Should There Be Stricter Gun Control Essay

As the technology, build, and practicality of the hand gun changed over the past couple of hundred years, so has the increased want and demand. Of course, as more people started owning guns, the crime rate and deaths by gun shot up. Basically, it used to be every man for himself. As the government started worrying farther than just setting the rules but actually having people abide by the rules, laws and restrictions were set to try to regulate who owned guns and why they would use them. In 1934, Congress first started regulating the sale of automatic firearms. Not until four years later did the government think to make it federal law to require gun sellers to be licensed and to prohibit felons from purchasing them (Policy Issue p1). Even with rules that shops were supposed to follow, there are loopholes. The problem with some people in the U.S. is they will go buy guns because they have no criminal record, and then sell it to someone who is willing to pay them for the gun. Different laws over the years, still standing and also withdrawn, have spelled out different ideas of regulations, “The Gun Control Act of 1968 regulated imported guns, expanded gun-dealer licensing requirements, and expanded the list of persons not eligible to buy guns to include person convicted of any non-business related felony, minors, persons found to be mentally incompetent, and users of illegal drugs,” (Policy Issue p1). Gun

These people usually go to gun shows to sell firearms and many people refer to this as the gun show loophole. But these vendors don’t always have to go to gun shows, they can use classified ads or the internet to sell firearms without a background check. According to Watkins, “ Experts estimate that over six million guns a year - perhaps 40% of all sales – are made by unlicensed private dealers not subject to the law” (Watkins 5).

Guns are a deadly weapon, and should be used with caution. This is why there are gun control laws. The methods of gun control at present consist of the government restricting the ability of individual citizens to purchase weapons. The different types of gun control vary from waiting periods between when you purchase the gun and when you actually get it, background checks so that high-risk people can't purchase guns through legal channels, and completely banning certain types of guns. There are countless ways for criminals to avoid these government regulations, causing them to only render the ability of innocent citizens protecting their home and family's ability to purchase guns. The "waiting period" method of gun control is basically a two-step process. The first step in the procedure is that the person wanting a gun goes to his local shop to place the initial order. Then, he must wait one to two weeks while the government performs a small background check for past criminal activities, disorderly conduct, or lack of mental/emotional stability.3 During this time, if the purchaser of the gun wanted the gun for impulse reasons, it is hoped that they will not still want to cause harm after a couple weeks. Unfortunately, underage buyers

Some people believe that the United States is safer when citizens are not allowed access to guns. The amount of organized crime would go down because all of their power is derived from their use of firearms and that is a significant amount of their profit. Gun control laws protect children and families; Moms Demand Action, a grassroots group founded in response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, believes guns in America are creating a public health crisis that is attacking children, citing statistics

The major issue when talking about gun control lies in the process of acquiring a weapon and the wide variety of them, which range from handguns to rifles. It is rather shocking to find out that the process to buy a gun is to go to a retail outlet, give your information to the clerk, and have this information entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which usually takes a few minutes, and if it passed, voila! There is a newly registered weapon out in the streets. This, of course, is not the only way someone could acquire a gun. There are also private sales, which do not require background checks, gun trafficking and through the stealing of weapons. It has been recorded that the number one trafficking source, responsible for over 40,000 guns, are federally licensed dealers. ("Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence – Gun Law Information Experts," 2012) But it should also be noted that unless a person is “convicted of a felony, admitting to being addicted to a controlled substances, having been dishonorably discharged from the Armed Forces, or being subject to a restraining order” that purchase will not be denied and in cases where it is only 2% of every background check is denied. (Jones, 2013, p.1) But is it that only things that can be seen are limiting factors and not those things underneath the surface, like mental

According to a report by the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey, the United States has about 35-50 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns and has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. With no restriction and so much freedom, firearms can be distributed throughout the United States illegally and obtained as easy as buying it from a person, disregarding all gun laws. Implementing stricter background checks can help reduce the amount of crime relating to gun violence. It can also keep firearms away from those who shouldn’t have possession of them.

