What would be flashing through your mind if you were at a coffee shop and a maniacal psychopath appeared and began firing at innocent people? At your family? You would be afraid for yourself and the lives of those most precious to you; but would you be thinking that if the government made guns illegal, this would never have happened? Certainly not! You would have probably thought that if you were permitted a handgun, you could not only have protected your family and yourself, but others around you as well. Many people are asking whether carrying guns are a helpful tool that many of us have been saying they are. Some people think handguns are the cause to the many crimes and injuries. Others say that our society would be safer without citizens carrying guns out on the streets. In my views, I am convinced that guns help in disasters when help is so far away. Not only that, but guns have already been permitted in all fifty states except Washington DC. Rather than restricting guns and gun owners, we should be given the freedom to have the ability to carry guns in order to protect ourselves and others around us through the use of firearms. In Making Gun Control Happen the author, Patrick Keefe, writes as a supporter to gun control. He states that one obvious change would be to “mandate a criminal background check for all gun purchases” in order to stop criminals from obtaining a weapon. [Keefe] Although obviously what criminals do best is break laws, as a result they would probably smuggle guns illegally anyways. The idea of the background check is to distinguish the responsible, law abiding citizens from the crooks and thugs. Therefore it is a great example of the many wrong things with gun control. The second amendment says, "A we... ... middle of paper ... ... N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2013 Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, "Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun," (903 KB) Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Autumn 1995 Gary Kleck, Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control, 1997 John Lott, Jr., More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-control Laws, 2000 Making Gun Control Happen." The New Yorker. PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, 16 Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Dec. 2013. Tom Loewy, "Local Group Lobbies for Gun Rights," Register-Mail, Mar. 12, 2010 William E. Sturdevant, PE, "An Analysis of the Arrest Rate of Texas Concealed Handgun License _ Holders As Compared to the Arrest Rate of The Entire Texas Population," (299 KB) www.txchia.org, Sep. 1, 2000 Winkler, Adam. "The Second Amendment Is All for Gun Control." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, Feb.-Mar. 2013. Web. 17 Dec. 2013.
Moorhouse, John C., and Brent Wanner. "Does Gun Control Reduce Crime or Does Crime Increase Gun Control?" CATO Journal 26.1 (2006): 103-24. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 15 June 2015.
Although the Second Amendment prevents the federal government from completely banning guns in America, limited restrictions are allowed on the distribution and possession of firearms. Certain groups of people such as criminals, the mentally unstable, and soldiers dishonorably discharged from the military are prohibited from possessing or interacting with firearms (Flynn). These restrictions are enforced by background checks in some states on both a state and federal level. However, gun laws vary from state to state and are often not thorough enough; the background checks are flawed due to lack of information and misinformation, and guns can easily end up in the hands of criminals and malevolent individuals. The ease of obtaining a firearm in America fosters crime and a dangerous environment. Hence, the Second Amendment should be reinterpreted so that stricter gun laws can be implemented because modern citizens do not require guns, current background checks are flawed, gun...
In the United States of America, there is much debate about the effectiveness and practicality of concealed firearms. Many citizens today are trying to support their claim with old, outdated evidence and targeted research to attempt to prove a point, but can not escape the truth. Although Concealed firearms may sound appealing to reduce crime rates and stop violence, new evidence suggests otherwise. Recently there has been trends of certain lunatics who own guns that decide to shoot innocent people, justifying the need for more strict gun control laws. The purpose of this paper is to educate and inform about the immensely important topic of concealed firearms, with focus on what effect it has on society and crime rates. We will go over modern
People have questioned gun control long time. Many people wonder if anyone, aside from those who join the law force, should be allowed to carry guns. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” (Wright 4). Franklin understood that taking guns away from law-abiding citizens would not uphold their liberty. Some people who argue for gun control state many violent crimes involve guns. Others believe a child could find the gun and something bad could happen to the child or others when a gun is unsafely stored. People who argue against gun control might say there is a huge psychological gap between citizens who shoot to protect themselves or their property and those who go into schools and shoot at others. Criminals will always find a way around gun control laws and will be able to obtain and use guns illegally. The second amendment protects gun rights for individual citizens. Reasonable gun control laws and educational steps can be taken to protect the majority of U.S. citizens. Gun control does not only take guns away from criminals, gun control also limits law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves and their families when necessary.
In America guns have been a part of the country’s society since it’s birth. Throughout history the citizens of the US have used firearms to protect the nation, protect their families, hunt for food and engage in sporting activities. The issue of Guns and gun control is complex. Weighing the rights and liberties of the individual against the welfare and safety of the public has always been a precarious balancing act. In the United States, gun control is one of these tumultuous issues that has both sides firmly entrenched in their positions. Those parties in favor of gun ownership and the freedom to use and keep arms, rely on the fact that the provision for such rights is enshrined in their constitution. In this climate of growing violence, rife with turmoil and crime, gun advocates feel more than ever that their position is justified. As citizens of the “Land of the Free” possessing a gun is a fundamental right, and may even be a necessity... Anti- gun lobbyists point to the same growing violence and gun related crimes in an effort to call on the government to take action. By enacting more laws and stricter control, these people not in favor of guns feel society would be better safer.
