Once upon a time Americans had what they believed to be a solution to crime it was called gun control. Gun control was a relatively simple concept; if you reduce the amount of guns out on the streets then you reduce the amount of gun related crime. After a few months, however, something astonishing happened people started losing their minds crime actually increased once gun control took effect. The golden goose solution for diminishing crime was backfiring. It is not the law-abiding citizens that cause problems with murder, robbery and school shootings. Neither is it the few incidents of children finding guns.Perhaps the most pressing issue today is gun control which is wrong because it impedes on an American's second amendment right and increases crime. First off, this great nation of ours had the courtesy to bless us with certain unalienable rights one of them being my best friend the second amendment. For those of you not familiar with the second amendment it reads "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". Our founding fathers felt such conviction in the fact that their citizens should be allowed to protect themselves that they had it precede the vital rights of speech, religion, press, and assembly. In the book The Omnivore's Dilemma author Pollan states "Walking with a loaded rifle in an unfamiliar forest bristling with the signs of your prey is
Have you ever seen anyone get shot? How many funerals have you been with the person deceased being killed by a gun? Have you ever thought that maybe there could be a solution? Well, in the U.S. we know that in the bill of rights we have the right to bear arms. However what about others that don’t have “arms” those have no “protection” what would they do? There has been many tragedies made by guns in general attacking several amounts of people. But we still have done nothing. To give examples of some there was the Orlando nightclub shooting, this shooting happened in June 12, 2016 and the suspect used a rifle and a 9mm handgun and both were purchased legally (cite). Another example is the recent Las Vegas shooting happened in October 1, 2017 the suspect had at the least of a dozen of firearms that were again purchased legally that were modified again legally to become like a machine gun (cite). In just the two shootings that were stated both of them were guns that were purchased legally. With this position to have the U.S. ban guns as most of the times the shootings and attacks are used with legal guns not illegal guns.
Policymakers are constantly saying they need to lower crime rates in America. When looking at the numbers America doesn't have a significantly higher rate of crime compared to other developed countries. In fact, Canada has a 94% higher total crime rate per capita then America.”” There is not more crime in America, the crime is just much more lethal. When looking at violent crime due to guns America has a 288% higher violent crime rate then Canada.”” The main reason for the higher violent crime rate is the leisurely process of obtaining a firearm in America. In America, there is an average of 88.2 guns per 100 people, making it very easy to obtain a firearm. “”
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.
According to Nicholas Kristof’s article “our blind spot about guns” gun control is a lot like cars regulation such that if we can regulate cars we can regulate guns. It took a lot of time and effort but thanks to regulations cars are safer than they were many years ago, and the same is very possible with guns. We need to keep our country safe. The first steps to gun control are improving on background checks and also requiring trigger locks on all guns.
From 1988 to 2001, the usage of anti-depressant drugs in the general public increased by four-hundred percent (Swanson). The mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary took place in December of 2012, and during 2014, firearms were used in 88 percent of teen homicides, and 41 percent of teen suicides (“Suicidal Teens”). On February 28th, 2017, the Trump administration repealed a firearms regulation that prevented mentally disabled persons from owning guns. At the same time, teenage mental illness is on the rise, specifically in cases of depression and anxiety. A report from the Surgeon General shows that over 90 percent of adolescents that committed either suicide or homicide have or had a mental disability. Mental disabilities such as depression and anxiety put teenagers at a high risk for homicides and suicides. Teenagers who are stressed due to school, lack of parenting, puberty, bullying, and other factors can develop depression, anxiety or another mental illness. Allowing these teens easy access to firearms proves time and time again to be very dangerous. In some cases, the families of these teens have never been assessed to see if they can responsibly store firearms. The only background check performed is on the owner of the firearm, meaning that a person may own the weapon even if another family member living with them legally cannot. Loose gun control laws allow families with physiologically ill children to have access to firearms, without first checking to see if the disabled children in the home are responsible enough to be around said firearms. Repealing gun control laws instated by the Obama administration will cause an increase in adolescent firearm-related homicides, suicides, and tragedies similar to the one at Sandy Hook Elementary.
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and leaving 17 injured at Virginia Tech. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza went on a shooting spree in Newtown, Connecticut, killing his mother before shooting 20 1st graders and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary. On June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured 58 others. Most recently on October 1, 2017, 58 people were killed and another 489 injured when Stephen Paddock fired onto the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest music festival. Many more mass shootings have happened where more innocent people have lost their lives. Gun control has been in debate for some period, some people advocate for it while others dissuade it. Now more than ever, changes must be made to better protect people from losing their lives to a shooter. To prevent future tragedies in the United States, there should be stricter gun laws enforcing a more advance psychological test, imposing a federal gun license, and have a 1 month waiting period to receive the gun.
