Thursday, March 24, 2016

Gun Control: A Controversial Issue by Mons Skoglund


It was a warm winter day in San Bernardino and everybody’s day was going by normally when all of a sudden… Boom! A gunshot was heard across the entire city. Boom! Another one. Boom Boom Boom! Three more shots. It continued a few hours more and after it was over, it was silent, it was the sound of many lost lives, it was the sound of death. The air was as cold as the souls of the people behind the trigger. After investigating policeman counted 14 dead and 22 severely injured. One of the kids, Jackson Smith was shot and killed. He had a rich full life ahead of him and in less than a second it was taken away from him. This is why gun control is such a big issue in America. People argue that if Jackson had a gun then he could have been able to defend himself, but my argument is that with gun control then the terrorists would not have had access to the guns that they used in the first place. I am trying to convince American citizens, especially Congress, that it should be illegal to own a gun so that there would be less deaths and injuries caused by guns. I am against guns because: a lot of people use guns for suicide, criminals get their hands on guns with little restriction, and their main purpose is for killing.

My first reason is that a lot of people use guns for suicide. All around the world people attempt suicide and it is with a gun most of the time. Assault or Homicide.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. February 6, 2015. Web. March 18, 2016. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6.7 people out of 100,000 in the US will commit suicide with a gun, that is a little more than half of all suicides which adds up to 13 people for every 100,000. That means that if you meet 100,000 people, then about 13 of them will commit suicide and about 6 or 7 will use a gun. If we eliminate guns then we eliminate about half of all suicides in the US. Therefore, should ban guns in America.

My second reason is that criminals get their hands on guns with little restriction. If you were a criminal and you were planning on robbing a store with a gun, then you could just go and buy a gun and nobody would care. “Assault or Homicide.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. February 6, 2015. March 18, 2016. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11,208 people died because of homicide in 2013, that is only about a third of all gun deaths in 2013 which adds adds up to 33,636 deaths. This means that if that percentage is measured in San Francisco about 88 or 89 people would die. There is about a 6% chance that you would know one of them or have heard of them. Imagine losing someone because of a gun, now imagine if gun control existed and that guns were banned. Then that person would still be alive. If gun control existed then we wouldn’t have this problem.

My third and final reason why we should ban guns is because their main purpose is to kill people. Most people know that guns were created to kill people and to this day their sole purpose remains. “The purpose of a gun” Daily Kos. September 30, 2013. March 18, 2016. According to Daily Kos Member 'brooklynbadboy', “The purpose of a gun is to kill people. Or animals in some cases. That is the purpose. That is what it is designed for. That is what they do. The killing of people is its SOLE PURPOSE.” What the author is trying to say is that the main purpose for guns is killing people. We need to get rid of guns because they were made to kill people which is bad. With killing machines on the streets, of course we have a problem with guns.

Some might say that a small percentage of the population actually kills. In a CNN report, they said, “Do we want to make laws for millions based on the choices of fewer than 40 evildoers?” Jacobson, Louis. “More Americans killed by guns since 1968 than in all U.S.” Pundit Fact. Tampa Bay Times, August 27, 2015. March 18, 2016. The comment that CNN posted is completely false because according to Pundit Fact, who actually adds up the numbers, more than 1.5 million people were killed in the US due to gun violence which is about 120 thousand more than war related deaths due to gun violence.



“Second Amendment.” Cornell University Law School. March 18, 2016. According to Cornell University Law School, the 2nd amendment states, “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,” and many argue for it and use it as an argument against gun control. I disagree with them because the bill of rights is based on interpretation and is outdated. It was created for people before there was a military established by the government. Congress is always trying to update the old and outdated laws and I believe that they should update the 2nd amendment to a more modern law.

As I said in the beginning, I am against guns because: a lot of people use guns for suicide, criminals get their hands on guns with little restriction, and their main purpose is for killing. If you don’t feel like this matters to you then just imagine somebody you care about getting shot and killed. We need to get signatures and impose a new law stating that the second amendment is outdated and we need to fix it and ban guns.

No comments:

Post a Comment