Informative Essay: The Dangers of Gun Ownership

The issue of gun control has been debated for a long time, probably ever

since they were invented. The gun is a small, rather easy to obtain, weapon that

is lethal if used in the right (or wrong) way. This makes the gun an extremely

dangerous factor in our lives. If used improperly, a gun could be lethal to not

only the target, but the user as well. The availability of guns has sky rocketed

in the past decade or so, and the immense population of guns in our society make

it a dangerous place to live. Gun violence claims approximately 38,000 lives in

the U.S. each year, including 5,000 children and teenagers.(1) In the past few

years, many steps have been taken to help reduce the risk of fatal accidents or

intentions. One of these steps was the ban of assault weapons.

Two years ago, congress passed a landmark bill, banning the sale,

manufacture and, importation of semi-automatic assault weapons and large

capacity ammunition clips. Due to this ban, the number of crimes traced to

assault weapons has decreased almost 20% from 1994.(2) This ban was repealed by

the House of Representatives. On march 22, 1996 another big legislation in the

fight against guns was the Brady bill, which demands a 5 day waiting period for

all handgun purchases. These legislation's are some what effective and in

different ways. The only real way to eliminate most gun violence is to eliminate

the availability of guns. Surely making guns illegal would do this but this

raises a very important issue.

If you outlaw guns, only the outlaws will have guns. Simply put, no

matter how many bans you put out, there will always be the black market to

support the criminals in the U.S. Needless to say the law abiding citizens of

our country would be defenseless. The NRA has made sure that this will never

happen. What the United States needs is some one to pass a bill that will

protect all our citizens. Some men and women in Washington think they are that

some one. Some think that there should be more availability of guns. Let's see

what they both think.

Two years ago, as I mentioned, Congress passed a ban on the sale,