Gun Control

Tyler Gowans
Criminal Justice
Professor Howard Woolley

Tyler Gowans
Criminal Justice
4/28/14
Gun Control
This topic is a hot one for many people, myself included. Its a topic most of us have
thought about, and most of us have a fairly solid (if not passionate) opinion about it. In the spirit
of full disclosure, I confess I am a gun owner. I also should state that I am adamant about the
survival of gun rights. I believe to take them away would damage our society, way of life, and
much existing trust that exists between the people and their government.
Despite my personal bias, I tried to research this topic in a way that was fair to both sides
of the argument. It was extremely difficult. Not that it was difficult to remain impartial. It was
extremely difficult to gain a picture of the facts when each side presents them so differently.
Sources and their believability:
For example, in doing my research, I looked into a lot of statistics about England where
they have banned almost all civilian gun ownership. Generally, if the site was an official UK site,
the information said that because of banning guns crime was down 15%. The statistics may have
varied from source to source, but most of the time it was presented in a light that made gun
control appear favorable. However, there are many articles I read where the UK was accused of
not presenting an accurate picture of the crime rate. In fact, one article said that the numbers may
actually be up to 95% higher.
Unfortunately, we are left with the irritating responsibility of discerning what is the truth
and what is not. Is the UK just drawing fire from gun rights activists provoked by their gun
control laws? Or are we looking at a country trying to save face after passing a law that some
would call radical? Your guess is as good as mine.
On the other hand, you have the nation of Australia which has also banned guns. In this
instance, most of the information I read was agreeable. Most statistics I looked through showed
that banning guns in Australia correlated with a rise in crime, and many of the numbers stated it
was a significant increase.
However, I also read articles written by people who themselves live in Australia who said
crime was down. Figure that one out. The people actually live in Australia and they are saying
crime is down, but all the statistics show otherwise. So what is the truth? Is it just the part of
Australia they live in? Was the method of gaining these statistics reliable? Since I am not a
statistician, and chances are you arent either, how are we supposed to read this information?
Common Sense Applied
Since each side probably skews data, and deliberately makes it difficult for the common
man or women to gain a clear picture of what is really happening, the only thing we can do is
take our common sense and apply it to what we learn.
My common sense would tell me that it is unlikely that a gun rights activist knows more
about what happens in England than England does. Therefore, unless any concrete evidence
proves otherwise, we have to assume that the UK is telling the truth and that crime is down.
On the other hand, we should not value the opinion of a faceless Australian native over
the mountain of statistics that drown out his (honestly weak) argument. So if we assume from
common sense that crime is down in the UK and crime is up in Australia, and both places have
banned guns, the only conclusion we can reach through logic is that it works differently from
place to place. Just as identical gun laws have different effects in Britain and Australia, banning
guns in here in the US may have an entirely different set of consequences all together.
So the question becomes, what would happen here?
My Own Conclusions
Picture in your mind the military or some sort of government officials going through your
neighborhood confiscating peoples guns. Or less provocatively, imagine a notice posted on
every house that all guns are to be surrendered to a local location, and those who do not comply
will be fined and their guns will be confiscated anyway.
What is your reaction? As I said in my opening statement, this could not happen and not
result in fractured trust between people and the government. People would be infuriated. Tension
levels would rise, and society would not be the same. Our culture and way of life would be
changed in an instant. All this does not include the implications on our current crime rate. It may
go up, it may go down. Who knows? And how would we know if we can rely on the information
we would be given about the aftereffects if we cant even rely on the information about the after
effects in other countries?
Do I think guns should be banned? No. Am I saying that Im not willing to support
stricter gun laws? Not necessarily. For instance, I would be more than willing to say that we need
better background checks on people buying guns. I am totally compliant with the philosophy that
people with serious mental problems or a history of violence should probably not be given guns.
I am even ok with a reasonable limit on clip capacity. Automatic weapons are highly regulated,
and Im totally fine if most citizens are not able to get their hands on them.
The point is, we have no idea what would happen in the event that gun ownership in the
US was banned. However, there are compromises we can make, and we just need to do it. There
are people on both sides of the argument who are fanatical. We need to find a middle ground,
find a solution, and stick to our guns (pun intended). The sooner we do so, the sooner we will
have a better society.













Work Cited
Demar, Gary. Englands Crime Rate Nearly Four Times Higher than United States. Political
Outcast. Np. 12 Jan. 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2014
Dougherty, Jon. Crime Up Down Under. WND. Np. 3 Mar. 2000. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Economist. "The Gun Control That Works: No Guns." The Economist. The Economist
Newspaper, 15 Dec. 2012. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Hanabusa, Rep. Colleen. Hawaii Has Shown That Gun Control Works. The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 26 Sept. 2013. Web 27 Apr. 2014.
Lack, Martin. Gun Control Has Worked In Australia. Letter to the Editor. Np. 22 Dec. 2012
Web. 28 Apr. 2014.