People tend to get tangled in opinions and quotes on rather semi-automatic weapons should be banned or not, such as if they are protected by the second amendment, halting lawmakers from banning them. However, let there be no mistake that these weapons are a life threat to civilians. The amount of semi-automatic guns in the U.S. puts a shockingly large price on the cost the government would pay to buy all the semi-automatic rifles back. A fairly large amount of guns exist in the United States and of that amount, about a third are assault weapons. “A November 2012 Congressional Research Service report found that, as of 2009, there were approximately 310 million firearms in the United States: ‘114 million handguns, 110 million rifles, and 86 million shotguns.’” (Peters).
Should guns be banned or should guns still be kept in America?This topic of banning guns has been a progressing debate yet the question still remains unanswered.Many people have probably heard of someone or knew someone that got injured or killed by a gun.These incidents happen every day from suicides to homicides.First, guns cost the lives of many people in America.Guns cost the lives of more than 30,000 people each year.If guns were banned, the number of deaths would reduce.Second, other populated countries with more gun control laws have lower suicide and homicide rates than the United States,which shows how having more gun control laws could affect the U.S.Finally, guns are rarely used in self defense when an individual is in a dangerous
Also, high capacity magazines should be reduced because they increase the number of murder and injury rates. According to an investigation, at least 50% of high capacity magazines are used in 62 mass shootings between 1982 and 2012 (procon 2). If there is a gun at home it could be easily be stolen, 1.4 million guns are stolen from US homes between 2005 and 2010 (“Right to Bear Arms” 2). Another way to prevent gun violence is to have background check and ban on assault weapons. 83% of all adults surveyed approve of background checks according to a Pew Research survey.
Even though there are many mass shootings in the US, assault weapons are actually not even connected to a significant amount of crime in the US. Assault weapons only many effect mass shootings, and even then not all mass shootings involve assault weapons in the first place. If anything a ban on assault weapons would just lead to a ban on handguns. Trying to get assault weapons banned will just lead to the broader focus which is a ban on handguns, which are more crimes are committed with anyway. Also, you can never really put a stop to psychopaths in the US, people can always find a way to get ahold of dangerous assault weapons.
As Hemenway mentions this in his book, despite the second amendment most Americans prefer uncompromising gun control laws as well as registration of firearms (152). This tells us how the public is threatened by the fact that anyone can commit mass murder any time. In addition to this, lack of trust among the members of the society creates less communication and more stress. Most people believe that financial benefit from the gun market has tied up the lawmakers. According to nbcnews.com, NRA (National Rifle Association) spends millions of dollars on senates and house races, which enables the association to control and silence the politicians.
According to, “Counterpoint: Gun Control Saves Lives”, “Experts estimate that about one-third of all American households contain firearms, and that the total number of guns in circulation is at least 240 million.” This shows that the government may be too careless about who has a gun, and as a result, people are more vulnerable than ever. The article, “More gun control laws would reduce gun deaths”, describes the words of David Frum, Daily Beast and CNN contributor, “‘American children under age 15 were nine times more likely to die of a gun accident than children in other advanced wealthy countries…’”. This shows how dangerous it is for children to even live in the United States because of these
Last year, handguns alone killed 48 people in Japan, 34 people in Switzerland, 8 people in Great Britain, and 10, 728 people in the United States. This proves how gun control laws are so essential to keeping people away from the threat that guns pose to society. Although guns might be used as a source of self-defense, an increase in the number of gun control laws are necessary to lower death rates due to guns, to ban weapons that account for much of the violence, and to eliminate the misinterpretation the second amendment for one 's selfish purposes. One reason why gun control laws are so crucial is to reduce the number of gun deaths in the United States. The mere access to guns, though for most, it is legal, can lead to grave dangers such as attacks on the innocent and put anyone in a life or death situation.
In an online article from The Atlantic, Stray (2013) mentioned 8,583 homicides are by firearms in 2011. (para.1) He also mentioned how this affects us as a whole. The threat of violence makes neighborhoods poorer. It's also very difficult to quantify the total harm caused by gun violence. It is an estimate that people will pay up to $100 billion dollars to avoid this threat.
Gun control has been a hot topic in the United States for the last several years. With murder counts going up, accidental killings, and mass shootings, it seems that guns have been the enemy lately. With a country divided, it seems we’ll finally come to a conclusion on what we’ll do with guns. Some think we should increase gun control, or even get rid of guns all together. The other side thinks we should leave it how it is, or even reduce gun control.
In D.C. homicides rose from 188 in 1976 to 364 in 1988, and increased even further to 454 in 1993. The ban was struck down by the Supreme Court in D.C. vs. Heller, and homicides have steadily declined since then to 88 yearly murders in 2012. While Shapiro admits that there were other factors involved with the decline in homicides, lifting the gun ban clearly did not result in a rise in murders. The vast majority of mass shootings occur in gun free zones. The Crime Research Prevention center determined that since 1950, nearly 99 percent of mass public shootings have occured in gun-free zones.