On December 14, 2012, an event known as the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting occurred. This tragic incident began when 20-year-old Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School wearing a bulletproof vest, and carrying 2 pistols, a shotgun, and an assault rifle, and shot and killed 20 6-7 year olds, as well as 6 staff members. Before driving to the school, Lanza fatally shot his mother at their house in Newtown, Connecticut. When the first group of policemen finally arrived at the scene, Lanza took his own life by shooting himself in the head. After Sandy Hook, politicians began thinking about whether the government should ban guns or not. Since then, there have been many debates about whether America should increase gun security or fully prohibit guns. I think that the government should pass gun control laws because there is no reason why any citizen should have a gun, less violence has happened in countries that have banned guns, and thousands of people die from gun violence every year. We can reduce or eliminate gun related deaths by just adding gun restrictions.
One significant reason why the government should pass gun control laws is that less gun violence has happened in countries that have banned guns. In an article written about gun control, Will Oremus makes the case that Australia banned guns and it went really well. For instance, when he says, “Several academic studies have studied what happened next. Violent crime and gun-related deaths did not come to an end in Australia, of course. But as the Washington Post’s Wonkblog pointed out last August , homicides by firearm dropped 59 percent between 1995 and 2006, with no increase in non-firearm-related homicides. Suicides by gun dropped by 65 percent.”(How many shootings will it take for America to control it’s guns, paragraph 5). This quote shows that when Australia banned guns, firearm violence dropped by a lot. And when he also says, “In the decade before the Port Arthur massacre, there had been 11 mass shootings in the country. There hasn’t been a single one in Australia since.”(How many shootings will it take for America to control it’s guns, paragraph 5). This explained when Australia banned guns, it helped stop mass shootings and massacres. These pieces of evidence show how the government should make it illegal to own a gun so that they can make there be more gun control in the U.S, and therefore have less people be a victim to gun violence by providing proof that when other countries banned guns, it very effectively helped stop gun violence.
Another reason why the government should increase gun control laws is that there is no reason why any citizen should own a gun. In an article written about the pros and cons of gun control, an anonymous author writes about the pro sides of having gun control. Like when the text says,”More gun control leads to fewer suicides .Between 1999 and 2013 there were 270,237 firearm suicides in the United States, accounting for about 52% of all suicides during those years. [4] According to a Mar. 2014 study published in the International Review of Law and Economics, when gun ownership went down in the United States, overall suicide rates went down. [30] [31] Firearm-related suicides accounted for 61% of the gun deaths in the United States between 2000 and 2010. [18] A Dec. 2009 study published in Health Policy, found ‘general barrier to firearm access created through state regulation can have a significant deterrent effect on male suicide rates in the United States. Permit requirements and bans on sales to minors were the most effective of the regulations analyzed.’ [32] A person who wants to kill him/herself is unlikely to commit suicide with poison or a knife when a gun is unavailable. [33]”(Pros and Cons, paragraph 22). This piece of the text shows that it is a danger for a citizen to own a gun. And when the author also says, “Enacting gun control laws such as mandatory safety features would reduce the number of accidental gun deaths. Approximately 50% of unintentional fatal shootings were self-inflicted; and most unintentional firearm deaths were caused by friends or family members. [18] [4] According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the National Physicians Alliance, states with the highest concentration of guns have nine times the amount of accidental gun deaths and "89% of unintentional shooting deaths of children occur in the home—and most of these deaths occur when children are playing with a loaded gun in their parents’ absence."[34] The US General Accounting Office (GAO) estimated that 31% of total accidental shooting deaths could have been prevented by installing safety devices on guns: 100% of deaths per year in which a child under 6 years old shoots and kills him/herself or another child could be prevented by automatic childproof safety locks; and 23% of accidental shooting deaths by adolescents and adults per year could be prevented by loading indicators showing when a bullet was in the chamber ready to be fired. [35] Marjorie Sanfilippo, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Eckerd College who has researched children’s behavior around guns, stated, "We put gates around swimming pools to keep children from drowning. We put safety caps on medications to keep children from poisoning themselves… [Because children are naturally curious and impulsive, and because we have shown time and again that we cannot 'gun-proof' them with education, we have a responsibility to keep guns out of the hands of children." [36]”(Pros and Cons, paragraph 23). This statistic confirms that it very dangerous for a citizen to have a gun in their home. With these pieces of evidence, you can see how dangerous it is for an average citizen to own a gun because not only does it danger yourself in many ways, but it also the dangers other people around you, like your family and friends. This helps supports the argument that the government should pass gun control laws by showing how dangerous things could happen when a civilian owns a gun, as well keeping it in your house.
