Gun Control

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Means of Self-Defense,” “few homeowners have enough warning to arm themselves with their own weapons [in order to resist an attacker].” Many people who own guns and keep firearms in the home, few actually use them or threaten an intruder with a firearm to resist the intruder. Few out of the many who own and keep a gun in their home, actually use or threaten an intruder with it to resist the attack. Most uses of self defense occur in 31 states, where armed citizens are permitted to carry and own a concealed gun. Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz, authors of Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, express, “By this time there seems little legitimate scholarly reason to doubt that defensive gun use is very common in the U.S., and that it probably is substantially more common than criminal gun use….There are far more gun-owning crime victims than there are gun-owning criminals.” Relating back to, the only thing that can top a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. About 40% of homes in the United States have a gun(s). Self defense is claimed to be the most used explanation of gun violence studies, while some studies disprove the claims and state the chances of more crimes are greater, for example, when a gun is in the home during a home invasion.

Even though guns can be used as an effective means of self defense, there is a debate that they are more used for other shootings than protecting yourself. When shootings occur (nationally or just locally recognized), they make people want to buy a gun for protection. They think guns can protect them. By doing so, they are increasing the chances of the buyer or their family being shot. Smartgunlaws.org states, that in 2010 alone, about 31,000 Americans lost their lives due to shootings. About 62% of those deaths were from suicides, 35% were from homicides, and 12% were unintentional shootings. These statistics disprove how self defense is common. According to guncite.com, “contrary to myth that using a gun in self-defense is more likely to result in injury or death to the victim or innocent bystanders and fail to successfully thwart the crime rather than the criminal, the evidence, as opposed to selective anecdotes, suggests the opposite.” Self defense may not always be ruled during court. Inadequate training also leads to failure when trying to defend one’s self. If you buy a gun and never learn how to use it, you are now putting not only yourself, but everyone around you. Gun are used for self defense on the daily, but the difference of effectiveness that is argued is when you have someone who is trained and one who is not. When a person does not know how to use an object properly, does the end result always come out positive? More no than yes, which leads to injuries, deaths, and crime rates to go up. Guns are an effective means of self defense if used properly, but even so, they are a threat to the ‘intruder.’ “Nevertheless, there does not appear to be any increase in injury due to defensive gun use that counterbalances its greater effectiveness in avoiding property loss,” guncite.com says.

From self defense to everyday violence in the streets, America is faced with high crime rates relating to guns. According to the FBI, in 2012, there were 8,855 total firearm-related homicides in the US. 60% of the murders committed in the United States are by the use of guns. “It is no wonder that more gun crimes occur in a society which has a higher proportion

of people possessing guns,” says guncrimestatistics.com.

When faced with gun violence and debates all over the country, our government needs to find a way to decrease the gun violence and make our country safer. “If guns really kept us safe, the United States would be the safest nation in the world, since we own an estimated 270 million firearms-approximately 90 guns for every 100 people,” states database “Stronger Gun Control Will Save Lives.” Although we own millions of guns, it’s not the guns that keep us safe, but the intentions of the people. Gun control will not save lives, because those who want a gun, will get a gun and those with bad intentions will have bad intentions.” They’re called criminals, because they do not follow the law. Implementing more laws would only affect the law-abiding citizens. If someone has the intentions of shooting up a public place, even with stronger background checks, or not being able to purchase multiple guns at once, it will not stop the crazed person. Gun control laws will not save lives, because it’s not the guns that are doing the wrong, it is the people. The mentally-ill man that decided to kill people is the problem, not the gun he used. This side of the argument is stronger, because even though statistically, more laws may, or will, help decrease death rates, it will not drastically help it so much that the United States has no longer an issue with gun violence. It is not going to eliminate all gun related crimes, the laws will not eliminate all guns, and the laws will not eliminate all people who should not have a weapon, so the laws will not save lives.

The NRA’s slogan says it best, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Although, guns do play the major role of doing the actual killing, a human needs to pull the trigger, a human needs to have the intentions and feelings in his/her heart to kill someone. Saying guns kill people is saying a fork makes someone eat more. Gun control has and most likely always be a heated issue in the United States. Between not being able to ban guns from citizens, because it goes against the Constitution our very own founding fathers made, being a bad thing, to not being able to ban guns, because our country being heavily populated with armed people keeps our homeland safe, as a good thing. Between 60% of gun related deaths are due to suicides, but people believe stricter laws will save lives. The fact of the matter is, no law can keep a father from accidentally shooting his kid, because he wasn’t properly using it right; no law can stop a madman from forcing his own mother to get him guns out of a safe, then killing her, and then shooting up a school; no law can prevent the unexpected and no law can prevent intentions unknown. All laws against guns will only restrict good men, and then when faced upon bad people, they will have no protection. Gun control laws will not save lives, or even so drastically, because it just can’t. They might get a gun out of the hands of a teenage gang member, but if someone truly wants a gun, they will find a way to get one, with or without