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
We need to own guns for self-defense or else the deaths of people will increase. Also, there are several recreational activities which require guns to be used. Sporting clays, target shooting, bowling pin shooting, and trap are four commonly activities which require firearms to be utilized. Banning guns would just spoil somebody’s hobby, which could be those recreations. A final reason is that crime is reduced according to a few reports. One in 1998 stated that the percent numbers for crimes decreased to low numbers. Another one talks about a commissioner not stating gun control for the solution to reduce crime. These three reasons eliminate the point of banning
While mass shootings cause a huge unnecessary loss of life, most killings in the United States come from murders and crimes. Guns should be banned to lower crime rates. Because “more than 70% of homicides are committed with a firearm” (Cannon n.p.) and 2.
Over the years the topic of gun control has turned out to be very polemic causing large debates, especially in the United States. A vast majority of people who are against gun control insist that is their right to own a gun mainly for self defense, while others who are for it, point out that it is not necessary to have access to certain guns like the military-style weapons therefore a ban should take place.
Should the mere fact that criminals committing crimes with the use of guns infringe the national right of the innocent to possess guns. This is a question that arouses everywhere and no matter which way it is viewed the controversy will always go on. "A gun is a mere tool that can be used for good or evil. Our country is based on the belief that man is good until he or she is proven to be otherwise."(Harris p.2) This means that only a few people are committing crimes with uses of guns and why completely remove them from society. Therefore, we should strenuously protect the rights of free men and likewise prosecute and punish the criminals who abuse the rights of others. The problem with gun violence is associated with the child's
A majority of the American people feel that gun control laws will help reduce crime rates because the waiting period would allow time for a person’s temper to cool down. They also feel that gun control will prevent repeat offenders because when a person tries to purchase a handgun, he will have to fill out a lengthy questionnaire. The questionnaire will include questions about the buyer’s past, for example, if they have a criminal record or a record of any mental illness. If there is a criminal record in that person’s history, he will not be able to make the purchase. Restricting handgun ownership would also reduce crime, because guns are used most often in robberies and murders (Mayer 28). They are very easily concealed under a coat, or even in the waistband of pants.
Another big issue is children and teens getting hurt or killed with guns. One reason
their writing, do we blame the pencil they use to write? Highly unlikely. Gun control
Banning guns will not keep the number of deaths and crimes down. Just because there is a law put in place dose not mean everyone will follow it .For instance if a gun law was made all the criminals would still have guns .That leaves us law
There have also been references to second amendment that it states that the ownership of handguns rights are not protected, and that it should be easy to make a law to ban them(Roleff, 82). Another person also says that stricter laws on gun control is needed to ensure the safety and wellbeing of other citizens of the United States(Roleff, 144). Handgun control inc. also supports tough and stricter gun laws and states “waiting periods will reduce the number of criminals who obtain handguns”(Roleff, 153).
Obviously banning guns in America will only remove registered weapons from registered gun owners which amounted to only about 16% of the roughly “300,000 crimes, including murder, facilitated with a firearm,” according to the National Crime Victimized Survey report in 2013 on extranosalley.com. This means around 84% of the crimes facilitated with a fire arm in 2013 were illegally purchased or stolen guns. This shows a weapon ban will not affect criminals or people that commit crimes with guns. The only thing it's affecting or controlling is registered weapon owners yet they only make up and are responsible for about that small 16%. It wouldn't have been worth disarming every gun owning citizen in 2013 knowing 84% of the guns used in crime that year were untraceable to the criminal.
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
In 2012 alone, an estimated 8,578,610 firearms were manufactured in the United States (ATF 2). Firearm manufacturing is a significant contributor to the nation’s economy, providing jobs and tax revenue. An assault weapons ban would prevent consumers from acquiring the currently popular hunting and recreational shooting rifles. “About half of the Nation’s 44 million gun owners participated in a gun sport in 1994” (Cook and Ludwig 3). This number would be significantly reduced if popular sporting rifles were removed from the market. It is also important to note that lawful firearm owners heavily outweigh those who use guns to commit crimes. In 1994 at the peak of violent gun crime rates, a total of 1,585,700 firearm related crimes were committed (Planty and Truman 2). This equates to approximately 3.6 criminal actions for every 100 gun owners. Since then, the amount of crimes has significantly decreased to 426,100 in 2010 (Planty and Truman 2). Banning assault weapons would affect a massive demographic in which only a small percentage are the cause of
Are all these bans and laws really necessary? ‘’The nine European nations with the lowest rate of gun ownership have a murder rate that is three times higher than the nine European nations with the highest rate of gun ownership’’(Snyder, Michael. N.p., 12 Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2015), I think guns are actually helping us, overall guns are used eighty times more to prevent crimes rather than used in them. ‘’In the United States about 200,000 women protect themselves against sexual assault using guns every year.’’(Snyder, Michael. N.p., 12 Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2015). The city of Kennesaw,Georgia passed a law requiring every home to have a gun in it and over a course of about twenty years after the law was passed "their crime rate dropped by more than fifty percent and
The gun laws and bans in the United States are not helping to make things better or decrease our crime rate or solve anything instead we need better background checks to make sure we are not giving guns to the wrong people. ‘’A study published in the Harvard journal of law and public policy discovered that the nations with more guns tend to have a lower crime rate’’ (Snyder, Michael. N.p., 12 Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.). This proves that people tend not to commit a crime if they know that people around them are armed and ready to fire also they know that if they go to a country with a lower percentage of gun ownership they are not taking as much risk because there aren 't that many guns in the area.
Since the electoral race of 2016, there have been many disputes in the United States. For instance, whether they should keep the current healthcare or repeal it, raise or cut taxes, or in this case, have gun control. Hillary Clinton agrees with Barack Obama that guns should be restricted, since there have been so many shootings in the past few years. Despite the mass shootings, President Trump does not believe in limiting guns, and owners of firearms do not either. It is understandable why there should be gun control, but there are sensible reasons why half of the nation does not think it is necessary. The news and mass media overexaggerate lots of times, but statistics show the opposite. Guns are helpful for self-defense, since gun control will not stop criminals.