Persuasive Essay On Gun Control

Prior to the Port Arthur Massacre, Australia had very lenient gun laws. The massacre of 35 people with an additional 23 wounded, pushed the then Prime Minister, John Howard, to reform the legislation associated with guns. Since then, firearm related deaths have declined by 47% . However, these statistics do not include illegally owned firearms, and there have been studies conducted showing that these laws have not made a difference.

Society’s concerns about protection from violent crimes involving firearms have encouraged Canadian Parliament to pass tougher gun control legislation. The Federal Government responded by passing Bill C-68 that created the Firearms Act,

After all these guns were bought they were then destroyed. This program was a legal response to the port Arthur massacre created to reduce the risk of gun related deaths and murders in Australia. This program resulted in the government buying back more than 660,000 guns from Australians. This legal response was effective in the way that it greatly reduced private owners from being a harm to themselves and others. The program also resulted in a 50% decrease in gun related deaths.

Over the last two decades, Australia’s firearm laws have undergone extensive reform, resulting from two main catalyst shootings. These shootings events are known as the 1996 Port Arthur massacre and the 2002 Monash University shooting (Baker, & McPhedran, 2007).

This essay investigates the Australian gun laws and whether they are effective or not. In particular, with a focus on what the current gun laws are and how they have or have not worked also if they need to be updated. The current gun laws were first introduced by John Howard in 1997 after the mass shooting in Port Arthur where 35 people were killed and a further 18 injured on the 28th of April, 1996 (Sharpe, 2016), the laws were them further improved in 2002, after the Monash University shooting, where a commerce student with mental impairments came in to class armed with 6 loaded handguns, 2 students died and an additional 5 were injured (ABC News, 2015). It has been almost 20 years since the introduction of the current gun laws, the essay

The issue of gun control begins with the careless distribution of firearms and how easy they are to obtain. In the United States, many mass killings by gunmen in civilian settings set

Gun control should not exist at all in the United States. Mass shootings have almost become seen as normal event in the United States. What people do not understand is that gun control is not the answer; there are countries with little to no control that have fewer shootings. According to The Washington Post,Finland is ranked number 4 in countries with the most guns despite that they only had 24 homicides by firearm (“Gun homicides and ownership by countries” n.pag.) . In the article Did Gun Control Work In Australia “it is shown that gun control has reduced the problems but it still has not completely got rid of all firearm deaths”(Matthews n.pag.). The number of murders, homicides, or suicides do not go up due to people just owning more guns. Clayton Perry, a staff writer at the University of Maine, even points out “Stricter gun laws were in place during the Assault Weapons Ban between 1994 and 2004, but that didn't stop the shooters at Columbine in 1999 ”(Perry n. pag.). In Iceland, thirty out of a hundred people own a gun and they have zero homicides caused by guns a year(“Gun Homicides and ownership by country” n. pag.). In this day and age, everything is unpredictable, guns are a form of protection for everyone and there should not be restrictions on protection. The U.S. Department of Justice released a data brief that states, “ On average in 1987-92 about 83,000 crime victims per year used a firearm to defend themselves or their property”(Rand BJS Statistician n. pag.). The National Sheriffs Association released that the average police response time is at eighteen minutes while the average school shooting only last twelve minutes (“Embracing Technology To Decrease Response Time” n. pag.). Gun control should not exist because other countries do fine without it , high gun ownership has no link with increasing death rates , and guns are not harmful when instructions are followed.

In about every nation, gun control has always been an issue of controversy. Gun control laws are quite different from country to country, each possessing different requirements, specifications, and ordinances, so on and so on. What will be examined are the specified gun control laws in three international countries, ranging from Canada, Australia, and Japan, as well as a comparison and contrast of the the similarities and unique differences toward American gun control laws and those in other countries, and finally, the effects of having loose gun control laws. Unlike America, these countries possess stricter laws regarding gun control.

Every so often the media and news feeds flood with reports of a mass shooting. Families mourn. In the days that follow, calls to action can be heard, and there is a demand for change. Sometimes minor legislation passes, but in the United States extreme change is rarely seen. Other developed nations provide an opposite comparison. Following the Port Arthur shooting in Australia and the shooting in Great Britain, both countries organized for significant gun reform.

A big factor lending itself to the gun laws of today’s age started with the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. On March 31, 1981 there was an act of mutiny against the president. “John Hinckley, Jr. shoots President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. just after the president had addressed the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO” (Ronald Reagan shot by John). Hinckley was one of the men standing among the crowd of onlookers and reporters, watching and waiting for the precise moment to

The response to the Gun laws created in 1996 were varied. Parties such as the Australian Shooters Party, and organisations such as the Alannah and Madeline Foundation were created after the Massacre at Port Arthur. These organisations, although very different, were both created due to that event at Port Arthur and the laws that followed. However the Australian Shooters Party can be seen as a controversial one, as their main aim is to redeem their rights to bear arms. However, this Party, and the people who oppose gun laws, still deserve to have their voice heard.

Since the Port Arthur and the Monash University shootings in Australia, there has been a substantial reduction in the number of firearm homicides and firearm suicides, due to the gun law that was introduced by John Howard. The law restricted those who could own guns and the type of firearm. Due to this law, homicide rates in Australia are only

Next, we have the gun laws of 1968, “ President Lyndon B. Johnson renews the fight for gun control. He wins passage of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and the Gun Control Act of 1968.” these laws in Acts prevented persons who were convicted felons, drug user, and mentally ill from buying any type of firearm. Another thing these acts did was raise the age to purchase a handgun to 21. Also, the acts made it so gun dealers had to make detailed recordings of who purchased the guns. So far in history we can see the development of gun control, we can see that gun laws change from anyone can have a gun to I need the sane, safe, and responsible people can have a gun. To this point in history, there has been no school shooting.

Scholarly Essay: Gun Control There has been considerable debate recently in Canada over the issue of gun control. The Canadian parliament enacted the Firearms Act to enforce gun control by requiring gun owners to register their firearms. Just recently, the government of Alberta lead in a charge, including five other provinces and numerous pro-gun groups, complaining that the law is unconst...

Canada, like Australia, saw a mass shooting in 1989 that acted as a catalyst for change in gun policy in Canada. On December 6, 1989 a male, aged 25 went into the École Polytechnique de Montréal (Patel). The male had a 223-caliber rifle in his possession (Patel). One that day there was 14 women who were shot, and 14 who were injured (Patel). Marc Lépine, the offender, stated to the women as he was killing them that he was doing this since they were feminists and he did not want them to become engineers since they would be taking jobs from men (Patel). This shooting unlike any other that had been seen in Canada’s history. In Canada, the Firearms Act, and the Criminal Code are responsible for controlling firearms (Library of Congress – Canada 1). The Criminal Code is responsible for defining “the main categories of firearms, which include restricted, prohibited, and non-restricted firearms” (Library of Congress – Canada 1). The Firearms Act is responsible for regulating “the possession, transport, and storage of firearms” (Library of Congress – Canada 1). In Canada it is required that you have a license and register your firearm in order to legally own one (Library of Congress – Canada 1). The licensing and registration are set forth and administered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) (Library of Congress – Canada 1). The Firearms Act was enacted on December 5, 1995 just shy of six years after the École Polytechnique de Montréal shooting. Firearm regulation is a