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Arguments for Gun Control Essay

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Mary Read was only 19 years old on the last day of her life. An aspiring elementary school teacher, Mary always had a smile on her face. She baked cookies, cakes, and cupcakes for her friends and family. Mary was the oldest of five children, yet she treated everyone she met as a sister or brother. A beloved freshman at Virginia Tech was to be only the beginning for such a beautiful soul, but instead was an end. On April 16, 2007 an undeserving wretched individual took the life of Mary Read along with 31 others. By the means of a gun, she was gone. When tragedy such as this occurs we must open our eyes to the complacency of society and its laws. The lack of controls has led to irresponsible and evil actions. As a student myself and a …show more content…

This tells us criminals obtain the guns they use illegally 80% of the time. Armed with this knowledge, it then makes perfect and irrefutable sense that a ban on guns would eliminate the availability of firearms to criminals. It should be clear to us all that if we eliminate the 14% of guns that were obtained from legal dealers we will eradicate all violent crime involving firearms. Of course, it goes without saying that everyone owning a gun, including criminals, will eagerly line up to turn their guns into the authorities with this social victory assured. It also goes without saying that illegal sources of guns will wither and disappear in the face of this social unity. Further, we all know that there is no way that the people who sell guns illegally would be able to get their hands on merchandise after a ban on gun ownership. Statistics, as great as they are, only go so far when it comes to proving why guns need to be banned as they can very easily be misinterpreted. Take for example the statistic that shows an increased murder rate in Washington, D.C. by 73% over a 30 year period following a handgun ban and trigger-lock law in 1978. Some people could misconstrue this data to mean gun ownership helped lower murder rates. This simply isn’t true. The largest increase in murders following the ban was during the ‘90s. There were major increases in alcohol and drug consumption during this time; which is more likely the

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