How Do Gun Control Laws Reduce Gun-Related Violence?

The ineffectiveness of gun control is quite evident in the United States. Gun rights have been an ongoing social battle for many years (Kopel). People will always find a way to gain access to weapons if the person wants one badly enough. The United States is fast approaching the halfway mark in favor of stricter gun laws; however, the nation still questions the effectiveness of gun control. Republicans support the right to own, use, and carry guns as stated in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution (Kopel). Republicans also believe it is an individual’s right to protect family and property through gun ownership. Gun laws should be left to the individual states

In today’s society, one of the most alienating issues in American politics is gun control. More specifically, the issue is whether or not guns should be banned in the United States. Some people would say that guns should be banned because it would reduce crime as a whole and keep citizens safer. These people, enthusiasts of stricter gun laws, fear being safe in their country where there are so many people who have access to guns. Opponents of this argument, however, also fear losing safety. They fear that they will not be able to protect themselves on a daily basis, or in a worse case scenario, protect themselves if the government happened to turn on citizens of the country. They would also argue that people, especially criminals, can still find ways to gain access to guns. Guns should not be banned in the United States due to them being able

Gun control has been a controversial issue for many years. Many citizens believe that if gun control is strictly enforced it would reduce the threat of crime. People have the right to bear arms for protection, or even just the pleasure of hunting and recreational activity. With the recent events involving firearms and mass shootings, people are skeptical whether to increase or decrease gun laws. Americans have a constitutional right to own handguns and stricter laws and licensing will not effectively save lives.

Gun violence in America has been alarmingly increasing since the 90s and has continued throughout the years. Although guns may save lives, evidence shows that most guns in America are stolen from other thieves and misused. Due to lack of gun control found in nearly fifty percent of the states, guns are mostly misused for other reasons. Since 2012, there have been gun sales spiking across the U.S. Every year, America’s minimum increase in gun sales is five percent. The American government should raise gun laws to reduce gun violence, which leads to death. Opponents might say gun ownership will decrease their chances of getting injured and be kept for self-defense reasons, but evidence shows an increasing number in the misuse of guns for injury.

The 2nd amendment of the United States states that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” But is that truly the way that the United States should be governed under? The United States has the one of the highest amount of deaths related to gun violence in the entire world, 31st in the world exactly, but the fact that is baffling is that for such a developed and country with a strong infrastructure, why are these rates so high? From mass shooting in schools, clubs, gatherings, and neighborhoods all across America, there is certainly something else behind these mass shootings. Gun violence is an aching issue on the hands of the hands of the United States government as well, as congress is finding it difficult to

Chicago should be an example to those on both sides of the gun argument. The city is living proof that strict gun regulations alone will not cause gun violence to go down. Unfortunately for gun control advocates, the ban on handgun ownership in Chicago was struck down in a landmark case known as McDonald v. City of Chicago.

Maryland is said to have some of the strictest firearm laws in the country, on the issues of carrying, buying and the possession of firearms. Earlier this year many mass shootings occurred all over in Maryland, overall leaving nine dead and forty-four injured. Just in Baltimore shootings, five were wounded. These are a few of eleven mass shootings in Maryland so far in 2015. This year nine were killed and forty-four people in total were left with injuries and this is just in the state of Maryland. This is a big issue in the United states and in Maryland specifically. There are issues with who can purchase guns, what should be sold, and restrictions on firearms. This debate is continuous because in the U.S. Constitution we have

In 1939, Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, six million Jews and seven million others unable to defend themselves had their lives taken away. [1] Could this outcome have changed if the Jews were armed with guns? Could thirteen million innocent lives have been saved? Does taking away firearms help someone in a situation like this? Many pro gun-control citizens believe that banning firearms will make them safer and some even protest. For reasons of self-defense, to assist the police, and because violence will always be present, the United States’ law regarding the legality of firearms should stay in place.

