Gun control deabte

Gun control deabte

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  Chelsey Wade 02/11/14 FYS100 Blanco DebatePaper Less Legislation on Gun Control There are many different underlying issues that have been debated from the articles, Gun Control: An Overview, Point: Controlling Gun Violence is more important than Controlling Guns, and Counterpoint: Gun Control Saves Lives. One issue has to do with the second amendment, the right to bear arms, and how America should interpret the meaning of it. Another issue is that if there are stricter gun control laws, will the violent crime actually stop (Lee, 2013)? Therefore, the whole gun control debate is over whether there needs to be more legislation or if there is already enough. According to supporters of stricter gun control laws, the advantages in favor of supporting the issue is that the gun control laws will lower the overall rates of violence, as well as lower the gun homicide rates. It is also said that an advantage could be a safer place to live with less shootings and living in fear. On the contrary side, some possible disadvantages to stricter gun control laws could be that one cannot defend themselves with deadly force at any time. Citizens will no longer be able to carry any guns, and private businesses might start up due to those who cannot purchase then (Bowman, 2013). Fallacies of reasoning has definitely emerged from this debate over whether there should be more or less legislation over gun control today. First, many say that the multiple school shootings, for example: Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook are prime examples of why there needs to be more legislation and stricter gun laws on guns and that our legal system is completely flawed in such way, but one cannot make that assumption because there is not a significant amount of factual information to
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  back up thestatistical reasoning. Another fallacy could be how there should be stricter gun laws against those with a mental disorder, even though not every person with a mental disorder is going to go around and shoot people. Third, one of the most controversial issues is whether violent video games are the leading the causes of the school shootings or the violent crimes that take place every day with guns (Ballaro, 2013). This is a fallacy because you cannot make an assumption that a video game is to blame for all the crime that is going on. Today, most of the gun legislation of rights and laws exists at the federal, state, and local levels of government. One of the most recent controversial gun control legislation has appeared in the bills called the “Stand Your Ground” bills which protect the right of private citizens to defend themselves with deadly force. From looking at the experiences of other nations in the world, gun owners are judiciously balanced against the public interest in which models for the United States are offered to lower its rates of gun-related violence. In society, the implications that the debate has on families in society gives the ability of those to have a method of self-defense. Although, families should not have to worry about who has a gun, but rather who is causing the violence behind the crimes. I believe there should be less legislation involved with gun control. According to the book, More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, the author J.R. Lott states that the states with the largest increases in gun ownership also has the largest drops in violent crimes. Lott even visited a man with 18 years of experience in FBI statistics who argued that background checks that must be done to own a gun does not significantly reduce the amount of crime that occurs. Lott does say that the “right to carry” a concealed handgun can be an alternative and does not increase the amount of deaths (“More Guns, Less Crime”). From the peer reviewed book, Debate: Gun Control in the United States, the PhD authors explain that most of the crime from guns comes from long-term criminals. Would it really be necessary to have
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  more gun controllaws if the people who are causing the crime are repeated offenders? One cannot generalize to the whole country just because the same criminals are the ones killing others. In the peer reviewed book, it is also mentioned that half a million times a year, there are firearms used against home invasion burglars; yet, if the victim has a handgun or a type of concealed weapon, more than likely the burglar will leave as soon as they find out. A U.S. National Crime Victimization Crime Study was even implicated and concluded that 65% of the time, defending against felons with a gun helps and only 9% of the time will it make it worse (Boylan, Kates, Lindsey, Gugala, 2013). Therefore, by having less legislation and gun control laws, society will be able to self-defend themselves against the criminals. This would prevent a lot less deaths every single year. Dr. Boyland believes that legislation should focus more on the second amendment by examining human rights and focus solely on the purpose of “selfdefense”. Dr. Kates says that according to the National Academy of Sciences, there was no identification of any gun restriction that would reduce violent crime, and in 2004, the CDC could not find any evidence that gun control reduced murder or crimes, which also included Washington D.C.’s handgun ban that did not decrease gun accidents at all (Boylan, Kates, Lindsey, Gugala, 2013). According the Gun Control Debates, it says that those opposed to gun control argue that by trying to keep guns away from “high-risk” individuals is not rationale because criminals will find a way to possess a gun. It is also argued that there are lower crime rates in other countries that do not correlate at all to gun laws, but rather the different cultural is responsible. It has been brought up as well in this article that if there was stricter gun laws, a citizens’ civil rights for safety will be demolished which does not stand on the principles of our founding fathers (“The Gun Control Debate”).
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  Works Cited Ballaro B.Counterpoint: Gun Control Saves Lives. Points Of View: Gun Control [serial online]. January 2013;:3. Available from: Points of View Reference Center, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 10 2014. Bowman J. Point: Controlling Gun Violence is More Important than Controlling Guns. Points Of View: Gun Control [serial online]. January 2013;:2. Available from: Points of View Reference Center, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 10, 2014. Boylan M, Kates D, Lindsey R, Gugala Z. Debate: Gun Control in the United States. Clinical Orthopaedics & Related Research [serial online]. December 2013;471(12):3934-3936. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 11, 2014. Lee M. Gun Control: An Overview. Points Of View: Gun Control [serial online]. January 2013;:1. Available from: Points of View Reference Center, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 12, 2014. More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws (Book). Journal Of Social Work Education [serial online]. Winter99 1999;35(1):167. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 10, 2014. The Gun Control Debate. Supreme Court Debates [serial online]. April 2010;13(4):6-8. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 11, 2014.