Should Gun Control Laws Be Enacted?

Gun Control in America has been argued back and forth for decades past. On one side it is strongly believed that the Second Amendment suggests that individual citizens have a constitutionally protected right to own a gun and protect themselves. These individuals believe that gun control laws do not in fact reduce gun violence. On the other side it is said if Gun Control laws are enacted there would be less gun and school violence. Also, it would be harder for criminals and juveniles to obtain a firearm. Both sides have very valid arguments and historical evidence to back their positions on within this debate.

Guns are a major problem in our society and the numbers of these gun-related murders are continuing to rise. On top of the murders you also have people losing their lives through misfire and gun-related suicides. The total death toll of all gun-related deaths averages over 30,000 per year in the U.S. (http://blogs.kqed.org/lowdown/2013/03/07/u-s-gun-deaths-visualizing-the-numbers/). I believe that enforcing stricter gun laws will contribute to getting these numbers lower. The numbers do not lie, we as a society have a problem with gun-violence and we need to do something to fix it.

Each person has their own idea of what our founding fathers meant when they put this in our constitution. Some people use guns as a hunting sport or for food. But then there are the ones who want to cause harm to each other. I still remember the morning of December 11, 2012. The day the Clackamas Town Center shooting occurred. A man entered a busy mall, killed 2 people and seriously injured another. He ended up shooting himself after causing all that fear and pain to the shoppers. My family and I had planned to visit the mall that day to take my relatives who came to visit from California, but we overslept. We heard the news on the radio on our way there and we turned around knowing we could have been there. The culprit stole an AR-15 from

The role guns play in our society has long been debated on whether or not citizens have the right to own guns. There are those who believe that guns have no role in the hands of private citizens. Whereas there are those who believe that guns are the very foundation that protects our rights and liberties expressed in the Constitution. The debate is over whether or not there should be stricter laws preventing people to own guns. Though gun control and gun rights advocates share similar views on background checks and requirements, each have different views on the safety of guns and the Second Amendment meaning.

More gun laws would have a negative effect on shootings and crime rates. Stricter gun laws would not prevent people from getting guns, would not prevent killings, and would not fare well with the people of the United States. Strict gun laws would only prevent law-abiding citizens from getting guns, and criminals would still be able to get them. Crime and shooting rates do not go down after increase in gun-restrictive laws are passed. People in the United States have the right to defend themselves from harm, and the 2nd Amendment right to own firearms.

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.

Gun control has been a long debate to determine if it’s better to have stricter access to firearms. America is one of the few countries that has gun rights embedded in their constitution. But what makes the US exceptional is that it has the right to keep and bear arms, other countries do not provide the right to have access to them, but rather, the government is allowed to regulate its use. The right to bear arms has also been the cause of growing violence and crime, at least according to anti-gun lobbyists. Citizens should be aware the dangers and harm that guns present to society. Controlling the sale of firearms can greatly decrease the number of violent crimes.

Every day some news related to gun violence are being heard all over the world. Shooting in driveway, public places, schools, homicide and suicide are some of different types of gun violence. Shooting on people and killing them is a big issue in the world and different comments are provided about that. One of the most important of them is about gun control laws. Stingl (2013) says “The term gun control as it is used in the United States refers to any action taken by the federal government or by state or local governments to regulate, through legislation, the sale, purchase, safety, and use of handguns and other types of firearms by individual citizens.” According to this idea gun control laws should be

During the presidential campaign in 2007 president Barrack Obama in his speech said that ‘we know what to do, we’ve got to enforce laws that are in the book’ in his speeches, he alluded to the fact that we are not doing enough to enforce the already existing laws and this is exactly what in all these many words I have been trying to put forward. Implementation is in many ways a political function. In, effort to reduce gun violence without stricter gun control, our federal government needs to take the responsibility in enforcing the current laws. The justice departments need to be proactive with prosecutions especially with cases of falsification of background information for example in 2009 FBI reported 77,000 falsifications but only 77 or 1% were prosecuted. Congress also needs to approve enough funding for national instant criminal background check system (NCIS) and also states should be encouraged to provide more information regarding background information. The issue of straw man purchases should be well investigated and properly penalized. Organizations like the NRA and the community, who value gun ownership, needs to put the pressure on the federal government. In doing this, citizens have the right to file petitions to the state legislature, or place a ballet to be voted upon by voters, or just voting for those who have the power to make changes. In taking these actions, we can see that Congress will provide more funding, like grants for our current background check

Every time a gun injures or kills in self defense it is used seven times in a criminal assault or homicide; furthermore the main argument against stricter gun laws is the fact that they are needed for self defense. Gun control is a very controversial and debatable topic, and many people have different opinions. In the Constitution, The Second Amendment gives the right to bear arms, but there have been restrictions on certain firearms since the Constitution was ratified. Still, gun violence continues to increase in America. There should be stricter gun laws in America because stricter gun laws will save lives, many guns are unnecessary for practical

The first reason that there should be more gun control laws is that it would prevent thousands of deaths. For example, “guns are the leading cause of death by homicide and by suicide;” along with that, firearms are the “12th leading cause of all deaths [overall]” (Gun Control, n.p.). With this in mind, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that there were “270,237 firearm suicides in the United States,” including more than half of the total suicides throughout the years of 1999 and 2013 (Centers for Disease, n.p.). As a result, it would also decrease gun violence significantly and reduce the costs of gun violence-related expenses. According to the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, “gun violence cost each person in the United States around $564” (Gun Control, n.p.). Ted Miller also estimated that the “annual firearm injury costs an average of $645 per gun, in America” (PIRE, n.p.). Not to mention, statistics show that “every day, 315 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides and suicide

“Right to bear arms” from second amendment in the Constitution was adopted in 1791, this is 21st century, given the statistics of how high gun violence in USA has gone up compared to its neighbor country, it is about time to do something about it. Although guns can be used in self-defense, according to Law Center To Prevent Gun Violence Statistics, the evidences shows that the presence of guns in people’s home make them more vulnerable. Statistics shows that guns kept in the home are more likely to be involved in a fatal or nonfatal unintentional shooting, and criminal assault or suicide attempt than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense. Gun is more likely to be used to vent frustration by killing or injuring an innocent person in the

Guns must not be banned in the United States of America, but it is imperative that stricter gun control laws are put into place. Currently, there are many flaws in gun safety that need to be amended rather than banning guns altogether. These reasons include

Yes, people pull the trigger - but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary, and delay means more death and horror”- Eliot Spitzer. Guns are very dangerous weapons and cause a lot of tragedy in the US. Gun control is necessary because without it gun violence will continue to poison the US. This is mainly because of 2 reasons. There are two may guns in this country for it to be peaceful and it is very easy for anyone to get their hands on one. With gun control there would be way less deaths in this country Considering the fact that guns are the most used weapons in murders, suicides, and homicides

I feel that morally guns are wrong, but also that restricting guns takes away a person’s autonomy. Guns can be used for good and bad. A gun can protect you from an intruder or killer, but the act of protection would not be necessary if the killer or intruder could not obtain said gun. I realize that disposing of guns universally is impossible. Gun control is necessary, but there is not much that can be done without taking away a person’s autonomy. The government can’t require insurance to own a gun, because those that are in poverty that need protection cannot own a gun. Even if there is gun control, felons will still be able to find gun through the black market. I can’t propose a morally sufficient way for gun control. While I feel, that guns