And my final reason is that thousands of people die from gun violence every year. In an article written about the pros and cons of gun control, an anonymous author writes about the pro sides of having gun control. For example, when the article says,” In an article written about the pros and cons of gun control, an anonymous author writes about the pro sides of having gun control.”(How many shootings will it take for America to control it’s guns, paragraph 9). And when the text also says, “More gun control laws would reduce gun deaths. There were 464,033 total gun deaths between 1999 and 2013: 270,237 suicides (58.2% of total deaths); 174,773 homicides (37.7%); and 9,983 unintentional deaths (2.2%). [4] Guns were the leading cause of death by homicide (66.6% of all homicides) and by suicide (52.2% of all suicides). Firearms were the 12th leading cause of all deaths, representing 1.3% of total deaths topping liver disease, hypertension, and Parkinson’s disease, as well as deaths from fires, drowning, and machinery accidents. [4] David Frum, Daily Beast and CNN contributor, stated, ‘American children under age 15 were nine times more likely to die of a gun accident than children in other advanced wealthy countries… About 200 Americans go to emergency rooms every day with gunshot wounds.’ [5] A study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that ‘legal purchase of a handgun appears to be associated with a long-lasting increased risk of violent death’ [6]”(Pros and Cons, paragraph 10). These pieces of evidence demonstrates how many people die from gun violence every year. This helps prove the argument that the government should pass gun control laws by showing how not having gun control laws causes a lot more people to die from gun violence.
One argument that other people have is that people use guns for self-protection. For example, in a paragraph of an article called Pros and Cons, when the text says,”Gun control laws infringe upon the right to self-defense and deny people a sense of safety. According to the National Rifle Association (NRA), guns are used for self-defense 2.5 million times a year. [57] The police cannot protect everyone all of the time. 61% of men and 56% of women surveyed by Pew Research said that stricter gun laws would "make it more difficult for people to protect their homes and families." [58] Nelson Lund, JD, PhD, Professor at George Mason University School of Law, stated, "The right to self-defense and to the means of defending oneself is a basic natural right that grows out of the right to life" and "many [gun control laws] interfere with the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves against violent criminals." [59] Constitutions in 37 US states protect the right to bear arms for self-defense, most with explicit language such as Alabama's: "every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state." [60] [61] Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the NRA, stated, ‘The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.’ [62] A May 9, 2013 48% of convicted felons surveyed admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they knew the victim was armed with a gun. [63] Pew Foundation report found that 79% of male gun owners and 80% of female gun owners said owning a gun made them feel safer and 64% of people living in a home in which someone else owns a gun felt safer. [58] Even Senator Dianne Feinstein, a gun control advocate, carried a concealed gun when her life was threatened and her home attacked by the New World Liberation Front in the 1970s. [64]”(Pros and Cons, paragraph 6). But this is a weak argument because the citizens that own guns rarely use it for self defence. Like when the text also says,”Guns are rarely used in self-defense. Of the 29,618,300 violent crimes committed between 2007 and 2011, 0.79% of victims (235,700) protected themselves with a threat of use or use of a firearm, the least-employed protective behavior. [16] In 2010 there were 230 "justifiable homicides" in which a private citizen used a firearm to kill a felon, compared to 8,275 criminal gun homicides (or, 36 criminal homicides for every ‘justifiable homicide’).[17] Of the 84,495,500 property crimes committed between 2007 and 2011, 0.12% of victims (103,000) protected themselves with a threat of use or use of a firearm. [16]”(Pros and Cons, paragraph 20). This proves why the self-defence argument is not a good argument.
And some people might also say that guns don’t kill people, people do. But this argument is also weak because even though people are the ones that are killing, it would be a lot harder to kill people without a gun.
I think that the government should pass additional gun control laws because there is no reason why any citizen should have a gun, less violence has happened in countries that have banned guns, and thousands of people die from gun violence every year. We should care about this issue because gun related deaths are increasing, and it is becoming more and more apparent that we need to stop these horrible incidents. With just a few limitations on who can buy guns, where, and other minor details, we could eradicate firearm-affiliated deaths and injuries, a relief to anyone concerned with public safety, the wellbeing of a loved one, or even just their own life. A study done by The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence showed that states with stricter gun laws had notably lower injuries, proving that we can save lives by simply intensifying the current restrictions. Everything points to heightened firearm constraints, which will lend to a safer country.
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