Why Guns Are Bad

A shooting here; a shooting there; an every day occurrence heard in the newspapers and on the news channels on television. New media are reporting a shooting somewhere. Whether the shootings are accidental or intentional; they are happening across the United States. Nevertheless, in today’s society, gun violence is sparking debate and controversy on how to control gun violence. Throughout the country, thousands of laws and regulations have been created to aid in the control of guns. Through much study, the gun laws and regulations in place have very little effect on the number of gun related injuries and deaths. More needs to be done to establish an effective way to control gun violence.

With the popular culture providing positive images of guns, the United States has a gun prevalence that is very rare in the modern world. While many people appreciate the “gun culture”, guns are heavily involved in violence in the United States. According to U.S. Department of Justice, since 1960, more than 750,000 Americans have died under firearms, including homicides, suicides, and unintentional injuries. The figure 1 provides a comprehensive survey of U.S. violent crimes for the period from 1993 to 2011.This figure illustrates that from 1993 to 2011, about 60% to 70% of homicides were associated with a firearm. Over the same period, between 6% and 9% of all nonfatal violence, with about 20% to 30% of robberies and 22% to 32% of aggravated assaults involving a firearm.

Gun control in the United States has been a controversial issue for some time now. So much so that the Supreme Court even refuses to address this issue directly. Gun control really boils down to the the Second Amendment of the Constitution. Many people have different interpretations of the Second Amendment and the trenches are dug in deep on this issue. The Second Amendment can not provide the right to bear all types of arms to protect the people from governmental tyranny. If the Second Amendment was absolute, then we would allow the public to possess nuclear weapons, missiles, and other such arms, because like the 9 mm handgun that is an arm, a nuclear warhead is also a type of arm. The more our government restricts our rights to own

Eighty-nine people depart from this earth due to gun violence in the US every day. From school children, to victims of domestic violence, to people going about their daily lives, this status quo is unacceptable. On Tuesday January 5th, 2016 President Obama announced that he would send proposals on reducing gun violence in America to Congress. His spokesman, Jay Carney, mentioned that this is “a complex problem that will require a complex solution.” The ability to own a gun is considered by some a birthright of Americans. However, with crime rates involving handguns rising each day it has become quite clear. Handgun laws must become stricter in order to reduce homicide and crime. The question is, “which solution in most effective in decreasing gun violence?” Gun control is a major conflict that is constantly reoccurring and the US is seemingly divided over it.

The only reason for our nation to enact gun control laws is to reduce violent crime. There is no other logical reason for gun control outside of reducing crime. If gun control proves to be ineffective in reducing crime rates then why have it? While researching this I found time after time where statistics have shown laws such as banning handguns to be completely ineffective in reducing crime rates and I also found where allowing the carry of these same weapons resulting in a reduction of crime rates. One of the major aspects that should be heavily considered by those wanting to take away the legal ownership of firearms in the U.S is that we would also be taking them away from the people who have weapons for their intended purpose. Washington DC had a law in place from 1976 through 2008 that made it illegal for residence to possess handguns and also required trigger locks on all other firearms rendering them useless. During this period of time murder rates in DC were seventy six

Gun control is an ineffective means of reducing both violent, and firearm related crime. Limiting the ability for law abiding citizens to responsibly own arms only reduces their ability to provide to provide security to themselves and their family. It is not the duty of the federal government to dictate what a citizen chooses to legally defend themselves with.

During the past years gun violence has seen an enormous increase in various parts of the world and majority of the cases been reported in the United States. The case includes victims such as children, senior citizens and young adults engaging in violence or getting caught in the crossfires. The life of common people is being affected, people are concerned as to how they can live safe lives when guns are being used in increasing numbers. On an average, every day you hear about some sort of gun violence affecting people either in your hometown or in another part of the world. It is a shame for a country like United States to have such high

