Gun Control Sucks Essay, Research Paper
Whenever some terrible act of violence occurs such as the
horrible Columbine Shooting, people start looking for answers and
pointing fingers. They want to put the blame on something
saying, ?It was the parents fault,? or, ?It is television and the
Internet?s fault,? but the blame is most often put on an
inanimate object that does only what the person operating it
tells it to do. The Gun. In the next few minutes one should
realize that it is not the gun?s fault and more gun control laws
are not the answer. Gun control violates rights given to us by
the Second Amendment, guns have proven to be extremely effective
in deterring crimes and protecting private property, gun control
does not work in controlling violence, and gun control goes
against everything the founders of this country stood for.
Gun control violates the rights that the founders of this
country shed their blood for. Our constitution is the rights
that the framers of this country put together because they felt
it to be necessary for a strong nation. In it the Second
Amendment states, ?A well regulated Militia, being necessary to
the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and
bear arms shall not be infringed. One would think that the men
who wrote the Constitution knew and understood the importance of
allowing a free people to have the right to keep and bear arms.
Some would say that today?s well regulated militia was the
National Guard, but even if that was true the Second Amendment
still protects individuals rights to keep and bear arms. As
Thomas Jefferson so emphatically put it, ?No free man should ever
be disbarred the use of arms.? (Quotations 1) Thomas Jefferson,
being a huge supporter of the right to bear arms, also said, ?The
beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed
until they try to take it.? Jefferson also said, ?The strongest
reason for the People to retain the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in
government.? He definitely realized, as did the other writers of
the constitution, the importance of letting a free people have
the right to Bear Arms.
It has been said that guns just cause violence and are never
a benefit to society, nothing could be so far from the truth.
Statistics have shown time and time again that guns are used
hundreds of thousands of times a year in the defense of one?s
self, property, and family. In fact, according to Dr. Kleck, a
criminologist at Florida State University, 75% of all uses of
guns in crime related incidents are defensive uses by would be
crime victims. (Lee 2) That is a huge percentage. That turns out
to be more than 2 million times a year that citizens use lawfully
owned firearms to defend themselves and their families. Studies
have even been done by anti-gun groups that prove the same fact.
One anti-gun survey said that handguns were used in defending
more than 645,000 crimes per year. (Kates 12) All of this and
more disproves the notion that guns are one of society?s evils
and need to be rid of completely.
Without citizen gun ownership their would be more violent
felons on the street. The FBI has collected data that shows that
armed citizens lawfully kill more violent felons per year than do
the police. (Kates 1) When one says they want more gun control
they do not fully realize what they are saying. Gun control will
not be a benefit to society but rather a downfall.
Past and present citizens with guns have always had a
positive affect in society. In fact, going back a hundred years
to the Wild West if one would look into it, contrary to what
books and movies of the old west portray, violence was far less
prevalent than it is today. Contrary to myths, bank and stage
coach robberies were few. Would be criminals knew with certainty
that if they would try to rob a bank the tellers and managers
would have firearms and would be able and willing to protect
themselves. (Lee 6) The young, the old, and the female—those
most vulnerable–were far safer in the most wild and woolly
frontier towns than they are in any American city today. People
had arms, knew how to use them, and were willing to fight with
deadly force to protect their persons and property. (Lee 6)
A good example of how citizens with lawfully owned guns have
been effective in deterring violence recently is Florida. Since
Florida enacted their concealed carry law their murder rate has
dropped by 29%. Nationwide during this same time the murder rate
has risen 11%. One could then say that when criminals know that
when they go to commit a crime they could very likely run into a
citizen with a lawful firearm they are not so quick to commit the
crimes.
Gun control laws are one of the best things criminals could
hope for because gun laws don?t have any affect on criminals.
Criminals are going to get and use guns illegally whether they
are available to law-abiding citizens or not. The more gun
control rules and regulations there are, the happier the
criminals will be, for they know the more gun laws there are the
less chance they have of having a crime victim defend themselves
with a lawfully-owned firearm. One just has to stop and think to
realize how true this is. No matter how many weapons the
government tries to take away they are still going to be on the
street. Thomas Jefferson said,? Laws that forbid the carrying of
arms, disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined
to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted
and better for the assailants, they serve rather to encourage
than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked
with greater confidence than an armed man.? (Howerter 2) If
anti-gun activists have their way, the government will be able to
confiscate the weapons of law abiding citizens, but not of
people most likely to go on a shooting spree. (Smith 2) What good
is taking away guns from innocent people and leaving them to
criminals? 34% of felons themselves said, that in contemplating
crime they either ?often? or ?regularly? worried that they might
get shot by a would be victim, and 57% agreed that ,?most
criminals are worried about meeting an armed victim than they are
by running into police. 34% of convicts interviewed also said
that they had been, ?scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by
an armed victim,? and about two thirds had at least one
acquaintance who had the experience. (Kates 12) So of course
criminals are going to be the ones wanting gun laws. They don?t
obey them, only law abiding citizens do.
