A commonly discussed issue in America, as well as in the rest of the world, is gun control. The issue popped up again, somewhat recently, due to a shooting at Sandyhook Elementary. In case you didn’t hear about it, basically someone went into the school with a Bushmaster .223-caliber assault rifle, Sig Sauer 9-mm pistol, and a 9-mm Glock.

Almost immediately, people demanded that we need stricter gun control. I agree that background checks should at least be done before selling someone a gun, but many people are simply being irrational. They demand that if we take guns away from everyone, no one will be shot. Even if you outlaw guns, people will still be able to smuggle guns in and get them illegal. Guns are generally used for defense and protection; therefore, if you take away everyone’s defense, they won’t be able to stop the killer. If you take guns away, you’re only making it easier for criminals.

Next, it’s in the constitution that we have a right to bear arms, so you can’t take guns away from everyone completely. If you even suggest taking away all guns, people might riot, so that won’t happen. The government grants us the right to bear arms so that we have some means to defend ourselves from each other, but mostly from the government. As long as someone has a gun they could defend themselves with, they could kill with it, as well. So really, you can’t reduce murders by reducing guns. Therefore, the only other option is to give people protection, and allow them to have guns.

In a survey where 4,977 households were interviewed, 0.5% of the households had members who had used a gun for defense in a situation where “someone would’ve surely been killed” if they hadn’t used their gun. If you scale these numbers up, that’s about 162,000 murders that would’ve occurred. Also, in Washington D.C., there were about 27 murders per 100,000 people. Then, when a handgun ban was put in place, the murder rate peaked at about 80 murders per 100,000 people. Once the ban was removed, the numbers soon dropped to about 25 murders per 100,000 people. Therefore, taking guns away will only increase crime.

Finally, I’m not the only one who believes this, of course. According to several sites, common sense is definitely on the side of the gun supporters. Firstly, thugs and criminals will ignore gun control laws. To think that thugs who ignore laws against murder, robbery, rape and assault will, by some miracle, obey gun control laws is purely ridiculous. In addition, thugs can kill someone who doesn’t have a gun easier than someone with a gun. Next, guns are tools, and crimes are acts. You can’t prevent an act by regulating tools, due to the fact that the tools aren’t what are committing the act.

For all these reasons, and more, gun control laws should not be put in place. You don’t need statistics to see that, just common sense. If you are looking for statistics, however, in Florida, where concealed weapons are legal, the crime rate is much lower, opposed to Washington D.C., where concealed weapons are illegal, and the crime rate is significantly higher. I hope that I’ve been able to persuade you towards my point of view. If you thought we needed stricter gun control before reading this, I hope i was able to persuade you.


Sources
http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp#general
http://mddall.com/sbss/0311.htm
http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/17/why-im-against-gun-control/