Handguns and other firearms have a long tradition in American civilization. The right to bear arms is an American right featured in the second Amendment of the Constitution. In the 18th century, when the constitution was written, times were different; there was a need for armed citizens to insure the safety of the society as a whole. Contemporarily the police department preserves the safety of society and the need for armed citizens is out of date. The founding fathers of the Constitution could presumably never imagine the horrendous outcome of their actions. Every year too many lives are claimed as the result of the American government’s inability to fully face up to effects of the issue. Compared to other western countries that have …show more content…
In the U.S. there are approximately 200 million privately owned guns, which is statistically close to a gun per person and places more than one gun per home on average (O’Donnell 771). In other words, guns are all around. This effects, without a doubt, the whole society structure and the citizens that live within its boundaries.
The children that live within a gun infested society are going to suffer the consequences. In fact, kids between the ages 16 and 19 have the highest handgun victimization rate among all age groups (O’Donnel 771). It’s not hard to understand why, since there are on average more than one gun per household, kids are likely to find firearm and in some cases even use it.
In March 1998 two children, 11 and 13 years of age gunned down a total of 13 people in a school in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Of the 13, nine survived and five people, classmates and teacher, died as a result of the shooting (Liesen, Owens). One of the boys had taken two rifles from his grandfather. They positioned themselves about a 100 yards from the schoolyard and when the bell for recession sounded and people started to exit the school building the two boys opened fire. This is a horrendous event that proves that if guns are present within a household or within a family, odds are that kids will know about where they are kept and perhaps
The ongoing debate over whether gun control works or not is a controversial topic in the United States of America. As each year passes, an increasing number of citizens demand more regulation in gun ownership. One side of the argument is that gun control has failed to have a major impact on gun violence and exclaim that these regulations and laws infringe upon their 2nd amendment rights as American citizens. The other side claims that the existing regulations are not enough to stop gun violence and even some people calling for the repealment of the second amendment. The side of the argument that will be supported in this paper will be that the regulations on guns are not effective and in some cases infringe on the 2nd
Gun control in the United States has been a controversial issue for some time now. So much so that the Supreme Court even refuses to address this issue directly. Gun control really boils down to the the Second Amendment of the Constitution. Many people have different interpretations of the Second Amendment and the trenches are dug in deep on this issue. The Second Amendment can not provide the right to bear all types of arms to protect the people from governmental tyranny. If the Second Amendment was absolute, then we would allow the public to possess nuclear weapons, missiles, and other such arms, because like the 9 mm handgun that is an arm, a nuclear warhead is also a type of arm. The more our government restricts our rights to own
School shootings, gang violence, drive by shootings, murder, and thousands of acts of violence are committed every day. Members of our society criticize their own people for this violence while they continue to sit back and do nothing about it. These acts of violence have many contributing factors. Violence in our country today is escalating because we don't control the distribution of the guns sold. There are not enough restrictions on guns sold legally. The illegal purchase of guns through the black market is out of control. There is not enough education on the usage and storage of guns.
What if a kid was left in a room with an unloaded gun in reach? In 2014, a psychologist ran a social experiment using young kids as subjects. ABC recorded the experiment results as almost every kid decided to pick up the firearm and point it at each other (ABC News). Overall a kid is exceptionally curious by the time they enter school. Teaching firearm safety courses, especially at younger ages, would help children to treat firearms with respect. As a main point, the most common gun safety trick for most teens at the DNR and other hunter education courses, Is that if you see a gun; leave it be, walk away, and tell an adult. At older ages, educated teens might be able to extend their learning experience by joining a trap team or competitive
Everyday 93 Americans are killed by guns. Whether it is due to homicide or suicide, it does not matter. At the end of the day gun violence is increasing exponentially. In numerous states, gun laws have been placed in the hopes of reducing gun violence. But now many people believe that gun violence should be treated as a public health problem. I for one feel that gun violence should be put in the category of public health. Every year more than 30,000 people are victims to gun related incidents. It has become such an issue that gun violence is causing more deaths than some life threatening diseases.
