About 33,000 Americans were victims of gun-related deaths in 2011("11 Facts about Guns"). In fact, an average of 268 people is shot every day in America. That's 97,820 per year! Although a countless number of people believe that there should most definitely be stricter gun laws, many others beg to differ. Others have confidence in believing that guns don't kill people, people kill people so there is no threat in guns. People have already established the fact that guns are unsafe. Consequently, guns should be outlawed for the safety of American citizens. Gun laws should be more lenient on people who are required to use or carry guns. President Obama has been coming up with very comprehensive plans to prevent gun violence in the U.S. This paper will inform you about the very controversial topic of guns and whether or not we should have stricter gun laws.
Gun laws should have harsher punishment for violators. I say this because, gun bans are already existent and don't work. People disregard these laws as if it doesn’t apply to them. “State law provides that, upon completion of specified requirements, a law-abiding person shall be granted a permit to carry a concealed firearm,” according to the Institute for Legislative Action. ("State Laws at a Glance"). However, most of the time that a crime is committed the gun is in the hands of a person who is not qualified or authorized to have it.
Essentially, every gun starts out as a legally manufactured product. However, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) points to three common ways guns move from legal distribution channels to the criminal market. In 2005, the ATF examined 3,083 gun dealers and found 12,274 “missing” firearms. (Hemenway)
Even people that are a...
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...g here. Other states are going to see a growth," he said. (Andrieski) Hunters are concerned about if the law will have a massive or minor effect on them. As we all know, hunters use very powerful guns. They also use guns with an abundance of ammunition. Should they be allowed to have these very dangerous weapons? The hunters have individual laws that apply to them.
So should we have harsher gun laws? The laws we have now are most often disregarded and overlooked. People don’t respect the gun laws we already have in affect. The laws should be stricter because countless tragic massacres and murders are happening. Guns are meant to be in the possession of people with a license that took test to have them. However, many guns are being sold and exchanged illegally. That’s how we get guns in our community and people in gangs and drug dealers get them into their hands.
The United States being the leader in per-capita gun deaths among industrialized nations, massive shooting such as Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Virginia Tech, and an average of 33 people dying in the United States everyday due to gun related violence are all reasons that we not only should, but need to regulate gun laws.
A growing number of publicized tragedies caused by gun violence have caused a great stir in the American community. Recently, President Barack Obama has made proposals to tighten the regulation of and the restrictions on the possession of weapons in America to lessen these tragedies. Should the legislative branch decide in favor of his proposals, all American citizens who do or wish to own the type of weapons in question or who use current loopholes in existing policy would be directly affected. His proposals, which are to “require background checks for all gun sales, strengthen the background check system for gun sales, pass a new, stronger ban on assault weapons, limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, finish the job of getting armor-piercing bullets off the streets, give law enforcement additional tools to prevent and prosecute gun crime, end the freeze on gun violence research, make our schools safer with new resource officers and counselors, better emergency response plans, and more nurturing school climates, [and] ensure quality coverage of mental health treatment, particularly for young people,” have been cause for a large amount of recent debate (whitehouse.gov).
The U.S. should not have gun control laws. The Second Amendment to the Constitution states that, “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.” This amendment has been around since 1791, and there has been gun control almost as long as it's been around. The National Rifle Association is an advocate of the Second Amendment and an opponent of those who propose restrictions on guns. Even Presidents Reagan and Bush are members, and Nixon, Eisenhower, and Kennedy were also members. Why do people feel the need to own a handgun? One reason is heritage. For as long as this country has been around, there have been gun owners, to defend themselves and to hunt for food. Buying, owning, or carrying a handgun doesn't hurt anyone. Until a person commits a crime, he/she is free to choose what he/she wants to do. Even if guns were completely banned from the U.S.A., people would still find a way to get them. Criminals would get guns. They would have their way, and there would be nothing we could do about it. We would have no way to defend ourselves. What is gun control to you? To me, it is the unconstitutional regulation and banning of guns to try to keep the crime rates in this country down. Does it work? Some gun laws are okay and they may work to some extent, but not to the extent that was intended. As for most of these gun laws such as the Brady Law, it serves no purpose. It is only there to make our lawmaking bodies and those of us who are too naive to see the truth feel better. Do you really think that the Brady Law keeps handguns out of the hands of criminals?
Over the last decade or so, the United States of America has been shaken by an epidemic of terrifying mass shootings, devastating slayings of unexpecting victims, and unnerving annihilations of the innocent. There is no specific target, no explicitly sought-out group, nor definite individual. From a classroom of first-graders, to a crowded movie theatre, to a U.S. Naval yard, the location seems at most, random, other than that it is almost always a public place. The perpetrators responsible for these horrific murders also vary, and often surprise those who thought they knew them. However, while the occurrences of mass shootings are unpredictable and always shocking, most have one thing in common: the use, or rather misuse, of assault weapons-automatic or semiautomatic military style rifles. To ensure the safety, security, and well-being of the people of the United States, the government should ban assault weapons.
