Kaleb Draisma

Aughenbaugh
English 12
3/13/2015
Gun Control
Gun control has been a hot topic in the United States, and all around the world in
past couple of years. There has been many ideas people, and politicians have thought of,
but so far none of these have worked in decreasin gun related crimes. Gun control is
defined as an act creating laws for the making, moving, and owning of guns. The
problem is if you regulate the amount of gun owners it will not help the crime rate, it will
only increase the amount of gun related crimes, and people getting hurt, or killed during a
shooting. There have been studies done with areas that have outlawed gun ownership,
and federal inmates, and they have showed that an increase of armed people, the less of a
chance of being a victim of crimes.
The United States has the highest gun ownership rate of devoloped countries with
about two hundred million armed people, and about forty to forty five percent of
households owning at least one gun (Smith). The goverment has three classes of firearms
including handguns, rifles, and shotguns; then there are three sub classes of these hand
loaded, semi-automatic, and fully automatic. A hnad loaded gun must be loaded by hand
once per each pull of the trigger, while a semi-automatic loads itself once per trigger pull,
and fully automatic reloads as many times as the shooter has the trigger pulled (Smith).

Many people on the pro gun control side of the conversation want new laws so the
average citizen can only buy the hand loaded gun instead of the other options. The
problem is that every day there are millions of illegal firearms being brought into the
country that won't be regulated, and that will leave the citizen with their hand loading
gun out gunned, and more likely to be killed in a robbery, or terroristic situation. The
United States Justice Department did a research involving past victims of crimes, general
population, and inmates in federal prison. Their studies have found that one out of two
hundred people in the United States will be murdered, and about forty two percent of
people will be a victim of a violent crime (Winters). Then a following study found that
thirty five percent of inmates carried a gun while they committed a crime. What this
comes down to is that about one and a half million people in the U.S. will be murdered,
when many times they could be saving themselves in owning a gun, and not by shooting
their attacker either of the inmates surveyed thirty four percent of them said that they
were scared, or didn't complete the crime, because of their victim being armed. That
shows in a gun ownership study with sixty seven percent had guns for protection, while
only fifty percent owned guns for sport like most people like to think. In 2008 it showed
that half of a percent of households were saved by owners being armed, that comes down
to just under two hundred thousand people that could of been added to a murder statistic,
but they saved themselves (Guns in America).
While people were saving themselves around the world with the use of guns, three
key areas still decided to regulate gun ownership. In 1920 Great Britian passed a law that
all gun owners must register with local police, then they have to give a valid reason fo
them to own the weapon, and the only type of gun people were able to own were

shotguns. Then later in 1968 they made the law strictor to include shotguns, then later in
1997 stating that all firearms and ammunition must be turn in to the police. While all this
happened the murder rate jumped from four out of a million people being killed, to
around ten out of a million. There almost one hundred and fifty percent increase in the
murder rate after the outlaw of guns for protection. Then the next area was Chicago
already tired of mobster killings adding up they decided to outlaw all handguns in the
city. The problem is that handguns are the leading weapon for self defense. In a thirteen
year span there was a hundred and twenty percent increae of people being killed, ending
about thirty four out of one hundred thousand people. Later in 2010 the U.S. Supreme
Court found that the law was unconstutional, and the murder rate decreased to a rate
lower than before the ban. Last was Washington D.C. they outlawed all pistols also, but
all regular guns had to be unloaded when not in use. Before the act there were three out
of a hundred people being murdered, then during the ban there were eight out of a
hundred people being murdered. Later in 2007 the gun act was lifted, and the mureder
rate yet agsain decreased to three out of a hundred people (Smith). These three aren't the
only areas that had a gun ban, but are some of the biggest examples of why unarming
citizens will only increse crime rates.
Next is how should people be able to buy, and own firearms. There are arguments
that the gun industry should regulate itself, such as the scuba diving gear industry does.
This idea would leave makers, and major gun related clubs to control how they are
bought, and taken care of knowing who owns guns with little to no goverment
involvement (Gudmandson). The major problem that people for gun control are seeing is
that there are ineffective gun laws in the U.S. People say that most states have written

gun laws so they aren't used, but this is simply untrue. Forty states require permits for
concealed carry guns making it possible to carry it in all forty. While only nine states
require special permits for their state only, their is one state that does not allow concealed
carry. So in forty nine states you have to have a background check before being able to
buy concealed weapons The biggest loophole in the gun buying system is the gun show
loophole. This is when a person goes to certain states they can walk into a private seller
booth, and can walk out with whatever gun they can find while the actual gun dealers
have to run background checks. This is a major flaw in the system, but it is only effective
in certain states, mostly being southern where there are lower crime rates (Goddard).
While most anti gun control people stand strong this has been one of the most coopertive
issues on both sides that have agreed on. While people think background check system
doesn't work, the goverment effectively denied around seven hundred thousand people
that seemed to be suspicous.
Arguments still continue on both sides fighting on the issue. While they argue
that more guns will result in more murders (Morris), others argue that armed people will
protect themselves (Flamehouse), and the studies show that a killers like easy target
instead of armed ones. That why when someone goes on a shooting spree they tend to
commit suicide once they get resistence. In most cases it's the police who can only show
up minutes after the call, if there are more armed people in society the sooner there can
be resistence, and more likely of less people being killed. If people were wanting a safer
community, country they would probly want the one with more gun owners, not only can
they protect themselves from crime, but the can protect others in the time before police
are able to respond to a gun related crime.