Stricter Gun Control

Gun control is a very controversial topic that has has a huge impact on the United States of America. One side believes that if guns were taken away as a whole, the country would see significantly less gun related crimes and death, while the other opposing side thinks that taking away guns is not only against the Second Amendment but would lead to an increase in crime and death because the government would take guns away from people who are legally registered to own and conceal guns. The ongoing debate will continue until the foreseeable future but their are plenty of reasons why more gun laws should be made. Taking away guns is not the answer, learning how to deal with gun violence is the key.

As stated before mass shootings have increased drastically throughout the decades. Just within 2017, the number of mass shootings are 293 with several deaths and injuries, (“Gun Violence Archive”). Within the last 10 years, the deadliest mass shootings have occurred in America history, (CNN). Recently in Las Vegas, Nevada held a music festival for people to enjoy and listen to music, but a shooting changed the evening for many. A man was in an hotel near the event and shot down towards the people and killed a total of 58 people and injured at least 200, (CNN). The Orlando shooting was right behind it with a total of 49 dead, (CNN). Since this has become a part of our everyday lives, we rarely hear about all the mass shootings that kill not even into the double digits.

The issue at hand has been the focus of news, social and political debate in the recent years. Gun control refers to the attempt by government to regulate the right to keep and bear arms based on a preconceived criterion. This debate has been due to prominent cases of mass gun violence, especially against civilians and children. Gun violence affects every American citizen. About 40% of all Americans carry or own licensed guns. This gives value to the issue and its implication on society. There has been an equal uproar on both sides of the debate. The issue at hand is the addition of measures to

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.

A major concern in the United States is why mass shootings occur and what needs to be done to stop them from happening. Mass shootings have gained a significant amount of attention in 2015. Within the year, a total of 372 mass shootings have occurred in the United States killing 475 people and wounding 1,870. Mass shootings have become a popular trend within the media and have given the impression that it is the new normal. Mass shootings are a dysfunction to society, due to the fact that they create horror and tragedy within the country. Schools, shopping malls, and even movie theatres have all endured the horrific violence. Mass shootings are nothing new, however, they seem to be occurring more often and are becoming more and more violent. The three leading factors to mass shootings are problematic masculinity, mental illness, and gun control.

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.

Gun control has raised various debates in the public policy for quite a long time. Gun control involves the banning of ownership of some or all types of firearms, waiting period and the so called ban on Saturday night specials. These gun control laws have not been useful in combating crimes as many studies conducted before and after the laws have shown no correlation. In most cases there are misconceptions like high death rates in children related to the gun associated accident and the effectiveness of these control laws in other countries which are false. Indeed gun ownership has contributed to significant decline in the crime rates and therefore gun laws should be changed to make it easier for Americans to purchase handguns, carry them

A literal arms race for firepower has become a reality in the United States. People buy guns to keep themselves safe, which makes others uncomfortable, and motivates the next person to buy their own gun. Gun control would create a safer environment for everyone. With a population of 323 million, it’s estimated that there are 357 million guns in the United States.

Mass shootings in the United States is a huge problem that has seemed to become a norm, faced rarely by other developed country. On October 1st, 2017 the most deadliest mass shooting in US history took place, suppressing the Orlando nightclub shooting just over one year earlier. This just like every other mass shooting has gun owners and opposers scrambling on what we should do next to fix this terrible problem.

In the article, “Controlling Gun Violence: Obstacles to Effective Policy,” the author Elizabeth Hartfield, indicates that although back-door attempts at gun control, such as banning large capacity magazines, have been successful, there are still obstacles that must be addressed in order to curb gun violence. Hartfield highlights the following barriers to successful gun control: the difficulties associated with regulating guns already in circulation, the weaknesses associated with attempts to ban the manufacture and sale of certain types of guns, and the problems associated with determining who is fit to purchase a gun.

Mass shootings are a huge epidemic in the United States right now. Many people live in fear of another mass shooting. Two important facts to know about mass shootings is what exactly a mass shooting is and how often they occur. CNN’s authors used the Gun Violence Archive to define a mass shooting in his article “A Visual Guide; Mass Shootings in America” as “any incident where four or more people are wounded or killed”(Willingham). The frequency of mass shootings depends on which source you look at; using the definition given by CNN as well statistics, the United States has seen “136 mass shootings in the first 164 days of this year”(Willingham). However, author Sam Harris has a staggeringly different statistic in his blog article “The Riddle of the Gun”. Harris claims that “seventy mass shootings have occurred in the U.S. since 1982, leaving 543 dead” (Harris). Harris’s article is three years older than CNN’s article, yet the facts are staggeringly different by an amount that is nearly impossible to reach in three years. The definitions the two articles used for defining mass shootings are obviously different, but are both capable of informing the reader on the statistics of mass shootings frequency.

From 1966 to 2012, nearly a third of the world's mass shootings took place in the U.S. According to a 2016 study, it surveyed 292 incidents and found that 90 of them occurred in America. While the U.S. has 5% of the world's population, it had 31% of all public mass shootings. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which compiles data from shooting incidents, a mass shooting is any incident where four or more people are wounded or killed. By that definition, we've seen 136 mass shootings in the first 164 days of this year. With these statistics we must figure out how to stop mass killings, some examples would include media responsibility, gun control, and helping the mental health.

Gun control is a means of restricting the types of firearms sold, and controlling who can purchase them. Too many innocent lives are affected by persons who use weapons for the wrong reasons. The possession of such dangerous weapons is to be taken more seriously.

For every teacher and student I am sorry for your loss of those seventeen people. I believe in the movement of stricter gun laws. There's other things that you can do besides taking away guns to civilians. I believe that there should be more precautions on people that buy semi-automatic and fully automatic guns. We could try to make it where you have to go through a course to get a permit or a license to get a fully-automatic or semi-automatic gun. We could also try to make it where if someone has a mental disorder they should not be able to buy or have one. I believe in our safety of our friends and family, but I also believe in the second amendment so we can have those guns to protect our families when or if the need arrives.

“You don’t need no gun control, you know what you need? We need some bullet control. Cause if a bullet cost five thousand dollars there would be no more innocent bystanders." -Chris Rock. Although this may be a rather comedic way of approaching the idea of gun control it's still a rather solid one. For example people would think twice before shooting someone over a disagreement or mainly just because they needed a couple of bucks. As of now since both bullets and guns are available to the public at such an alarming rate, a more acceptable way to combat this would be with a substantial amount of gun control. Three ways in which the government can monitor and control the sale of guns would be through extensive background checks, making sure the guns are unloaded and kept in a place out of reach from children before they are sold, and finally putting rather reasonable age restrictions on someone