Guns and its Pros
Guns are defensive tools commonly used by military professionals to ensure the peace of the citizens. The question on whether citizens should be allowed to freely own firearms has been a debatable issue for quite long. Gun control refers to a set of laws and policies that controls and regulates the manufacture, sale, and possession of firearms by the civilians. Some few countries allow ownership of guns to the civilians. However, allowing civilians to legally own guns have several cons, which forces most of the countries in the world to restrict free ownership of the firearms by the local citizens. Different leaders have different views on the issue of gun control. However, law-abiding civilians should be licensed to legally own firearms for the purpose of their security.
The debate on gun control did not start yesterday, but it has a deep history since the invention of the guns. In the United States, gun control policies existed during the colonial period (Spitzer, 2015). At this time, it was illegal for American citizens to have firearms in their homes. Also, the government had criminalized the transfer of firearms to the slaves, Catholics, and indentured servants. In 1934, the government of America amended the gun control laws to tighten the judgments on the civilians found with guns at their homes. The amendment was referred to as the ’New Deal for Crime’ whose main aim was to ensure that there was no gang who owned a gun. In 1938, the America Federal Firearms Act required that the government should license all the manufacturers and the sellers of guns. The purpose of this particular act was to eliminate dealers who were illegally importing guns. Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, jr., the issue of gun control became of major concern among the American leaders. As a result, a bill was passed that banned importation of all guns that bared no sporting purpose. Also, the bill required that all manufactured guns should have a unique serial number (Nimtz, 2016). Currently, the debate of gun control continues in the United States. The debate on firearm regulation does not seem to come to an end because the term gun control has been politicized. The opponents and proponents of gun ownership by civilians have entirely different ideas because of the pros and cons surrounding the issue of gun control.
As much as most civilians demand legal ownership of guns, several disadvantages arise by allowing citizens to freely access guns without restriction. Free access of firearms to the citizens increases the risk of violence. According to a study by Dahlberg, having a firearm at home increases the risk of homicide and suicide (Azrael, 2018). The study revealed that families that bear guns face the risk of homicide or suicide 40 times higher than homes that do not have guns. Disagreements have to arise at homes that causes many people to commit suicide if they have firearms at their disposal easily. Also, free access of firearms to the civilians have a disadvantage of increasing mass shootings and unnecessary killings. Most of the mass shootings in the United States are accomplished using legally purchased guns. By legalizing ownership of guns by citizens, terrorists can easily access guns by pretending to be peaceful citizens, which increases terrorism activities (Ellis, 2016). Proponents of gun control use this concrete and evident disadvantage of free ownership of guns to support the existing gun restriction policies. However, the opponents of the gun control policies dismiss the point by arguing that it is the role of the government to ensure that only the peaceful and patriotic citizens access guns and not criminals. Allowing civilians to own guns freely increases the cases of accidental killings. Most of the citizens are not trained on the use of the guns, and can easily cause the death of those who are surrounding them out of their intention. However, more advantages arise by allowing civilians to own guns legally.
Civilians should be licensed and allowed to own firearms because of their self-defense. Opponents of the gun restriction policies state that the second amendment gives individuals the right to own guns after following the legal procedures. Guns are useful for self-defense from both the local and foreign criminal threats. The interested civilians should first be trained on the use of firearms to avoid unintentional shootings. Once they are trained, they should be issued with a gun and a license for protection. Most of the criminals are armed with either knives or guns, and they would fear to attack individuals with firearms, hence reducing the crime rate. The second amendment of the United States Constitution protects individual gun ownership, which effectively reduces crime by enhancing self-defense to the American citizens (Stroebe, 2017). By restricting civilians from gun ownership, a black market will arise for those who want to own firearms for self-defensive reasons. If anyone desires to own a gun, he/she will acquire the gun according to the basic law of legal and illegal ownership of gun ownership. Therefore, government legislation to illegalize ownership of guns by the civilians created a loophole for the gun black market. Gun control laws are arguably used to reduce violence by ensuring that there are few guns in a country. However, few guns do not change the condition of the heart because there are alternative weapons that can be used to commit crimes. Knife attackers, vehicle attackers, and homemade explosives can cause as much damage as caused by the gun attackers. Thus, reducing the guns in a country does not necessarily reduce the crime rate as argued by the proponents of gun control laws. Research shows that most of the gun-related deaths in the United States are from suicides and not homicides (Swanson, 2016). As a result, there is no proof that by restricting civilians to own guns, suicidal deaths would be decreased because there are many alternatives methods of committing suicide. The government should instead improve mental health services to reduce suicidal deaths, but not prohibit civilians from owning firearms. Some gun control laws are against the rights of the civilians and should be removed.
