Gun Control Essay, Research Paper
Kristin Phoebus November 9, 1997 Ms. Reed-Morrisson Gun Control Hi God what? Why am I up here with you already? Well I don t know. I as just playing Ok I ll tell you what I remember: Jeremy was helping Mom fix dinner because she promised to make his favorite and Maggie s eyes were glued to the television watching her girly shows while her ear was attached to the telephone talking to her boyfriend. Ew, they make me sick. So I didn t have anyone to play with and I am sick of all of my old toys. I wanted to play with Daddy s toy. He never lets me even touch it because he wants it all to himself and thought that I was going to break it or something. He told me that it was dangerous but I don t believe him. He just wants it all to himself so he can have all of the fun. So I sneaked into his study and opened the drawer where he kept it. And there it was; all black and shiny. It looked like the coolest toy in the world. So I picked it up and started playing. I pretended to be the bad guy. They always seem to have more fun oh sorry God. Well then I heard my Daddy come home through the back door. He had just gotten home from work and he always comes right to his study to put his briefcase away. So I scrambled to put it away but the only thing left that I remember is that I heard a really loud noise. So when do I get to go home to see my Mommy and Daddy? I m starving and dinner should be ready by now What do you mean I m not going home anymore? The fact is that people die everyday from gun shots. Whether it be murder, suicide, or children getting into things in which they don t belong, doesn t matter. Guns should not be readily available to civilians because guns just lead to deaths; wrongful deaths, tragic deaths, deaths that could have been avoided, and deaths that too many Americans have seemed to accept as normal everyday life. The setting in which the Second Amendment was proposed and adopted demonstrates that the right to bear arms is a collective one, existing only in the collective population of each state for the purpose of maintaining an effective state militia (ACLU Policy #47). Parents, children and families do not make up a militia so why are they allowed to bear arms. When individuals own and carry guns the likelihood for an accident to occur skyrockets because without guns no one can be shot. When children come into the picture, it is just plain unsafe to have a gun around because they don t know the difference between toys and dangerous weapons. Typical families in today s society aren t as close as they used to be. The children and parents are both busy with soccer, dinner, friends, work, dancing, paying bills, homework, cleaning, etc. In many families, they don t even sit down and eat dinner together. It would be impossible for a parent to watch every child in their home one hundred percent of the time. So what would possess a parent to put their lives and their children s lives in danger by keeping a gun in the home? If gun control laws were stricter families would not be able to purchase guns that put them and their loved ones at risk of harm.
Stated empirically, the formula almost seems to make sense: less guns, less misuse. What gun-control advocates fail to consider or even acknowledge is:(1) The number of guns in the hands of the misusers will change very little.(2) The elimination of guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens will allow for more misuse by the rest of society (Kay). If we believe this statement, then how can one explain the fact that since gun control laws have been put in place, the number of murders by handguns has decreased. Many countries have strict gun control laws and the results are very impressive. In England there were 22 gun related murders in 1990. America had 15,377 gun related murders in 1992. The U.S. government acknowledges that gun control laws are effective crime deterrents ( Gun Control Laws Save Lives ). If gun control laws are effective in other countries then why are so many Americans against saving lives? More Americans are killed each year by handguns than the total number of Americans killed in the Korean Conflict. Every fourteen minutes or so, someone in the U.S. dies as a result of a gun wound. The U.S. Bureau of Justice concluded that gun control laws are necessary to combat crime in America ( Gun Control Laws Save Lives ). Why are Americans so ready just to accept all of the deaths that occur due to guns? I ll tell you why. It is because it has become so common. We need to limit the number of guns that are in circulation in our society. When guns are readily available at the flip of a hat, people tend to just act and not to think so much about what they are doing. If people are forced to have to wait to be able to purchase a gun or have to find some illegal way to obtain one, they will have time to think if it is all worth the effort. I realize that we can not solve the problems of deaths by gunshots by just controlling the purchasing of guns but any improvement is a positive thing. Our country is at stake. The future generations need to have a good example set for them or the problem is going to get worse. We need to start by making guns scarce instead of abundant. Children can t be held responsible for everything that they do because they aren t knowledgeable to know any better. For that reason, we need to keep gun control laws going strong.
ACLU Policy #47: Gun Control. Netscape. The Lectric Law Library. Gun Control Laws Save Lives. Netscape. Computer Training Specialists. 1997.Kay, Michael. Positive Thinking and Gun Control. Netscape. 1997.