The Orlando nightclub shooting in Florida on June 12, 2016 was the single largest massacre in U.S history, taking the lives of 50 individuals, including the shooter himself, and injuring 53 others. This is one extreme example of the gun violence that has been occurring in this country, but mass shootings like this and the one at Newton in 2012 are only a small part of our gun violence issue. The everyday gun violence that takes place in cities all across the United States claims the lives of thousands every single year. According to The Guardian, 33,500 civilians die each year because of gun brutality- “that’s about 1 life every 15 minutes” (Beckett). Between the years of 1999 and 2013, there were 464,003 gun deaths in the U.S, about 58% of them were suicides 37% were homicides. (ProCon.org) Gun violence and the consequences of that violence, have become a real and dangerous problem in the U.S , why else would the CDC list the United States as having the highest rate of gun violence out of all developed countries today? (Gale Opposing Viewpoints) This issue is not just attributable to a single factor, there are several that play an important part in why gun violence is such an issue in the U.S, namely laws and poverty; and in these causes we can also find solutions.

As we all know gun violence has become an increasingly conflicted issue in the world and specifically in the United States. Gun violence is the leading cause of premature death in the United States as it kills almost 30,000 people and causes about 60,000 injuries annually. But guns are not the main cause of this problem. The problem is America's culture of violence. We need to understand that guns are not what’s killing people, people are what’s killing people. Although guns may enable killers to commit an act of violence more easily and effectively, stricter laws on guns would not necessarily dismantle the problem. Currently, guns are just a symptom to the real problem, which is our violent human nature. For decades, we have been dousing

Gun control is, put simply, damaging our rights. It has been shown countless times in history that gun control has little to no positive effect on crime in the area that the gun control was implemented. In some cases, crime rates actually rose in those areas. In modern American society, there are several statistics that can prove my viewpoint on this topic as the proper one. A survey of over 18 thousand prison inmates showed that 30% of state offenders and 35% of federal offenders were in the possession of a firearm while committing the crime. Another survey of inmates convicted of felons throughout 11 state prisons had stated that 34% had been “scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured” by an armed would-be victim. 69% knew someone that had been. On another note, there were 40% of these felons that made the choice not to commit a crime due to an armed person in the vicinity. In 2008, over 5 million violent crimes, including rape, assault, and murder occurred in the United States. However, only 8% of offenders were visibly armed with a gun. And while I'm on the topic of violent crimes, only 1 in 12 offenders are sentenced to prison (Agresti).

The gun control epidemic has swept across America like wildfire. Opposing views on gun control have been argued tirelessly to no avail. As guns become more readily available, a great number of protests come forth. This seemingly never-ending cycle is at the forefront of most North American's conscience.Whether these protests are on the local news stations, newspapers, or on the abundance of social media outlets you cannot escape the gun control conversation and propaganda. Many people believe citizens should not have access to guns and others believe in their rights to bear arms. Both points of view boil down to who these people believe needs protection.

Internationally the United States suffers from severe gun problem. As a nation the United States has the most gun violence. According to the reading Gun Control, “The United States is the leader in per-capita gun deaths among industrial nations. This uneviable distinction has resulted in various gun-control laws at the federal and state levels that seek to reduce crime and violence by restricting private gun ownership” (“Gun Control” 1). In other words, this reading expresses the American Issue of gun violence throughout the

One of the biggest issues facing our nation today seems to be gun control. The government is constantly proposing legislation for more and more gun laws. There are people that feel strongly on both sides of this issue. Neither side wants more gun violence; the question is how to control gun violence.

“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.” The right of all Americans to bear arms is a right the Founding Fathers held to equal importance as the Constitution itself. Gun control laws directly violate this right and therefore should not even be under consideration. Even if that issue is overlooked, gun control advocates state that in order to reduce firearm related violence, gun control laws must be implemented to remove the violence caused by firearms. Although this may seem reasonable, the consequences of such laws are ironically counterproductive; they exacerbate the problem instead of fixing it. Besides the fact that the American

Some people believe that extremely tight gun control laws will eliminate crime, but gun control laws only prevent the 'good guys' from obtaining firearms. Criminals will always have ways of getting weapons, whether it be from the black market, cross borders, or illegal street sales. New gun control laws will not stop them. Since the shootings of Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook, the frequency of mass shootings has increased greatly. Gun control is not effective as it has not been shown to actually reduce the number of gun-related crimes. Instead of considering a ban of private firearm possession, and violating individual ownership rights, it may be more practical to consider the option of partially restricting firearm