One of the deadliest devices ever invented. Bought for a couple of hundred dollars in what could be considered an everyday store. It causes tens of thousands of deaths a year, considered legal, and even necessary in some people’s eyes. Guns in America should be abolished as they are incredibly deadly, and abolishing them can save innocent lives. 

“...There were a total of more than 38,300 deaths from guns in 2019 - of which more than 23,900 were suicides.” According to BBC.

All of these people have died due to the fact that it’s legal for anyone to own firearms in the United States. Anyone can go to a gun store and buy a gun, no matter what intentions they have. It’s effortless to commit hate crime due to this. Furthermore, police brutality wouldn’t be an issue since if most of the population weren’t carrying handguns, the police wouldn’t need to either. They could use tasers or pepper spray, in short, less lethal options. That would drastically change police brutality. 

Forty million guns were purchased in the year 2020 alone, and another 4.1 million were bought in January of 2021. And that’s only legal, documented cases. Many more can be purchased illegally or under the radar.

On the other hand, some people say it might be a good thing to use in self-defense. It can happen that it’s genuinely necessary to defend yourself from someone dangerous or to have in your safe in case something happens. However, it will not exactly be required if nobody in the US had guns. Once more, pepper spray, or tasers are all options for the public to use. Guns should always be the last resort. 

Seventy-three percent of all homicides in the US were caused by guns. Over fifty percent of suicides were by guns. “Indeed, more people in this country kill themselves with guns than with all other intentional means combined, including hanging, poisoning or overdose, jumping, or cutting.” According to the Harvard public health magazine. 

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”- Oxplore.org. This is the excuse that anything could go wrong if given to the wrong person. That guns are not a part of the problem or that the only issue with it is when given to the wrong person. To that, I say: Can you apply that same rule to quite literally any other thing that kills people? Bombs? War? People may have the last call but in the end, would that person die if there was no gun involved? Simple answer. No. They wouldn’t.

The reason for people owning guns in America can be considered both valid and invalid. There’s an obvious 

bias from both sides of the argument; and it’s not the type of topic that can be proven. It’s almost all about opinion but the facts will remain the same and the deaths per year, or in general, don’t change based on what your opinion is. It’s a lot of people. 

While most people don’t use the guns they purchase, many do, and most of the time it’s for a threat the owner might’ve felt that never was real. “Thus far in 2020, there have been unintentional shootings by over 220 children. This has resulted in 92 deaths and 135 injuries.” - Aftermath.com

While this number is relatively small compared to the total number of deaths, this is solely by children and just because the number isn’t as large it should not be glossed over. That is still almost the same number as the death count for terrorism in 2017, (it being 95).

Yet somehow, these cases go unnoticed. It’s almost casual that this happens. If someone gets shot it’s completely normal and people move on from it immediately. 

It’s time to help the potential future victims of gun violence and abolish guns from America. Innocent people do not deserve to die in the hands of a cold country.