The debate over gun control in the United States has waxed and waned over the years, stirred by a series of mass shootings by gunmen in civilian settings. In particular, the killing of twenty schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 prompted a new national discussion about gun laws. However, legislation that would have banned semiautomatic assault weapons was defeated in the Senate despite extensive public support. In 2017, mass shootings at a music festival in Las Vegas and at a church near San Antonio have rekindled the gun control debate and invoked comparisons of U.S. gun policies and those of other wealthy democracies.
October, 1st 2017 has marked the latest in a now all too familiar trend of tragedies; a mass killing of civilians by a sick individual. In the wake of this tragedy, there is a mass of human emotion, grief, anger, sadness, and a demand for justice to right what has been wronged. In looking for justice, one needs an antagonist to blame, in this case an object, the gun. While it is true that firearms are the weapon of choice for many violent tragedies across the United States, will a ban on firearms truly solve the problem of violence for the country? Although a firearm ban may seem like a preventative for violence in the United States, a comparison of violent crime in other countries with varying levels of gun control, the lack of
“A series of terror attacks that killed more than 120 people, ISIS claimed responsibility for the horrific Paris attacks,” (Castillo and et. al.). Even though more guns will give more chances of murders, will more gun control laws stop people by getting them, will we be safer without legal guns, and why should we give up our right to bear arms.
On December 14, 2012, a man walked into an elementary school with three semi-automatic weapons. He killed twenty children and six teachers. The nation was shocked and hurt, yet nothing changed. On October 1, 2017, a man brought twenty-three guns into his hotel room in Las Vegas. He killed fifty-nine people and injured more than five hundred. If the present follows history, this event will change nothing. Every year congress fails to make any considerable effort to stop gun violence. The news is always full of coverage of mass shootings, but guns are also used for murder and suicide every day. The United States must past common sense legislation to limit the gun violence in America.
Breaking news, an “assault weapon” walked in a school and wreaked havoc creating the ninth school shooting we’ve had this year! You may be thinking, what, a gun with a mind of its own? Well, that is exactly the type of thinking the news and gun-control activists want you to have. I have never met a firearm who wants or even can shoot someone, have you? That leads us to think about who the real problem is with gun-control, the firearm, or the human? If these activists were to become successful, we would be able to see the effects. The consequences of people not being able to own guns would have tremendous effects on safety, such as self-defense, which is why laws should focus on placing more restrictions on who can get guns, strengthening the filtering system, and placing harder penalties for those who use guns wrongfully or who do not have the right paperwork.
Banning assault weapons and toughening gun control laws across the United States would save countless of innocents lives in our school systems and in public. When referring to gun control laws In these next paragraphs, we are defining gun control laws as a set of policies or laws that that will supervise the manufacturing, transfer, modification or use of any firearms by citizens in the United States. I will be presenting sources that will proof my said statement with facts and statistics from trusted news outlets and other reliable media. I will also be presenting arguments against my stance to further prove the validity of my statements.
Gun control is a creation of laws to prevent people from owning certain types of firearms and also to ensure that guns are not owned by the criminal minded people but by the people who are helpless against crime. The restriction and availability of guns and firearms has become political and social issue in American society. Gun control has become a controversial issue which is hard to enforce over a long period of time. Many of the research studies and surveys have found that the majority of Americans agree with the constitutional right to own a gun and also agree with the enforcement of gun control law. Gun control is necessary to reduce the chances of firearms getting into the hands of unstable and violent people. To reduce this, government has to enforce stricter laws on gun ownership, gun trafficking, create a mental health support system and educate in second amendment.
Gun control has always been a heated topic in this country, and as more issues involving guns arise, the more heated it gets. This was especially seen after the Las Vegas mass shooting where 58 people died and 515 more were injured after a 64- year old man opened fire into a crowd during a concert. This devastating event should be enough for people to realize that more gun control laws should be placed around the country because most guns like large capacity guns are not needed for recreational use, gun control laws will lower the amount of mass shootings, and finally they will also lower the homicide/suicide rates. Although the other side may claim that owning guns is a protected by the second amendment, there is nothing in the
For as long as one can remember Americans have been arguing over a very controversial issue, gun control. Many people believe it’s their fundamental right, as Americans, to own guns. As said in the Second Amendment, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”. However, due to immense gun violence, many Americans and politicians believe there should be strong gun laws enforced to keep citizens safe. These arguments are not new, even before the second amendment was introduced Americans have had problems with the use and ownership of firearms. I believe we should have strong gun control laws for the safety of American citizens because it will reduce gun violence and gun assisted suicide, as well as keep guns from getting in the hands of criminals.