Some gun control laws are crazy and against the rights of the citizens to legally own a gun. For instance, in California, gun owners are accompanied by very strict useless laws (Braga, 2015). All the gun owners in California require to annually acquire a safety certificate even if the gun is used only for home defense purposes. Acquiring a new safety certificate does not mean that the gun owner will not participate in a gun criminal activity that particular year, which renders the law as useless. Also, in California, anyone willing to purchase ammunition need to pass a background check before buying the ammunition. The gun controls laws in California do not account for any safety on the citizens, and they should be scrapped. The gun control laws are sufficient to reduce the criminal activities, and other laws in different fields should be implemented. Some of the gun control laws such as the background checks infringe individual’s rights of privacy, which is against the constitution. The background checks require the gun owner to provide personal information such as name, address, mental history, and criminal records, which is against the privacy rights of civilians. The American citizens are constitutionally allowed to own guns and should be allowed to exercise their right without any form of government surveillance. The main of aim of the Second Amendment was to protect gun ownership of all bodied men so that they can participate in the militia of keeping peace and defending the country from invaders (Lund, 2019). Therefore, to achieve the objective of the Second Amendment, all the gun control laws should be removed.
In conclusion, the issue of gun control has been a hotly debated topic for a long period. The debate does not seem to end soon because both the proponents and opponent of gun control laws have taken firm positions on the matter. The proponents of gun control laws argue that if gun control laws are removed, the crime rate will significantly increase. However, restricting and controlling gun ownership alone cannot eliminate the criminal activities because there are alternative weapons that criminals can use to commit crimes. To reduce suicidal deaths, the government need to provide more services on social and mental health, and not to prohibit legal ownership of guns by the civilian. Some gun control laws infringe the privacy rights of gun owners, and they need to be removed. To achieve the goal of the Second Amendment, useless gun control laws should be scrapped. American citizens have a constitutional right to bear guns; therefore, they should be allowed to exercise their right without government surveillance.
References
Azrael, D., Cohen, J., Salhi, C., & Miller, M. (2018). Firearm storage in gun-owning households with children: results of a 2015 national survey. Journal of urban health, 95(3), 295-304.
Braga, A. A., & Hureau, D. M. (2015). Strong gun laws are not enough: the need for improved enforcement of secondhand gun transfer laws in Massachusetts. Preventive medicine, 79, 37-42.
Ellis, C., Pantucci, R., Roy, V. Z. J. D., Bakker, E., Gomis, B., Palombi, S., & Smith, M. (2016). Lone-Actor Terrorism: Analysis Paper. Countering Lone-Actor Terrorism Series, 24.
Lund, N. (2019). The Second Amendment and the War on Guns. Why We Are Losing the War on Gun Violence, Marie L. Crandall, Woodie Kessel, Jennifer L. Bronson, and Stephanie L. Bonne, eds.(Forthcoming), 19-12.
Nimtz, A. H. (2016). Violence and/or Nonviolence in the Success of the Civil Rights Movement: The Malcolm X–Martin Luther King, Jr. Nexus. New Political Science, 38(1), 1-22.
Spitzer, R. J. (2015). Politics of gun control. Routledge.
Stroebe, W., Leander, N. P., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2017). Is it a dangerous world out there? The motivational bases of American gun ownership. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 43(8), 1071-1085.
Swanson, J. W., Easter, M. M., Robertson, A. G., Swartz, M. S., Alanis-Hirsch, K., Moseley, D., … & Petrila, J. (2016). Gun violence, mental illness, and laws that prohibit gun possession: evidence from two Florida counties. Health Affairs, 35(6), 1067-1075.