In today’s society the issues on gun violence and gun control have been stronger than ever. Sparking this great debate involves the “gun grabbers” and the “gun nuts” who work endlessly to enforce stricter gun laws or to abolish the second amendment and citizen’s rights to bear arms. Both sides agree that there is a gun problem: the United States has the highest rate of firearm suicide and homicide among industrialized countries. An estimated 34,000 Americans die from gunshot wounds per year (Kaplan & Geling). The two sides have philosophically contradictory solutions to the problem, a divide that is only widened by emotionally charged stories of gun violence like in Aurora, Colorado and Newton, Connecticut.
Gun grabbers think the gun problem should be solved by taking away all guns, thus making gun regulation an important step in ensuring Americans’ safety. Gun nuts believe the opposite, arguing that gun ownership is a preventative factor for gun violence. If everyone had a firearm, people would be able to defend themselves, and criminals would be less likely to commit gun crime out of fear of being shot in the process (Winkler 76). The U.S. Constitution promises that the government will protect U.S. citizens and their natural born rights. “The Bill of Rights explicitly states U.S. citizens’ unalienable rights, one of which is the right to bear arms.
The second 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. (Winkler, A. (2011). The government shouldn’t induce more gun control, if they do so, then the government would be infringing upon the second amendment, failing to properly address violence, and infracting upon the freedom to own guns for hunting and sport. An increase in gun control will not solve the violence issues although people insist it will. However, criminals already obtain guns illegally. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” It’s time we explore new solutions to this problem such as better mental health awareness, instead of imposing stricter gun laws.
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Gun Grabbers tend to want all handguns banned although in reality that’s unlikely vs the gun nuts who wish to solve America’s gun issues with guns. During a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises on July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred inside the Century 16 Movie Theater located in Aurora, Colorado that resulted in 12 fatalities.( A short five months another mass shooting occurred in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14th that killed 28 people. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2012) In my personal opinion, I’m all for supporting the Second Amendment that protects the U.S. citizen’s rights to possess firearms for lawful purposes such as self-defense within a citizen’s home and anywhere in public that legally allows you to open carry. The real question is, can these arguments over gun control reach a reasonable solution to what seems like an endless problem?
When I go back and think of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, if there had been guns for trained security on staff or police men for the school’s defense, the amount of those innocent lives killed could have been significantly reduced. As Adam Lanza entered the building with his evil intentions known, someone trained and armed could have had the ability to stop him from opening fire at the school. Gun control laws should be loosened up a bit because not only do they violate the Constitution/ citizen’s rights, decrease protection, and it is proven that gun control laws only result in more mass shootings and defenseless people have to suffer because of it resulting in losing their life due to a senseless act.
Imagine the many student who went to school that morning thinking it would be just another normal school day to learn, imagine parent’s not knowing the morning of December 14,2012 would be the last time they got to see their sweet and innocent children’s faces before sending them off to school that morning. The staff on hand had practiced drills not too long before the incident but was that enough? Although the staff was able to shelter in place saving some lives, unfortunately it wasn’t good enough. This mass shooting resulted as one of the deadliest shootings in history.
Gun grabbers may have thought, “ok, we should ban all guns” if so, what more could’ve been done in a situation like this? If you take guns away would the school have enough funding to install metal detectors in all entrances of the school? Would the school have enough funding for a better security system such as all doors automatically lock at a certain time and will not be unlocked unless someone authorized inside of the school gave them access to enter the facility? Could the school afford to hire security and police officers to be on campus grounds to be able to call for immediate help and maybe have had a better chance of not allowing the intruder further into the school? Or, would gun nuts push the issue and say, “Yes, let’s train and educate school staff on how to open carry to be able to defend themselves and the individuals at the school.” If someone would have been armed and near the school entrance when Adam arrived, there would have been a much better chance of taking him down as soon as he stepped foot on the property instead of him making his way through the halls and taking the lives of innocent children and staff members.
In The District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court case found the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 unconstitutional, this influenced individual’s right to keep and bear arms for self-defense of the Second Amendment. This particular court played a huge role in giving the U.S. citizen’s their natural born right to bear arms for the use of self-defense in the privacy of their own home or in approved areas outside their residence. The Heller case is in fact the first court case that defined who can own guns for self-defense.
This case revolved around the Second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution and what it means. I favor the legislation in the Heller court case. For instance in making these situation better drastic measures need to take place in which in most cases, making it harder for individual’s to have access to guns. By these drastic measures I’m talking about enforce the following: “We should make gun owners safer, with comprehensive gun safety education, universal background checks and age limits for purchases. Fingerprint scanners or other technology can restrict a gun’s usage to its proper owner. Guns can be made safer with elements that limit the number of rounds fired per second.” (Webber, 2018)
Five states have ‘red flag’ laws that allow a judge to issue an extreme risk protection order that temporarily restricts a person from owning a gun if family, household members and police can convince them they’re a danger. Gun safety groups say they hold the potential to reduce suicide rates and contain potential violence early on.”(Sarlin, 2018) These are just a few ideas on ideas that states have already started enforcing in helping reduce mass shooting and preventing mentally unstable individual’s access to guns.
In conclusion, not only does the US have more guns than any other country in the world, it also has far more gun deaths than any other developed nation (Lopez 2017). The United States has nearly six times higher of a rate of gun homicide than most countries today. They all point to one fact: Gun control does work to save lives. Last year, researchers from around the country reviewed more than 130 studies from 10 countries on gun control for Epidemiologic Reviews. This is, for now, the most current, extensive review of the research on the effects of gun control. The findings were clear: “The simultaneous implementation of laws targeting multiple firearms restrictions is associated with reductions in firearm deaths (Lopez 2017).” The study did not look at one specific intervention, but rather a variety of kinds of gun control, from licensing measures to buyback programs.
Time and time again, they found the same line of evidence: Reducing access to guns was followed by a drop in deaths related to guns. And while non-gun homicides also decreased, the drop wasn’t as quick as the one seen in gun-related homicides — indicating that access to guns was a potential causal factor (Lopez 2017). The problem with the guns and gun violence in America is it is way too easy now-a-days to get access to guns rather it be buying it off the street illegally or purchasing it from a family or friend. Stricter access to guns could help reduce the rates of homicide in our country today. With that being said, guns tend to be a factor in most cases of violence but they clearly aren’t the only factor. Other factors include being under the influence of alcohol and drugs, robbery, poverty and mental illness.
