Gun Control Argumentative Analysis

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.

According to a Mar. 10, 2016 Lancet study, implementing federal universal background checks could reduce firearm deaths by a projected 56.9%; background checks for ammunition purchases could reduce deaths by a projected 80.7%; and gun identification requirements could reduce deaths by a projected 82.5%. [148]

Fifteen of the twenty-five worst mass shootings in the last decade worldwide occurred in the United States of America. This is really telling people something about our country, it says people with guns are crazy and dangerous and America has a lot of it. Even though more guns don’t necessarily mean more murders, the amount of unregistered guns out in the public is a real issue that cannot be ignored.

Since 1982, at least sixty-two mass shootings have occurred, thirty-two of them since 2006. (Aronsen). Jared Loughner was sentenced to life in prison after shooting nineteen people in January of 2011. Last July, fifty-eight people were shot and twelve killed while watching the new Batman movie in a theater in Colorado. In December, twenty-six people were murdered, including twenty first-graders, in a Connecticut elementary school (Follman). The issue of gun violence only becomes relevant after a horrific event such as these, then fades from public concern after about two weeks. The number of injuries and murders using guns in the United States is a large number, which can hopefully be

The United States is country that has the largest gun related deaths in the world. A lot of cases happened because the background check system is not strict enough to prevent criminals from purchasing firearms. “Many supporters think that the United States Government should consider having tighter background checks on firearms” (Opposing viewpoints….). This involves the court decisions, gun control laws, and incidents spark calls for reform.

When Background Checks are required, they are extremely effective at making sure that a gun does not end up in the wrong person’s hand. In addition to that, the background check system ahs to become more advanced by going deeper into the clients life being completely sure that the gun is going to good hands when done. “Repeated pools have shown that over 90% of the American Public supports laws requiring background checks on all gun purchasers, regardless of whether they buy weapons from licensed or private dealers. A survey conducted for the New England Journal of Medicine in January 2013 found that 84% of gun owners and 74% of NRA members also support requiring a universal background check system for all gun sales.”

Many in the United States support passing stricter gun laws, and overwhelming support for expanding background checks, especially for private sales and Gun Shows. According to Leah Barrett’s article for the US News and World Report, “The Case for Universal Background Checks”, 92 percent of Americans nationwide believe that background checks should be expanded

According to the lecture on Gun Violence, there are currently over 300 million guns in the possession of private citizen. Americans have over 75 guns per 100 people, whereas other western countries range from 5 to 30 guns per 100 people (2007 small arms survey). Gun violence is a major issue in the United States due to lack of gun control. The lack of gun control makes handguns too readily available to citizens, allows those who should not own a firearm the ability to purchase firearms, and no policy on secure storage of firearms. As a result, I conclude that a combination of restriction of private ownership of handguns and stricter background check and storage policy would eliminate some of the violence caused by guns. To decrease gun violence

Stricter gun control laws would reduce the number of handgun deaths and injuries in the United States per year. There were 464,033 total gun deaths between 1999 and 2013: 58% were suicides, 38% were homicides, 2% were unintentional deaths. 67% of all homicides were committed with guns, and 52% of all suicides were committed with guns. According to a March 10, 2016 Lancet study, implementing federal universal background checks could reduce firearm deaths by a predicted 60%, background checks for ammunition purchases could reduce deaths by a predicted 81%, and gun ID requirements could reduce deaths by a predicted 83%. All these statistics could be lowered if the United States had more gun control.

Background checks are the most effective way of preventing gun crimes. There are multiple cases of school and community shootings and how it could be prevented if there were some sort of system to catch perpetrators. Gun violence has been an issue since the 1970s and started to peak in the 1980s and 1990s. Gun Violence is violence committed with the use of a gun and recently there has been an increase in gun crimes, but due to background checks they have decreased. A background check is the process of looking up and compiling criminal records, commercial records and financial records of an individual or an organization. It is proven that background checks reduce homicide and suicides and background checks are the most effective way to reduce gun related crimes. Background checks are only as effective as the person or company doing it, so when a gun company fails to complete a proper background check, they should be held accountable for the customer’s actions.

Additionally, the number of police killed on duty by guns is cut in half. Along with this, these states typically see an overall decrease in their gun-related murder statistics. For example, TIME magazine claims that Rhode Island saw a 10.6% decrease in their gun-related murder rate after implementing universal background checks. Therefore, there are numerous statistics proving that universal background checks are successful at decreasing gun violence.

Due to many of the recent violent acts in our country involving guns, the question has arouse; Should a system of universal background checks be required for all gun purchases? What some Americans do not realize is that guns are constantly falling in the wrong hands of criminals and more often, the mentally ill. There are too many Americans loosing their lives because of this. Most of the people that are ineligible to purchase guns are able to because of the flaws in the universal background system or through private party sales, which do not initiate background checks. Shootings actually occur very frequently. Since 1982, there have been 61 mass shootings, all involving gun use. The United States also holds the record of having 15 of the nastiest 25 shootings. It is proven that more guns result in more murders. States with harsher laws on gun control do not have as many deaths from violence correlated to the use of guns. According to a map provided by The Washington Post, “…states which have one of three gun control restrictions in place – assault weapons’ bans, trigger locks, or safe storage requirements. Firearm deaths are significantly lower in states with stricter gun control legislation (Klein).” Seattle’s Mayor, Ed Murray states “Gun violence kills 86 Americans every day. It happens everywhere: in big cities, small towns, on our streets, schools, shopping malls, and places of worship (Klein).” It is apparent that individuals who have criminal backgrounds or who have a

Further, despite the fact that gun ownership in the U.S. increased enormously during the 1990’s, there was a consistent, dramatic reduction of criminal violence. In fact, homicide and violent crime have plunged over the last 15 years. Considering that 18 of 25 countries surveyed had an increase of violent crime, America’s large decline is impressive. Moreover, Norway, Finland, Germany, France, and Denmark also have a high rate of private gun ownership, and the murder rates in these countries are as low as or lower than developed nations with less gun ownership (Kates & Mauser, 2007).

The right to bear arms meaning in 1789 to 2017 has drastically changed in ways that a “modern world” was not taken into thought when created. Depending on the person or context this amendment is in depends on the way the person views the law. The historic view claims to be centered on people being able to carry guns for the use of military reasons only. The modern view claims to be centered on letting all Americans have the individual right to carry weapons as they see fit and cannot be infringed. These separate yet intriguing views are part of the

A problem has been reoccurring, a problem that seems to have no resolution. The crisis on mass shootings throughout the United States have been repeatedly mentioned in the topic of gun and ammunition restrictions. Due to this, the government proposed whether if background check should be enforced while purchasing ammunition and prohibit the possession of large capacity. This proposal has made many citizens of the United States agitated since it might lead to the ban on all guns, which would violate the second amendment. Although citizens are enraged with the restrictions on guns, the government should require background check because it would gradually decrease the crime rate, strengthen the background check system, and reduce mass shootings.