Gun Control: Not Necessarily The Safest Solution

Gun politics, the political aspects of the regulation of firearms, has long been one of the most controversial and intractable issues in American politics. At the heart of this debate is the relationship between the rights of a citizen and the state's power to regulate and maintain public order. An important source of this conflict arises from a strong American traditional, social, and cultural connection with firearm ownership versus political scenarios associated with periodic public outrage at events involving gun violence. It's roots date back to events prior to, and leading up to, the American Revolution such as the Boston Massacre. Americans have a constitutional right to own handguns and stricter laws and licensing will not effectively save lives. Removing guns from American society would only lead to an increase in crime and infringe upon Constitutional rights.

Removing guns from society would only increase crime rates due to ones inability to properly arm himself for self defense. Often, one will see an article where someone used a firearm in self-defense and included in that article is a statement from the people at Handgun Control, Incorporated. This statement usually runs to the effect that successful self-defense cases are "very rare" and that "all too often" they "result in tragedy" or "result in an innocent person being shot". One of the key aspects of propaganda is "if you tell a lie often enough, people believe it is the truth." This blatant misuse and lack of evidence is a perfect example of the principle in action. Not only do the writer's of these articles often fail to support the falsehood that self defense with a firearm is "rare", they fail to support the notion that innocent people are frequently the victim. Statistically there are far more people defending themselves with guns than there are people committing crimes with guns. For every 100,000 people in the USA, only about 10.22 of them have committed a crime where a gun was involved. Annually, in the United States there are a reported 2.5 million lawful uses of firearms in self defense. People are much more reluctant commit a crime against someone else if they are unsure whether that person is carrying a weapon or not. Our government is very strict when granting gun control licenses: the "Shall Issue" law prevents anyone with a criminal record or mental illness from owning or possessing a firearm. To prevent gun related crimes, education about gun use must be administered at young ages to prevent problems later in life.

People learn responsibility when they are young children and what they learn reflects what they do and how they