David Kopel's Argument For Gun Control

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Gun control is a very controversial topic in both the United States and around the world. America in particular has been a battleground for debate on the subject in recent years. The debate is centered around two broad contradicting viewpoints regarding the answer to gun violence. David Kopel, who is an American author, attorney, and current research director of the Independence Institute in Colorado, identifies the pro-gun crowd as critics of gun control who believe that it violates the right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and by forty-three States Constitutions (Kopel, “Hold Your Fire” par. 6). The other side of the argument consists of people who Kopel describes as well meaning Americans who believe that the answer to gun crime is gun control (Kopel, “Hold Your Fire” par. 4). …show more content…

According to the small arms survey of 2003, Americans own between eighty-three and ninety-six guns per one hundred persons, or nearly one gun per person. (Kopel, “America's Fascination” par. 28) This statistic is even more interesting when compared to Norway, Finland, France, and Germany, the European countries with the most guns, which all range somewhere between thirty and thirty-nine guns per one hundred people. Meanwhile, the same survey shows that the number of guns per capita varies so greatly in each country that places such as the Netherlands, Hungary, and Romania have the least guns per capita with no more than two per one hundred

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