The right as an American to own a firearm has always been apart of our history. However, recent events have put into the question the second amendment and whether or not it still holds any real purpose in our society. Gun violence has constantly occurred throughout our history and has always been a problem to end. It wasn’t until recent that activists became so passionate about enforcing stricter gun laws or abolishing the second amendment all together. What would cause such a drastic upheaval? The answer to that is, constant reoccurrence of mass shootings all over the country, including ones involving young children. Once children started becoming casualties of these horrific events, society really felt obligated to try and do something
The controversy over assault rifles is one of the most problematic issues related to the contributions of gangs, drug traffickers, and most criminal activity. More often than not, criminals have access to the weapons of their choice more easily than it should be. Getting them from licensed dealers, black markets, and family members’ homes, the availability of these militia weapons has become to effortless to obtain. The rise of criminal activity is part of the reason more than one-third of high school students have easy access to a weapon or gun. “Four out of five guns brought to school are actually brought from their own homes” (Page par 2). This is one of the biggest problems when faced with where criminals get their
There have been many instances where firearms have not been locked up correctly and a small child has gotten a hold of it and a loss of life has occured. These bad situations have been tragic but the only thing that can be blamed for it is one thing. Improper storage of firearms. If there are children in a household any weapon of any kind should always be locked up and out of reach of small fingers. These situations would not occur if people learned to take better care of their weapons and their kids. Children who are not yet old enough to understand the concept of the dangers of a gun and how to properly treat one should never be in reach of these potentially dangerous
“Gun violence has significantly decreased in the past 20 years. Violent gun crimes and violent crimes in general have been decreasing since the early 1990s...” according to James Jacobs a director of Center for Research in Crime and Justice at New York. There are many misconceptions about gun violence some pro-gun control supporters want you to believe like almost twice the amount of gun violence related deaths are actually suicides by guns because suicide is illegal. Another misconception is “Assault” rifles are super advanced but there only normal rifles with “military like” features such as bayonets or pistol grips. Laws and policies from other places would not work in the U.S. There are many other reasons why you should support anti-gun control.
The recent statistics indicate that the homicides rates have reduced by 28% in the past three months. Additionally, there has been an increase in the rate of gunpoint robberies by 15% in the same period. There is an indication of the fact that more than 73% children in Philadelphia know where their parents keep their guns. In the past two years, statistics indicates that more than 1670 children between the ages of 0 to 18 years have died as a result of gunshots while 9600 have injured (Seabrook,
The scene is all too recognizable. A troubled person pulls out a gun in a school, an office, or a shopping center, and he or she slaughters innocent men, women, and children. Recently, mass murders have occurred at Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University, and Omaha’s Westroads Mall (Schwartz). These tragedies are not inevitable, so people wonder one question. Are guns in our society getting out of control?
American citizens have had the right to own guns and have had easy access to them since the Constitution was written. The Second Amendment grants militias the right to own guns to protect the citizens, but it can be interpreted in multiple ways. Like the Second Amendment, gun control and gun laws are just as old and have shaped the country in different ways. Recently, the easy accessibility to guns and lack of strict gun laws have increased the homicide, suicide, burglary, and theft rates, but there could be other variables that affect these data as well. Gun laws, and the lack there of, have affected American society in countless ways by improving and worsening Americans’ way of life.
“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.” The right of all Americans to bear arms is a right the Founding Fathers held to equal importance as the Constitution itself. Gun control laws directly violate this right and therefore should not even be under consideration. Even if that issue is overlooked, gun control advocates state that in order to reduce firearm related violence, gun control laws must be implemented to remove the violence caused by firearms. Although this may seem reasonable, the consequences of such laws are ironically counterproductive; they exacerbate the problem instead of fixing it. Besides the fact that the American
“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” (Bill of Rights). This is the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution. This is a document that grants all Americans certain inalienable rights. All citizens no matter their age or standing in society have some understanding of the Bill of Rights and the freedoms that it allows. One freedom that is granted to us, the right to bear arms, has become the center of a heated issue in today’s society and many years before. The majority of citizens have felt the impacts of guns, either positive or negative, during some point of their life. It is because of the fact that guns are a part of
Guns are needed. The main purpose is for protection. People think that by banning guns Americans will be safer. This is not true though. Criminals get their guns through illegal ways so it would be hard to confiscate all the guns. With guns taken away most Americans would probably turn on their government. Some people want to ban guns because they are used in crimes. But the guns are not committing the crime people are.