Alex Nieto was a man who was loved by many people and was shot dead a few years ago. I didn’t know him personally but my non-fictions teacher was good friends with him. This has affected me because I would be heartbroken if someone who I knew was killed. Today we are faced with a major problem, gun control. There is an easy way to deal with but it seems as if people are only trying to deal with it when there has been a major shooting at a school or someone has been shot . I believe that the government should make it illegal for an ex convict or a mentally disturbed person to own a gun in order to reduce violent crime because a guns only purpose is to kill people or things, there is no reason why any ex-con or mentally disturbed man or woman should have an assault rifle, less violence has happened in countries that have banned guns and the amendment was made a long time ago and guns have become more dangerous, and now they are used for different purposes.
The government should make it illegal for an ex convict or a mentally disturbed person to own a gun in order to reduce violent crime because a guns only purpose is to kill people or things. According to “How Many Shootings Will It Take for America to Control Its Guns?,” Will Oremus says, “On April 28, 1996, a gunman opened fire on tourists in a seaside resort in Port Arthur, Tasmania. By the time he was finished, he had killed 35 people and wounded 23 more. It was the worst mass murder in Australia’s history. Twelve days later, Australia’s government did something remarkable. Led by newly elected conservative Prime Minister John Howard, it announced a bipartisan deal with state and local governments to enact sweeping gun-control measures. Fifteen years later, the results show that these policies worked really, really well.” This is stating that only twelve days after a mass murder the Australian government banned it’s guns and now there is less deaths. This matters because if North America were to ban it’s guns, or limit the users, we will have a much safer country.
Another reason that the government should make it illegal for an ex convict or a mentally disturbed person to own a gun in order to reduce violent crime because there is no reason why any ex-con or mentally disturbed man or woman should have an assault rifle. “Slate.com” says that, “ A November 2012 Congressional Research Service report found that, as of 2009, there were approximately 310 million firearms in the United States: 114 million handguns, 110 million rifles, and 86 million shotguns.” What this is saying is that as of 2011 there is over 300 million guns in North America, the population of USA in 2015 was 320 Million people. That almost 1 gun per person! This matters because the government wants to make this country safer but we have failed to get rid of guns. How is is safe when almost everyone in this country has a gun, I would not feel safe.
The last reason that I have for why the government to make it illegal for an ex convict or a mentally disturbed person to own a gun in order to reduce violent crime is less violence has happened in countries that have banned guns and the amendment was made a long time ago and guns have become more dangerous, and now they are used for different purposes. As I said earlier about the Australian government banning guns is that now there is much less violence and deaths in Australia. According to the “Google Dictionary,” “An amendment is a minor change in a document.” To me, having a law, amendment, stating that it is the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, is not a minor change. And as far as I know, you can change an amendment.
Some people might say that the guns they use are for hunting but, According to “cns news.com”, “‘There were 13.7 million hunters in the United States over age 16 -- 12.7 million of whom used rifles, shotguns or handguns for hunting,’ according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That means hunters constituted only 15.9 to 18.1 percent of the estimated 70-80 million gun owners in the U.S. in 2011.” Although, there is many people that do use guns for hunting, this is not a good argument because there is still 300 million other gun owners not accounted for.
Some people might say that criminals also use different weapons for murders but, this is a weak argument because according to, “The Richest.com,” “The most used murder weapon is the firearm, as of 2012 8,855 deaths were caused by a firearm.” This means that criminals and murderers firearms to kill or get away from a crime scene the most because it looks the most dangerous and can kill someone with one shot.
Gun control has made this country a much more dangerous place to live now there are some people that want us to own guns for “protection” reasons. I feel that the only way that we can deal with this is by restricting the amount of guns available and a background check to see if you are an ex-con or have mental problems, and they won’t be able to own a gun. This will benefit us because these people are the most likely to misuse a gun. We can also open “buy-backs”,you bring your guns and you sell them to the government without a risk of prosecution. This can only be done if we are willing to make this happen.
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