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.

These guns are sold on what is called the black market to basically anyone. Anyone of any age, with no waiting period, no matter what your criminal record is, can purchase these guns. The fact that these guns are sold illegally allows guns to fall into the wrong hands. Gang members and murderers purchase these guns and go onto the streets and kill members of our own families. These problems are trying to be prevented by catching them and putting them in jail. By this point it is too late, someone?s child or mother has been killed. If the guns were taken out of their hands the crime would never be committed.

Laws have been put into place to help insure that guns are only sold to the people that are able to pass back ground checks. “With the 1994 Brady Handgun Violence and Prevention Act, Congress imposed a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases to allow law enforcement officers time to perform criminal background checks of potential buyers” (Front Line). This does not mean that guns do not fall into the hands of children and adults who are not lawfully registered to own them. There are guns shows that are held in almost any U.S. town at any given time, most of the dealers follow protocol but some do not. Pawn shops also buy and sell guns on a daily basis; most of these guys are just out to make a quick sell. They have no idea if the gun that they are buying was just used in a crime or not.

In 2015, on an average day in America, thirty-six Americans were killed by guns, excluding suicides. How many of those deaths would have been prevented if there were stricter gun laws? How many parents would have lived to see their babies grow up? How many children would have lived to graduate, or get married? Although many Americans believe that gun control takes away their second amendment right it actually increases every citizen’s safety by the use of extensive background checking, checking medical records, and restricting gun distributors.

The problem with statements like the above is that people are forgetting about the black market. If a person is planning on buying a handgun for criminal purposes, he is not likely to buy it through a dealer. If he buys a gun through a dealer, the gun has to be registered in that person’s name. If the gun is used in any crime or murder where a shot is fired and the gun is left behind, the police could very easily trace the gun to that person.

Also, many people obtain guns from stealing it from another person, or buying it off a citizen who is unknowledgable or uncaring for the law, or the temperment of the buyer. Besides, if a person who is of age, and has a clear record wishes to buy a gun to be violent with it, there is no way of preventing him or her.

Imagine yourself going to school, and suddenly not feeling safe anymore. Imagine having to hide behind locked doors, with only your books to protect you. This is something that, according to a Washington Post analysis, 187,000 students in the U.S. have had to experience since 1999. Mass shootings and gun violence have become a recurring event in today's society. In 2010, there were approximately eighty-five gun deaths every day, according to the Center for Disease Control. The U.S. citizens own more guns and have a higher gun homicide rate than any other country in the world. Enough is enough, reasonable gun control laws should be enforced and put into place before this situation gets even more out of hand.

People all across the world are debating about whether to require the start of reducing gun violence. Guns have always been a part of American culture, even before we became the America we know today. In colonial times and the days of the Wild West, guns were an essential part of survival. They were needed to kill animals for food and to protect against unwanted trespassers and predators. However, in these modern times, because we have conveniences such as Hannaford and organized police systems, guns have gone from tools of necessity to novelty toys. For the most part, people own guns in this century for sporting reasons or to protect their families and home from intrusion. The simplicity of a gun and the lack of effort it requires owning

Guns are major part of living in the United States of America. The U.S alone has 35% to 50% of the world's civilian owned Firearms. More than likely you have at least one in your house. As more and more guns are being produced and sold in the U.S more anti-gun activists are pushing for increased gun control but the facts show that more gun control actually means more gun related violence. There is no doubt that there is a problem with gun related violence in the U.S. but there is a perception that it has suddenly worsened but in all reality things are better that they have been in decades. Once again on the news you will hear that 30,000 people killed last year with guns. What the media does not say is that of those 30,000, 20,000 of those people killed themselves with a gun. Some of these facts are shocking to hear. Even though gun control is the first thing we turn to when gun related violence occurs the negative factors are far greater than the positives.