firearms, which are nothing more than a tool, will cause more problems, such as higher crime rates, than it would solve.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning of March 6, 1915 in Brunswick Georgia, where kids were outside playing and residents were strolling along the busy streets of local businesses, but the inevitable happened when a 59 year old named Monroe Phillips went into a building with an automatic shotgun and opened fire killing six people and wounding 32. 84 years later and Seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado opened fire at about 11:OO a.m on April 20, 1999 on a planned attack and killed 12 students and wounded more than 20 others. Soon after the pair committed suicide in the school’s library at 12:00 p.m. A decade didn't even pass by when Adam Lanza killed his mother in her own home on December 14, 2012,

To have gun control or not to have, that is the question. Gun control has always and remains an important issue. It has been depicted that Congress is forced to draft a specific legislation in order to come up with a strict law against unlawful use of arms and only possessing them for safety purposes and in use of only in extracurricular activities. For many years, the argument about gun control has been widely argued about. Gun control policies contribute to lower crime, encourage responsibility with background checks, and ensure public safety despite concerns that they violate the Constitution.

Nowadays streets are scary to walk alone at night. Crime rates have increased currently and people are nervous to leave their own homes at night. Sadly, unlike cartoons, there is no hero that is going to swoop in and save the day. Imagine you were sitting in your parked car next to dark streets, lit up only by a dim lamp-pole. You see a man walking slowly with his head down and he starts walking towards your car. He taps on the window. In this moment, wouldn’t you want to be able to protect yourself? You don’t know what this man is capable of or what his intent is. When you roll down your window to ask what he wants, he pulls out a gun. If you were weaponless, there would be a high possibility that you would not survive. Imagine this instead. As he pulls out his gun

Due to the increasing number of senseless public shootings involving multiple victims, the controversy between supporters and non-supporter of stricter gun control laws are at an all-time high. The key reason why there has not been a sway in either direction is that there are too many unanswered questions in the argument for or against gun control. Since gun control is such a broad topic, if the argument was narrow down than those in favor of stricter gun control laws would have a chance of persuading the majority. By hindering or prohibiting the purchasing or owning of handguns by civilians, multiple, pointless deaths are avoided. Furthermore, arguments such as people are to blame and guns are the most controllable would fall apart and even the Second Amendment could not back the rebuttal.

The United States alone has “88.8 guns per 100 people, or about 270,000,000 guns” (Cornell, 2015). This is the highest total number of guns per country in the entire world. 22 percent of Americans “own one or more gun” (Cornell, 2015). These statistics are overwhelming to some people, while others see it as completely normal, or even excellent. Many laws have been passed to regulate this procedure, and citizens often cast their vote for officials solely based off of their opinion on gun control and the way weapons should be handled. All in all, the statistics are debated due to the fact that no one can agree on this questionable matter.

This paper analyses data from several sources to create a more complete understanding of the arguments for and against increased gun control in the US. While this paper will not cover all of the factors that should be taken into account it does cover some of the more prominent ones are discussed. The first has to do with the effects weapons may have on people, more specifically called the weapons effect. Second is the effect of intent and the difference between aggression and violence. The third is the effect of heat on aggression. Finally, the cold hard facts must be analyzed.

In comparison, those who argue for a stricter gun control say that as a result of basically everyone of legal age being able to own a gun, a majority of people forget to see the actual danger these weapons bring along. To begin with, weapons often aren't locked away safely enough, making it easy for minors to come into possession of said item. They might not be able to estimate the risks coming with this and would be able to harm others without intending so. Not only children but adults as well often don't know what they're doing and think owning a gun somehow keeps them safe but don't care about educating themselves and stay inexperienced. Additionally, its way more easy for a suicidal person to get the measures to attempt suicide when theres

The problem with guns is fairly obvious: they decrease the difficulty of killing or injuring a person. In Jeffrey A. Roth's Firearms and Violence (NIJ Research in Brief, February 1994), he points out the obvious dangers. About 60 percent of all murder victims in the United States in 1989 (about 12,000 people) were killed with firearms. Firearm attacks injured another 70,000 victims, some of whom were left permanently disabled. In 1985, the cost of shootings was an estimated $14 billion nationwide for medical care, long-term disability, and premature death. In robberies and assaults, victims are far more likely to die when the perpetrator is armed with a gun than when he or she has another weapon or is unarmed.

The Second Amendment has brought a lot of controversy to the table of governments. There are two opposing sides, one who supports the Second Amendment while the other side does not. This topic seems to be around a lot lately especially with the incidents that have occured in the past few years. One of the things to keep in mind is whether or not guns kill people or people kill people.

Gun control is not only one issue but many. To some it may feel a danger to their safety, to others it may be a rights issue. “Gun Control (or firearms regulation) is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians”(Gun Control). It is a safety issue , racial issue, political issue and so on. However , within each of those issues there are those who want to have more power and those who want less. With each view comes with a wide range of opinions.

The debate on gun control is fueled by peoples conflicting thoughts, opinions and, ideas. Between those who support gun rights, and those who argue against them, and in favor of harsher gun control laws. It has shown and proven to be one of the most argued and debated issues in our society today. Understanding the exact meaning of our 2nd amendments right plays a major role in the arguments of either side. Being that each side reads, or understands its meaning differently. I will be presenting a few arguments for both side of the debate.