Gun control activists claim that banning handgun purchases will reduce murder and other gun related crimes. However, cases where handguns were declared illegal were shown to be ineffective. During the years in which the Washington, D.C. handgun ban and trigger lock law were in effect, the Washington, D.C. murder rate averaged 73% higher than it was at the outset of the law, while the U.S. murder rate averaged 11% lower (Agresti and Smith). Not only in Washington, D.C. was this banning of guns unsuccessful, but also in Chicago. Since the outset of the Chicago handgun ban, the percentage of Chicago murders committed with handguns has averaged about 40% higher than it was before the law took effect (Agresti and Smith). Chicago has recently been named the nation’s murder capital by the FBI and had about as many murders in 2012 as the entire country of Japan, further demonstrating how these ordinances are ineffective. More than 8.5 million Americans legally carry concealed handguns, yet only at a rate of less of 1% do they commit fire...
Guns do not kill people, people do. The American Dream is being able to work towards and achieve whatever makes you happy, whether it be owning your own business, joining the military, or staying at home raising a family, but the only way to reach your dream is to do it without living in fear that your dream will be taken away. In the last couple years mass shootings and attacks on schools have sadly become a common tragedy. Those who have been victims of public shootings or any other life scarring event due to a criminal, along with anyone else who has watched the coverage of the tragedies on the news is somewhat living in fear, but if concealed carry laws were passed then living in fear would be significantly lowered along with crime rates. According to Mike Miller, author of What Happened to Chicago’s Murder Rate After Illinois Upheld Concealed Carry and Why it Matters, “three to four crimes are stopped by a handgun than are committed in the United States every year” (Miller). People would feel much safer knowing they would be able to defend themselves if the time ever arose. When we think or hear about guns most of us jump to the negative effects and stories we have heard. The only stories we hear about guns are how a person’s life has ended because of it, but we never hear how they save a person’s life. It is important to remember the commonly used phrase when talking about concealed carry, “Guns do not kill people, people do.” However, guns are an effective way of protection and states should not make stricter gun control laws because it is ineffective and creates additional problems in today’s violent society.
“It is estimated that there are 310 million non – military guns in America” (O’Brien and Stanton). Many people that own a firearm usually have more than one gun. Also, a majority of gun owners feel that owning a firearm is the best way to protect themselves at home. With the large number of guns said to be in America, there needs to be a way to prevent the number of frequently occurring mass shootings. The solution to this issue is called gun control. Gun control needs to be implied more in our society because gun related crimes are mostly committed by those diagnosed with mental illnesses, there is no contradiction with the second amendment, it has the ability to lower the amount of mass shootings in the United States, and universal background checks help prevent mass shootings.
It is also a belief that requiring background checks for individuals purchasing weapons at gun shows will stop criminals from possessing guns. This is another misconception. There are over 240 million guns in America. Over 40 percent of all homes in the United States have guns. (Cannon) It would be impossible to enforce any type of legislation to control all of these guns. (Barone) Criminals will be able to obtain guns regardless of any new legislation that is enacted. An example of one of these new laws is the "one gun a month law" that is being introduced in Congress. (Bai 30) Supporters of this law want to make it so no one can purchase more than one gun a month. The intention is that criminals will not be able to go out and buy a bunch of weapons at once and commit a crime. This is ludicrous. The children that committed the high school shootings, and many other crimes that involve guns, were committed with guns that were obtained illegally. (Cloud 35) The only people that will suffer from the "one gun a month law" are the gun manufactures. (Bai 30) This is a bill that is designed to slow their sales and to hurt them financially.
Goldberg, J 2012, 'The Case for More Guns (And More Gun Control)', Atlantic Monthly (10727825), 310, 5, pp. 68-78, Literary Reference Center, EBSCOhost, viewed 7 Oct. 2015.
Zimring, Franklin E. �Firearms, Violence, and the Potential Impact of Firearms Control.� Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 32.1(2004): 34-37.
For years proposals for gun control and the ownership of firearms have been among the most controversial issues in modern American politics. The public debate over guns in the United States is often seen as having two side. Some people passionately assert that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns while others assert that the Second Amendment does no more than protect the right of states to maintain militias. There are many people who insist that the Constitution is a "living document" and that circumstances have changed in regard to an individual’s right to bear arms that the Second Amendment upholds. The Constitution is not a document of total clarity and the Second Amendment is perhaps one of the worst drafted of all its amendments and has left many Americans divided over the true intent.
Ian Ayres and John J. Donohue III, ‘Shooting Down the “More Guns, Less Crime” Hypothesis’ (2003) Stanford Law Review 1193.
The discussion about gun control is far-gone, and America should enact laws that will require gun owners to register their firearms. A background check on every citizen bearing a gun is necessary so that guns do not land in the arms of felons and the mentally ill. Thinking that people can use guns to fight for their liberty is a far gone idea that needs a second thought. However, gun control is not the only solution because it is necessary to educate the population on the risks of keeping guns and asking them to remit the guns at their own will.
Imagine if you will, society that is so plagued with crime that its citizens are afraid to step out of their homes for fear of being a victim of a violent crime. With no way to protect themselves or their families, they are at the whim of the criminals that prey on them. Next imagine a society where it is virtually crime free, free of any types of violent crimes, one is able to leave the front door unlock and return home without worrying if there has been a burglary. Although these scenarios are to the extreme it is a reality to some extent as to the conditions here in the State of California at the present time, where a law abiding citizen cannot legally protect themselves in everyday life from the preying few that society has labeled criminals. Unlike other states in the nation California does not issue Concealed Weapons Permits in a consistent fair manner, therefore depending on the location of one’s residence it could determine if a citizen has a higher chance of becoming a victim without being able to have the choice to defend one’s self. It is this author’s belief that Concealed Weapons Permits do lower the crime rate by being a deterrence of criminal activity that fear the repercussions of facing a citizen that is armed and well trained in the use of the weapon of choice.