Persuasive Essay On Gun Control

Why should we let Congress take away our firearms? Is there some sort of amazing benefit to society that we cannot possibly achieve unless we place a ban on firearms? Just think about the results. There would be chaos throughout the entire nation, the crime rate would increase dramatically, and society would be taking a turn for the worse. I believe that Congress and the United States government should keep away from issues dealing with firearms.

Before I begin stating why these things would occur, let me give a brief history on gun control programs that date back to when crossbows were still a reliable weapon in warfare. In the year 1215, King John made an attempt to to exercise complete and total gun control on both nobles and serfs, but was stopped when barons used the Magna Carta to force King John to recognize the right to bear arms (Henderson, p. 85). In 1328, Edward the 3rd issues the Statute of Northampton, which restricts the carrying of weapons in public, in response to knights being abusive of their rights. While one would still be allowed to use weaponry to defend the home, the law was widely ignored, and courts would only convict if the owner of the weapon used the weapon to “terrify the good people of the land” (Henderson, p. 86). In 1822, A Kentucky court case known as Bliss v. Commonwealth ruled that the Constitution does not allow for any interference with the right to bear arms, including weapons that are concealed. In 1837, Georgia passes the first ban on handguns. This is struck down in the court case of Nunn v. State as a violation of the 2nd amendment to the Constitution, the right to bear arms (Henderson, p. 89). Lastly, on October 15, 1999, a judge overturns a ban on gun shows that was imposed by the count...

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...100 million of these are handguns. A staple of the counter argument is that guns are causing crime all over the place. The truth of this is that guns are reducing crime, not increasing it. Firearms are used to frighten away home intruders at least 489 thousand times every year, and that number is still rising. Another number that can prove my point is that firearms are used as a method of self-defense almost 1 million times each year, and just like the other number, it is still rising. To show that firearms are not the deadliest thing on the planet, as the opposition is saying, I found that in 2007, firearms only contributed to .5% of accidents that caused death that year, with automobile accidents being the leading cause of accidental death (Agresti). As noted, gun control will not lower crime as the opposition says, but it will raise the crime rate exponentially.