Gun control laws will not stop violence. One does not have
to
and over abroad and here in our borders that more laws do not
mean less violence. In such countries as Taiwan and South Africa,
the two nations that most severely restrict gun ownership
(violators are subject to the death penalty), the murder rates
are far higher than in the United States. Just the opposite, in
countries such as Switzerland, Israel, and New Zealand where guns
are much more available than they are here in the US crime and
homicides are virtually nonexistent (Lee 3). This disproves the
theory that guns cause violence. A good example is Israel. Almost
every house hold has weapons of some sort. It is very common for
Israeli households to have more than one fully automatic weapon,
and also to have such things as missile launchers or even bigger
weapons. There they realize that allowing their citizens to have
guns of any kind is a huge asset to the benefit of their country.
History has proven that every nation which has disarmed its
citizenry has ended up with a dictator and a police state with
countless and horrible atrocities. (Howerter 1) One of the most
warped and wicked minds of all time, Adolf Hitler, was a huge
advocate of gun control. Hitler said, ?History shows that all
conquerors who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms
have prepared their own downfall.? (Gun Control Hall of Fame 4)
What he basically meant is that if citizens are allowed to own
guns with out government restrictions than it is virtually
impossible for dictators like himself to get into power. Hitler
also said, ?This year will go down in History, for the first
time, a civilized nation has full gun registration, our streets
will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will
follow our lead into the future.? Is that what our country wants?
Hitler?s idea of safe was rounding up countless millions of
innocent people and slaughtering them just because of their
religion and race. A civilized nation he called it, a more
efficient police. The Gestapo were Hitler?s idea of an efficient
police. He knew that after he had full registration of guns he
could get by with the horrible atrocities that he got by with and
not have to worry about any retaliation from his governed people
because they had no way to go against him.
Mahatma Gandhi, the peaceful protester from India who led
his country to independence from Great Britain, said, ?Among the
many misdeeds of the British Rule in India, History will look
upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms as the
blackest.? (Howerter 1) Great Britain realized that when they
took away guns from India they didn?t have to worry about India
trying to fight for the independence they deserved. When the
citizens of a free nation own guns, it is almost impossible for
the government to take over and become a dictatorship or
socialist.
One would say that what has happened in the past does not
apply to today, or what has happened in other countries that
taken guns away from their people won?t happen in America. They
need to realize how true it is that we either learn from History
or History will repeat itself.
Even in our own country states and cities that have tried to
enact strict gun laws have found them to be ineffective. The
places in the United States where gun control laws are toughest
tend to be the places where the most crimes are committed with
illegal weapons. (Lee 6) Out of the 15 states that have the
highest homicide rates, 10 have very restrictive gun laws. (Lee
6) New York, for example, which has one of the most restrictive
gun laws in the nation has 20 percent of the nations total of
armed robberies. New York is big but not that big. Gun control
does not work. Another example, Washington D.C., since guns were
banned in 1976 the murder rate has risen 200 percent. (Howerter
2) How much proof does one need to know that gun laws do not
effect criminals. Criminals don?t care what the law says. More
gun laws will not reduce crime. The more gun laws there are the
more gun-related crimes there will be. That is a fact.
One should realize after reading this paper that first of
all gun control violates rights guaranteed us by the Second
Amendment, guns prevent crime a whole lot more than they cause
crime, gun control has proven ineffective in stopping crime here
in our country and abroad, past and present, and gun control goes
against everything the forefathers of this country stood for.
George Washington put it like this, ?Firearms are second only to
the Constitution in importance: they are the people?s liberty
teeth.?(Howerter 3) One should stop and think the next time they
go to the ballot box before they start making the little X?s just
who are the people they are voting for. Are they going to try to
enact more rules and regulations on guns as a sort of scape goat
for problems in society, or are they going to uphold the
constitution and go after the real causes of the violence that we
face in our society today. As one man put it so well, ?We have
four boxes used to guarantee our liberty, The soap box, the
ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box. (Howerter 3)
Another man who was vital in founding this country, Benjamin
Franklin, put it this way, ?They that can give essential liberty
to obtain temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.?
(Quotes from the Founding Fathers and their Contemporaries 2)
?Gun Control Hall of Fame.? Members 6. Online. Internet. 14
Feb 2000 Available:
http://members.localnet.com/~bobglifab.htm
Howerter, Mark E. ?Gun Control Isn?t About Guns, It?s About
Control.? Otherside(1996) 3. Online. Internet. 15 Feb
2000. Available: www.otherside.net/guncntrl.htm
Kates, Don B. Jr. ?The Value of Civilian Arms Possession As
a Deterrent to Crime orDefense Against Crime.?
Shadeslanding (1991) 52. Online. Internet. 15 Feb 2000.
Available:
www.shadeslanding.com/firearms/kates.defense.html
Lee, Robert W. ?Shooting Down Faulty Arguments.? The New
American(4 April 1994) 10. Online. Internet. 16 Feb.
2000. Available:
www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1994/vol/vol0no07.htm
?Quotations.? Second Amendment Stuff 3. Online. Internet. 16
Feb 2000. Available:
http://secondamendmentstuff.com/quotation.htm
?Quotes from the Founding Fathers and their Contemporaries.?
Guncite (12 Jan 2000)4. Online. Internet. 16 Feb 2000.
Available: www. guncite.com/gc2ndfqu.html
Smith, Carly. ?Guncontrol Supporters Aiming at Wrong
People.? Generation Y (15 Oct1999) 2. Online.
Internet. 15 Feb 2000. Available:
http://generation-y.com/stories/101599/new_guncontrol.s
html.