Examining Gun Control: Individual Rights vs Public Safety

1412 Words3 Pages

Gun Control As actor Vince Vaughn once said, “I support people having a gun in public full stop, not just in your home. We don 't have the right to bear arms because of burglars; we have the right to bear arms to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government. It 's not about duck hunting; it 's about the ability of the individual. It 's the same reason we have freedom of speech. It 's well known that the greatest defence against an intruder is the sound of a gun hammer being pulled back. All these gun shootings that have gone down in America since 1950, only one or maybe two have happened in non-gun-free zones. Take mass shootings. They 've only happened in places that don 't allow guns. These people are sick in the head and …show more content…

In Brazil there are various gun bans in place, and there is almost three times as many violent crimes such as murder, assault, and robbery. However in Switzerland, they have virtually the lowest amount of gun restrictions, and also have the third lowest amount of gun related crimes. It just goes to show that the more restrictions are in place, the more violence. An example of this is Chicago. In Chicago, there had been a handgun and concealed carry permit ban in the city since 1982. Chicago had one of the worst murder rates in the country, and eventually surpassed New York in having the most violence. December of 2012 changed all that, a court of appeals overruled the gun ban, and the city implemented a concealed carry program. People were finally able to arm and protect themselves. Within six months after the concealed carry permits were issued, Chicago’s murder rate hit a 56 year low. Two years after the citizens were able to own firearms, burglaries are down by 20%, auto theft rates have dropped by 26%, and robberies leading to arrests are down by …show more content…

Why do some people believe that it is the guns doing all the killing? Are they able to magically come to life, load themselves, and go on a shooting spree all on their own? If so, all my guns must be defective because that’s never occurred in my home. If someone fires a gun at a human being will it kill that person? It surely will, but it isn’t the gun’s decision: it is the operator’s. It is all about the operator’s state of mind. If I were out doing recreational shooting at a target, having fun, with a benevolent frame of mind then I’m not going to deliberately kill anyone. On the contrary, if I am a nut job out to kill people for whatever sick, sadistic reason then that gun is in the wrong hands and is just as dangerous as the person wielding it. Even if you take away the firearms, murders still occur. Take for example a story my teacher, Laura Gelwicks, told the class. She told us that she lived in Missouri for a short while, and in the time she lived there that there were seven murders, and none of them were with a firearm. One of them was when four people were bludgeoned to death with a hammer over a mere 30 dollars. It just goes to show that if a human being has the motive to kill someone so badly, they will find a way. Personally, I believe a gunshot would be a much more pleasant way to die than being bludgeoned to death with a

Open Document