The Negative Effects Of Gun Control Laws

Statistical analysis about states in the U.S. proves the correlation between strict gun control policies and deaths related to firearms to the least extent. According to an article published by Richard Florida on CityLab, a research shows that states with stricter gun control have fewer gun-related fatalities. The study in the article was conducted by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health. Researchers measured “legislative strength” of gun control policies in each state using data from Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Specifically, the elements that the researchers include when accounting for “legislative strength” are:

The United States is one of the few countries were the right to bear arms is protected by the constitution. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most violent with incidents involving guns this year reaching an estimated 36,212 and an approximate 9,050 deaths (“Gun Violence Archive”). There are an estimated 310 million firearms in households across American, these are only estimates because current gun laws do not require them to be registered or tracked. A more staggering estimate is that most of the guns owned by private citizens are semi-automatic guns, the same type of gun used in almost all mass shootings. While these privately owned guns are legally purchased, many times, they land in the hands of criminals, and owners never report them stolen. Mass shootings and gun crimes are not the only issues with gun violence the one never talked about is suicide, more guns available equals more suicides. The United States is one of the easiest countries to own a gun legally or illegally, stricter gun control laws are necessary.

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.

If gun control becomes as strict as other countries, the only citizens who would be allowed to have guns would be law enforcement officers, and they cannot be everywhere at one time. Big city police chiefs are more likely to support gun control (Perez-Pena). The population in big cities is much higher which means that more people would have access to guns. The police want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. I believe that a criminal will find any means necessary to commit a crime. “It’s not the device, it’s the people (Solis).” Most mass shootings are preceded by warning signs usually in the form of social media or behavior changes (Hockley). We need to look into ways to keep guns out of the hands of those with mental issues and those who have criminal records. Gun shops have the capability of accessing the background history of a customer. Many mass shootings have been linked to people who have been recognized as being deeply disturbed (Perez-Pena). We are on track to educate more than two million children and adults across 50 states on identifying at-risk behaviors and depression (Hockley). If

There are thousands of people that own guns in the United States. People have owned guns for the entire duration of American history. Even pre-dating the formation of the country, there were the Massachusetts minutemen who owned their own firearms and used them to defend themselves against oppression. Many lawmakers now want to go against these principles of allowing gun ownership for civilians (Dreier 92). They want to challenge the freedoms that have built the United States into the nation that it is today. They want to challenge the freedoms that Americans are specifically promised in the second amendment of the Constitution. All lawmakers need to stop consider the effects that will come into play with the creation of gun control laws.

After recent tragic events, such as the mass shooting that took place at a musical festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 1st, 2017, which left over 50 people dead, and over 500 others injured (Bui, Zapotosky and Barrett), the topic of stricter gun controls in America has become a controversial topic for many people in our society. Those in favor of stricter gun controls believe that by implementing laws that would make it more difficult for the average person to purchase and own guns, the result would be a decreased number of mass shootings and other gun deaths in our country. Typically, with these proposed laws, it is suggested that potential gun owners should be required to undergo mental health screening, in addition to regular background checks to see if the person has a history of any mental illnesses or past crimes. However, reducing the number of mass shootings and other gun deaths in America is not as simple as just implementing new laws.

In the last ten months, since the start of the year 2015, proximally 300 mass shootings have taken place in the United States. This number is about 100 times the amount of mass shootings in Australia since their gun restricting bill was passed in 1996. This raises the discussion whether or not changing the American gun laws would help bring down the total of injuries and fatalities.

What gun control laws are going to help stop mass shootings? Even if the government banned the sale of assault rifles and guns in general,people with bad intentions are going to purchase them illegally. In the three recent mass shooting that caused many deaths, the shooters got their guns illegally with no trace of the sale on these weapons. Sandy Hook,Columbine,and San Bernardino were all mass shootings where the shooters got their guns illegally, stole the gun from family members or other people, and caused a lot of danger and harm to people. There would be no regulations to stop them because even if there were stricter gun laws, they still would be able to purchase their guns illegally.Stricter gun laws will not prevent crime,people will still get illegal firearms,and no sales to the public will reduce revenue.

Gun violence in America is prevalent as the rate of deaths rise. Stricter gun control laws should be made and enforced to lower those rates and create a safer country. The Gun Violence Archive reports that overall, the total number of gun related incidents has reached 36,719 in 2015 and that there have been 244 mass shootings so far. The death toll has reached 9,210 and 18,817 victims were injured by guns. Other countries with stricter gun control laws have reported less crimes and deaths dealing with guns, and America should follow suit. In Australia, after massacre in 1996, stricter gun control laws were passed and since then, there have been less gun related crimes. According to a study made by Andrew Leigh of Australian National University

Throughout the past few years, disturbing amounts of mass shooting have occurred in the United States. This is paired with the fact that gun ownership in the United States stays significantly higher per capita as compared to any other developed nation. Lastly, statistics from these tragedies evidenced that most of the weapons used are legally obtained, high volume weapons. It remains clear that as a country we cannot stay at the top in gun-ownership, and consequently have mass shootings decrease. We must examine ways that regulating gun ownership can prevent tragedies.

The debate over gun control laws is a very controversial issue in the United States and out of the many issues currently up for debate in American politics, there is no other topic that has a partisan divide quite as deep as the debate over gun control. Few people advocate for mass shootings or other forms of gun violence, except of course for the perpetrators of such actions. It may be easy to blame the recent uptick of gun violence in recent years on the sheer prevalence of guns in American society. After all, if there are no guns that means there should be no mass shootings, right? Many estimates put the number of guns owned by Americans at over 300 million and often more than the U.S. population itself. (112.6 guns per 100

The problem with guns in America has been an ongoing issue for many years. According to statistics from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, in 2010 alone there were about 31,076 deaths by gun and all were either homicides, suicides or unintentional shootings. 73,505 people were treated in the hospital for non fatal gunshot wounds in 2010 as well. Gun control laws are a benefit to America because they would help reduce gun deaths and other gun-related incidents all over the nation. Furthermore, they would reduce crime all over the country, for example armed robbery and assault with a gun, and homicide. Although it is believed that gun control laws will obstruct the right to self-defense or deny people a sense of safety, statistics show that guns are rarely used in self defense. Not only that, but the majority of adults including gun owners, support gun control such as background checks and bans on assault weapons (ProCon.Org). There have already been far too many innocent deaths in the past.

Epidemiologic Reviews, found that “law restrictions on owning and purchasing guns was followed by a drop in gun violence, indicating that government imposed restraints to gun access can save lives”. If our nation imposed tighter gun control laws like the Australian government, we would see a drop in gun-related violence across America.

Gun related deaths are among the highest cause of homicide. Gun violence has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Australia, however, is a country with little to none gun related incidents. After an event in 1996, John Howard created a gun reform, and gun-related homicide dropped drastically, compared to other countries worldwide. Mass shooting has become a frequently talked about subject on the news and social media. Some countries that has “rights to keep and bear arms” should consider having gun control--like Australia--to prevent future disasters.

We see gun violence happen all too often these days. It seems just about every day or so we have another mass shooting in this country. We have become numb to seeing it on the evening news and yet no one has a good idea on how to stop these violent acts. Recently, some politicians have tried to pass meaningful gun legislation. Unfortunately, that fell short. Even though people believe that by having stricter gun laws it would be an infringement on peoples' Second Amendment rights. Even though countries, such as Australia, have had little to no gun related acts of violence since adopting these laws. With these laws in place, the number of gun related acts of violence would be lowered. It would also make it harder