Persuasive Essay: Semi Automatic Weapons Should Be Banned

The United States of America has a problem that is growing worse every day. American laws are not protecting its citizens from injury or death. You may think the mass shootings in America the guns used were bought illegally, but “since 1982, there have been at least 62 mass shooter carried out with firearms across the country, with the killings unfolding in 30 states from Massachusetts to Hawaii. Of the 139 guns possessed by the killers, more than three quarters were obtained legally. The arsenal included dozens of assault weapons and semiautomatic handguns.” (Follman). Times have changed and so should our gun laws. The federal government should enact more control on all personal guns in order to reduce

There are over 300 million guns in the united states as of 2016 which translates to 93 guns per hundred people. living that's just in the united states there are 870 million known firearms throughout the world today. That doesn't count illegal guns no one known about like black market guns. Next i have found more crimes are committed with illegal guns or with people who aren't legally allowed to obtain guns because of crimes or any other reason. So now it comes down to why take it out on the percent of the population that do things legally and enjoy it.

Deaths by guns and illegal, powerful firearms seems like it happens everyday. Now it seems like the government doesn’t even try to end these occurrences. Some believe machine weapons should be allowed. Other believe it should be banned. If this much attention is drawn to this topic, it’s only right to hear both points of views. These are the viewpoints of all Americans.

Gun ownership is embedded in the fabric of America. The United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world with 88 guns per 100 people. This is a staggering amount of firearms in the U.S. which our forefathers would 've never imagined when writing the 2nd Amendment. The 2nd Amendment states that “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.” Not everyone interprets this right the same way. Regulating and restricting the use of these firearms brings up opposing sentiments from those in favor of gun control and those who oppose

Assault weapons are the newest and the most popular type of firearm. When most people hear the term ‘assault weapon’, they think of an unnecessary weapon and their connections to mass shootings. That type of thinking is necessary when it comes to these types of weapons, and too many those disagree with people who think this way. There arguments are, “This is America,” and “It’s guaranteed in the second amendment,” but the issue is assault weapons have no place in American society outside the military and police use. The Second Amendment 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.” This sentence written by our forefathers says nothing about which weapons are allowed in this country. So it is up to our government to decide which guns are legal and which guns are illegal. From a logical and educated perspective all assault weapons should be banned from public distribution and possession, and be restricted to use by our police and armed forces. This can easily be proven by why the 1994 gun ban was not successful, assault weapon capabilities in the hands of citizens, and solutions to assault weapon control.

What makes gun control reform even more difficult is that many Democrats themselves can’t support gun control without risking their seats. Many representatives or senators come from districts and states that vote Democrat for different reasons, such as union strength in the Midwest or rising immigration numbers in the Southwest. However, states like Wisconsin, Florida, or New Mexico also are strong supporters of guns, putting Democratic lawmakers in a precarious position (Scher 2017). This split in the party makes it nigh on impossible for bills to get anywhere. Indeed we saw this to be true after the Sandy Hook shooting. Senator Dianne Feinstein has been a passionate advocate for gun control nearly her entire tenure as a Senator, becoming one of the leading Democratic senators in the push for gun control (Friedman 2013). Feinstein represents a state where gun control measures such as assault weapons bans are extremely popular (California), so there is no constituent fear from her to back off gun control (Wheaton 2017). After the Sandy Hook shooting, Senator Feinstein introduced a new Assault Weapons bill to replace the previous one which had expired in 2004. It made the sale, manufacture, or transfer of 150 semi-automatic weapons illegal, which had features like magazine releases and thumbhole stocks, restricted large capacity magazines, and used a one feature test to determine whether or not a gun was an assault weapon (Feinstien 2013). Democratic majority leader Harry

The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States is one that many people familiar with the gun control debate know by rote. As of this writing, the Gun Violence Archive reports that there have been over 53,000 incidents of gun violence in the United States this year alone, and with a little over a month to go in the year, that number continues to rise. In just the last two weeks there have been 2 mass shootings involving school-aged children, one in Sutherland Springs, Texas that claimed the lives of 27 people, and another in Corning, California that killed 6 people.(Gun Violence Archive 2017) I am as familiar as anyone else with the dialogue that always seems to repeat itself every time we are visited with the fresh horror of the unspeakable violence that can be unleashed on unsuspecting people, with relative ease thanks to advances in modern weaponry. The admonition that this is the time for mourning and not the time for politicking, has done nothing but halt progress in the face of a disturbing epidemic of gun violence in our country.