‘Useless laws weaken necessary laws.’ --- Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1775) Importantly, gun ownership doesn’t create a violent society, but lenient gun control does. Nevertheless, bans do not make something disappear, rather harder to control! Therefore a strict, uniform federal gun control system is far more essential so as to ensure no collateral effects of any gun uses!
Gun control laws aim to restrict or regulate firearms by selecting who can sell, buy and possess certain guns. Criminals do not obey laws and stricter gun control laws or banning guns will have little effect on reducing crimes. There are many myths about gun control reducing acts of gun violence, which are simply not true according to research. People are responsible for the crimes, not the guns themselves. Taking guns away from United States citizens that use them for many reasons, shooting practice, competition, hunting and self-defense, should not be punished for the acts of criminals. As stated by Mytheos Holt, “Guns in the right hands help public safety. Guns in the wrong hands harm public safety”. Research shows that defensive use of guns discourages criminals and reduces crime (Holt 2). Not only is it wrong to penalize law-abiding citizens, it is against the Second Amendment. It is unconstitutional to pass laws that infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
When it comes to violence, the stricter gun laws will only help the criminals hurt more innocent people. I believe this is because during the Prohibition years in the United States people were still able to find alcohol and the government could not do anything about it. Drugs have become a huge problem and the government still has yet to find a way to stop all drugs from reaching consumers. This exact same thing will happen with guns. There is no stopping supply and demand and if a criminal wants a gun, they are going to find it.
One of the most important aspects of the debate centered on gun legislature is the distribution of illegal firearms to felons, criminals and American youth. Witemute’s article hints that there have been several illegal gun sales from unauthorized markets and to those under the legal ages of 18 or 21 depending on the type of firearm being sold. Unfortunately, these illegal sales have resulted in an increase in gun related injuries and deaths. (55)
Gun control in the United States has been a major debate for hundreds of years. Many people believe that guns should be highly regulated while others believe that anyone should have the ability to own one. Each side has a plausible argument. Throughout this essay it will be show how not having gun control can increase violence and death rates, the right for everyone to own a gun is not guaranteed by the Second Amendment, and how over usage of guns has played a role in the diminishing populations of animals.
Gun control has stirred an incredible amount heated debates and controversy in this country. Both sides believe that their view is the correct view. The question remains: Will controlling firearms result in less firearm deaths? The answer to that question is no. This is both proven and obvious. First is the point that criminals have never and will never obey the law, which is why they are criminals. The United Kingdom has an incredibly strict gun control policy but yet their murders involving a knife or other sharp edged weapons has a dramatic increase compared to our own. The second point is that there is already gun control implemented in many places, so gun control can easily be studied. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence studies and ranks all 50 states from the most strict to the most lenient. When comparing this with the FBI database of crime reports it will show that the strictest gun law states have the highest rate of firearm related murders than the state that is much more lenient. These two points come together to show that gun control will not work and is impractical.
There is an American consensus for some form of gun control. “…[F]irearms were involved in two-thirds of all murders in the United States and [t]he United States leads the world's richest nations in gun deaths…murders, suicides, and accidental deaths due to guns - according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the International Journal of Epidemiology” (Lepore). There might be some far extreme people who think that all guns should be banned but most sane Americans do not think that gun rights should be abolished. Americans regard self-defense as the most compelling reason to have a gun and twenty-two percent of households have handguns in the United States. However many people do think that gun control laws must be enacted and enforced. Pro-gun extremists and the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) must understand that there is a real for many people at the uncontrolled s...
Is the right to bare arms worth the amount of deaths and injuries in the United States? Gun Control has been a heavily debated and controversial topic throughout the United States. In 2013, 30,000 people died of gunshot wounds in America. After the prohibition of the “Gun Control Act of 1968,” there was a massive increase in homicide and suicide. Because there are so many shootings and unnecessary death today everywhere in the United States because of guns, the nation should adopt a universal gun control system enforcing stricter gun control laws, including background checks and permits.
Alpers, Philip and Marcus Wilson. 2013. Guns in the United States: Facts, Figures and Firearm Law. Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. GunPolicy.org, 14 March.10 April 2013.http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states
Firstly, stricter laws will reduce violence, and gun control means crime control. There are some countries in the world that have introduced stricter laws and were successful to control the crimes ...
Gun violence is one of the United States' most serious crime problems. The total cost of gun violence in the United States, including medical, criminal justice, and other government and private costs, is at least $6 to $12 billion a year (Cook, P. J. & Ludwig, J., 2000). The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) mission is to track firearms. It reported that firearms sales have risen since 2005. According to the ATF Online Statistics website, in 2005, ATF processed 147,484 National Firearms Act forms.... ...