Gun Control Paper
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Introduction
Gun control laws have existed in the United States and the world for years. The first federal gun control law in the U.S. was enacted in 1927. The law prohibited the sale of hand-guns privately by the use of mail. However, the crackdown on gun ownership in the U.S. started a century later, when gangsters began having too much access to guns. Regulations were issued imposing criminal penalties and taxes on owners of firearms. Congress also passed the Federal Firearms Act in 1938. This Act required individuals selling guns to register and maintain records of their transactions. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy and other prominent people, the Gun Control Act was passed in 1968. This Act regulated individuals selling firearms and the whole firearm industry as well. Since then, several laws regarding the regulation of guns have been passed. One of them is the assault weapon ban that was part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. This law was intended to help keep assault weapons away from the public to reduce gun violence. Despite the many laws regulating the dealing and ownership of guns, gun control has remained a controversial issue in the United States, sparking a lot of debate. Many people believe that the laws are not enough, and more gun control measures should be introduced to help solve the rising cases of gun violence. More gun control regulations should be passed because they will help save lives by decreasing crimes, which are committed as a result of easy access to firearms.
To understand the need for more gun control regulations in the U.S., one must first understand what gun control is and the current state of the government on gun control. Gun control is generally the law by the government on access to any type of gun to the public. The United States government believes that citizens have the right to own guns. Lack of regulations has led to increased cases of gun violence. The increased rate of violence due to lack of and little gun control regulations is the cause of the debate for action from congress. Numerous cases of mass shootings in schools and public places, as well as the killing of important political leaders, have caused more regulation on gun control. It is also essential to understand the danger that a lack of gun control and possession of firearms poses for every individual. These include children in their homes as well as victims of domestic violence.
Gun control involves the regulation of the sale, possession, and use of firearms by civilians. This has an impact on all individuals who want to own personal firearms for different reasons, such as sports and self-defense. The debate on gun control is mostly about crimes and firearms brought about by civilians’ possession of firearms. Supporters of gun control believe that violent use of firearms and crimes could be prevented through more regulation of gun ownership and sale by the government. While the laws on gun control may seem enough to most people, there is the fear of what lack of more regulatory measures could lead to. This is especially so in the 21st century, which has seen more mass shootings, gun suicides, and gun violence than any other time in history. Most gun retailers seem to be more concerned about making profits from the sale of guns without caring about who the gun ends up with. Some states do not even require one to have a gun ownership permit to own a firearm. This has made people’s access to guns very easy, and guns could easily fall in the arms of criminals and mentally unstable people resulting in their misuse and gun violence.
Many gun control advocates, including politicians, have openly given their opinion about gun violence, campaigning for the need for gun control. In her speech delivered in a gun control rally in Florida held after a gunman killed 17 people in a nearby school, Emma Gonzalez gave various reasons for the need for gun control measures. While guns have developed at an alarming rate, the laws governing the use and ownership of firearms have failed, and that is where the government fails in gun control. The mass shooting in Florida is a clear indication of the government’s need for gun control regulations in Florida. One doesn’t need a permit or license to buy and own a gun. Individuals can hold as many arms as they like. This results in increased violence due to so many guns in the hands of the wrong people. The rights of individuals to own firearms outweigh the rights of others to live. In her speech, Emma Gonzalez reminded people that most pro-gun activists always argue about their rights to own guns while forgetting that the same arms put other people’s lives at risk, including their loved ones.
Most people who are against more gun control regulations are always eager to blame gun violence on other things. For instance, people argued that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed and had even been expelled from school for bad behavior. Everyone who knew him mentioned that he was a very big problem. As is required by the law, such cases must be reported to the authorities to prevent potential harm, and this was done on the shooter. It is therefore easy to argue that the bigger issue here is not on gun control but about a mentally disturbed person deciding to kill his schoolmates. However, as Emma Gonzalez urged, people need to focus on the real issue and acknowledge that this was not just a mental health issue. If the shooter did not have access to the gun, he would not have ended up killing so many people. The students who would have ended up getting hurt if he used a knife, for instance, would be far less. The mentality that guns don’t kill people, but people kill people should be abandoned because there would be far fewer deaths if there were fewer guns available to the people.
There are numerous advantages of gun control measures in society. Gun control will help minimize social risks associated with holding weapons. These risks include accidental gun deaths, mass shootings, and violent conflicts. Every day, the news is filled with news of horrific accidental and non-accidental deaths resulting from guns. Back in 2013, there was a case making the headlines in which a child had accidentally killed its father with a gun. The child took the firearm that belonged to its father and shot him in the back at a parking lot in Wal-Mart. This is not the only accidental gun shooting case in the United States. There are many more such cases where people, especially children, have accidentally shot at themselves and others. Other than accidental shootings, increased arms limitations will allow the government to put more restrain over the ownership of weapons. This will prevent guns from falling into the hands of dangerous people in society, such as the mentally unstable and people with psychopathic behaviors.