Gun violence has been a massive issue through the modern age of humanity and has created a sense of division regarding the solution to this epidemic. In Adam Gopnik’s essay “Shootings”, Gopnik addresses the issue of gun violence and demands a change in American government policy to prevent the tragic killings of innocent lives. Gopnik harnesses the tool of emotion and passion to drive his essay. In Charles Cooke’s essay “Gun Control Dishonesty”, Cooke takes the polar opposite of Gopnik’s approach by utilizing factual evidence to prove the futility of gun control.

“We have found that when large capacity magazines [and assault weapons] are regulated, you get drastic drops in both the incidence of gun massacres and the fatality rate of gun massacres.” (Klarevas, 2018) It is unrealistic to imagine all gun access to be nonexistent, the cease of access to any type of gun causes chaos in its own sense, and illegal weapons would be purchased, which would ensure even worse repercussions. A gun ban is not realistic, however gun control is. Critics argue limiting deadly assault weapons does not solve the nation’s gun issue. The critics also correctly argue, that the vast majority of gun related deaths are committed with handguns, making the significance of an assault weapons ban on the overall crime rate minimal. Supporters of an assault weapons ban, like Senator Dianne Feinstein, argues for the goal of the bans is to prevent horrific mass shooting incidents, not stop the run-of-the-mill gun violence that kills multiple Americans each day. Feinstein, along with many other colleagues, introduced an assault weapons ban in the Senate after the Sutherland Springs shooting in Texas. “This bill won’t stop every mass shooting, but it will begin removing these weapons of war from our streets,” Feinstein said in a statement. “Yes, it will be a long process to reduce the massive supply of these assault weapons in our country, but we’ve got to start somewhere.” Feinstein 's bill would ban 205 specific “military-style assault weapons” by name, and it more broadly bans firearms containing a detachable magazine and one or more “military characteristics,” including “a pistol grip, a forward grip, a barrel shroud, a threaded barrel or a folding or telescoping

It’s a true fact that people kill people, not guns. However, people use guns to kill people. So then, it would be understandable to think that it is necessary to control who can get guns. But yet, a large number of guns are sold to people whose backgrounds aren’t checked. This means America isn’t completely controlling who all can get guns — nobody is. While universal background checks seem like common sense, gun lobbyists say that criminals could just get their guns from the black market so there is no point controlling all gun sales (Sullum). Despite this, if the checks stopped only one person, they would be effective. The solution to the problem regarding controlling all gun sales is a simple one — implement universal background checks.

Through the past 50 years gun problems have peaked and caused issues through the public and media and even government has gotten involved on the issue. Lately the issue has increased incredibly. Mass shootings have become more frequent in the 2000s. It seems as if terrorism has frequently risen but alongside that so have our defenses to stop these things. Defenses are important for saving human lives. Gun control laws may restrict these people who are responsible from defending themselves. So honestly gun control contradicts itself as much as it helps.

In the statistic to the right there a four noticeably large spikes in the years of 1975, 1980, 1993, and 1994 (Alexia pg 2). In all four years gun laws appear in relation. In 1993 Congress passed the The Brady Handgun Violence Act. The main action that the Brady handgun act did, it put a five day waiting period on selling firearms(Bureau). In 1994 the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act becomes law(Alexia pg 2). The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act banned many types of firearms and cosmetic firearm attachments. These two examples show a noticeable

The debate of gun control presents an ethical dilemma in deciding which rights afforded by the US Constitution are more important. The ethical debate places the rights afforded in the Second Amendment to bear arms against the rights afforded in the First Amendment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The ethical predicament has roots in societal views of violence and how it is observed by both sides of the debate.

Looking at the nightly news, many would believe violent crimes are at an all-time high. There are not just one on one violent crimes or gang violent crimes. There is court shootings, school shootings, church shootings, theater shootings, mall shootings, workplace shootings, and others. Where most one on one crime is committed with illegal guns, mass shootings are done with handguns purchased legally. Violent crimes reported on the news while still surprising to hear and see has become very common. While the numbers seem to be overwhelming, statistics share violent crimes are at an all-time low. While the numbers of crimes are decreasing, gun ownership is increasing. Begging one to ask if the right to conceal to carry reduce