Imagine somebody breaking into your home with the intentions of hurting you and your family and trying to take all your valuables that you own in your house, and not having anything to protect your loved ones. Without the protection of a firearm, the intruder could injure or kill all members within the household easily. In the United States, according to the Bill of Rights, a citizen has the right to bear arms, however, recently people have started to believe that guns only incite violence and therefore gun laws need to be more strict. Although, If you own the firearm for the right reasons and go through the process of having a carrying license, then that is within your rights to protect yourself and be able to own the gun. Therefore,

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.

Did you know that in the United States almost 100,000 people are shot or killed with a gun in one year? 10,527 people die a year in handgun related incidents in the United States. This number, by far, outweighs the number of gun related deaths in countries such as Sweden, Great Britain, and Japan, which number 13, 22, and 87, respectively. What is the reason for such drastic differences in numbers? Sweden, Great Britain, and Japan are all countries that have stricter gun control laws than the US. Mind you, these are just the number of deaths caused by handgun related incidents; however, that isn’t counting the thousands of deaths caused by other types of firearms; in one year, around 30,000 Americans die in gun violence.

The United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights states that the Second Amendment which is the right to bear arms which is allowing us to have weapons in our hands; many individuals are becomingly increasingly unsure of where the line is drawn on being able to have a gun and what prevents people from using them for harm. Some people have argued that even though the Second Amendment does protect our individual rights to have the option to own arms, that it should give the government authority to ban high-crime communities from using handguns. Gun violence embraces every town in the United States.

The Second Amendment provides US citizens with the right to bear arms and should include the right to own assault weaponry. The Second Amendment is a right for all American citizens, not a privilege. The two strongest reasons for citizens to own assault weapons are self-defense and defense against tyranny. The Second Amendment allows for US Citizens to legally protect themselves, their families and their homes. Assault weapons in the hands of law abiding citizens can make the difference between life and death; therefore they should be included in the Second Amendment.

As everyone knows, especially those who themselves have attended in a college environment, many students are often young adults who go through a number of new experiences: for some, paying their own bills for the first time, building new relationships, and indulging themselves in the new opportunities that are now open to them, all of which comes with a severe amount of stress; it is also common knowledge that stress hinders an individual's thought process and judgment. With this, it is important to understand that in times of tension, students are often pushed to do things they unfortunately regret. There have been times where, even before the law was passed, that a handgun was found on campus, although a majority of these findings were in order for individuals to protect themselves and ended without worry, others did not end in peaceful negotiations and some even managed to ascend into all-out shootings. Although many individuals turn and ask, “what if I want to defend myself” or “if any other bystander had access to a gun, they could have stopped the shooter before the scene escalated”, many of these people don’t realize that there are many options other than a gun to protect and disarm a perpetrator. This can be done in a number of ways including using a taser, defense spray, or even self-defense techniques.

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.

“Someone’s right to have a gun,” says Joanna Wallace, “Took away my right to have a son.” (white book pg 25). Gun control is a growing problem and a nationwide tragedy. It has overpowered our society, due to the way individuals perceive the pros and cons of carrying a deadly weapon at all times. However, the policy of gun control is a procedure that must be passed by legislative sessions with many votes before confirming it to become a law. Even though owning a dangerous weapon can be used for protection and self-defense, the fact of the matter is ownership of a gun can lead to accidents, deaths, and crimes; ultimately, guns should be used only in certain situations if needed.