Additionally, Gun control measures will help in identifying potential criminals in society. The government will be able to keep track of gun owners and identify those who use them for illegal purposes. The stricter gun control measures should require people to provide a lot of personal information before they are given a permit to own a gun. This way, the government can recognize people who may be criminals or who may be purchasing the firearms for violent purposes based on the personal information they provide. In case a person goes ahead to use the firearm illegally, they will be easily followed and apprehended using the information they provided before they were permitted to purchases and own a gun. Without control measures that enable the tracking of gun owners, criminals will not be afraid of using them illegally because there is very little likely hood of getting caught.
To be able to understand the importance of stricter gun control regulations fully, a comparison of states with stricter gun regulations with those without regulation is needed. Comparing states with strict gun control measures with those without gun control measures shows the need for regulations. There are fewer cases associated with gun violence and firearms deaths in states with strict gun regulations than those without. This is a clear indication that gun control regulations are effective. In states like Alabama, Louisiana, and Alaska, where gun control measures are light, the rate of death by firearms is more than four times greater than in Hawaii, New York, and Connecticut, which have the most strict gun regulations (Schoen, 2018). While more studies are needed to establish the correlation between the two, it is apparent that gun violence prevails where there are fewer gun control regulations.
Gun control measures will help reduce youth involvement in crimes and criminal activities. Easy access to guns has led to increased youth gangs and youths’ involvement in criminal activities. In states where youth gangs prevail, lack of strict gun control measures has led to the young people being able to access guns easily. They mostly use these guns against each other in the streets, leading to numerous cases of death by firearms. Controlling these youth criminals is a hard task for law enforcement. This can be minimized by regulating the sale and ownership of firearms. Strict limitations will help decrease the free circulation of illegal weapons. This will prevent guns from easily falling into the wrong hands. According to research studies by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), almost all guns used by criminals enter into circulation through initial legal transactions (Institute of Medicine, 2013). The legally owned guns end up being stolen and used by criminals in violent acts.
Gun control regulations should be unified across all the states for them to work better. This will make it easier to implement the regulations when they apply across all the states. When some states have less strict gun control regulations than others, it can still be a troublesome thing across states as criminals may purchase firearms in one state and use them in a different one. To ensure a coordinated move, the federal government should introduce strict gun control regulations that apply across all the states. More gun control measures are needed to protect individuals from domestic abuse and stalkers. Guns increase the risks of a woman being murdered in a domestic dispute by 500% (Hepburn & Hemenway, 2004). Regulation measures will reduce this risk. Research has shown that countries with strict gun control regulations have lower cases of gun homicide rates. Studies have shown that in developed countries, there were more deaths by homicide, where guns are more available (Grinshteyn & Hemenway, 2016). To prevent this, more gun control regulations need to be put into place.
However, some people still maintain that individuals have a right to own guns, and ownership and sale should not be restricted. Gun control laws infringe upon the right to self-defense and deny people a sense of safety. The police cannot always protect everyone, and people have to be able to defend themselves in such cases. Anti-gun control activists also argue that more gun control laws are not needed; what is needed is education on gun use. Gun owners believe that guns don’t kill people, but people kill people. What is required is more gun education and mental health screening to prevent massacres. Gun control will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns or breaking the law. Most criminals and culprits of mass shootings use illegally obtained guns. Additionally, anti-gun control activists argue that gun control measures will prevent people from being able to protect themselves from criminals and invaders.
Conclusions
Gun control should be regulated because it will help save lives by decreasing crimes, which are accessed as a result of easy access to firearms. When almost every civilian is armed with firearms, it will be harder to prevent dangerous situations such as mass shootings and violent crimes. Gun control regulations will also help the government track criminals in society by making it easier to establish the original owner of a firearm used for assault. Generally, gun control measures will help reduce deaths related to mass shootings, domestic violence, accidental gun deaths, and even gun-related suicides. While some of the arguments by anti-gun control activists are also very reasonable and cannot be merely ignored, it is evident that the benefits of stricter gun control regulations far outweigh the constraints. Therefore, it would be important for lawmakers to introduce strict gun control measures for the greater good of the community’s safety.
References
Emma Gonzalez to Law Makers and Gun Advocates
Grinshteyn, E & Hemenway, D. (2016). “Violent Death Rates: The U.S. Compared with Other High-Income OECD Countries” amjmed.com
Hepburn, L & Hemenway, D. “Firearm Availability and Homicide: A Review of the Literature,” Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review-Journal.
Institute of Medicine, (2013). “Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence,” iom.edu.
Schoen, J. (2018). “States with strict gun laws have fewer firearms deaths. Here’s how your states stacks up.”