Gun Control

Gun Control

Try to imagine a stone cold killer who just got out of jail running loose in the streets. He sees a house with a family in it. He breaks into it with the intention of killing someone. As he enters, the owner of the house sees him with a gun in his jacket. The owner then goes to the drawer and pulls a gun on the person. That person just saved her life because she owned a gun. This could happen to anyone. Gun control is the regulation of the sale and use of rifles and handguns. An injustice is violation of another's rights or of what is right. This could be unjust because guns can save lives. Gun control is unjust and adjusting it accordingly can solve our nations most persistent and pressing problems.

Gun control has been a rising conflict in the 2000’s. Some people say we should have it some say we shouldn’t. And there are those others who just want to change gun control a little bit. Gun control is an injustice because if people can have guns they can save lives. But not just any person should be able to get a gun. Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Due to this assassination it increased public awareness which lead to the creation of increased and stricter gun control laws. People are entitled to own a gun. “The right to bear arms is stated in the 2nd amendment to the U.S. constitution. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” (Right to Bear Arms). In other words the constitution allows U.S. citizens to own firearms. So, if people are allowed to have guns then why are there gun control laws? “ The debate started shortly after November 22, 1963 when evidence in the assassination of President Kennedy, which created some questions of why there was a relative lack of control over the sale and possession of firearms in America”(Gun Control Timeline). This all originated in Dallas, Texas. This is some history on gun control.

The people that are trying to convince people that there is no problems with gun control have some pretty interesting things to say. These gun control advocates claim that guns promote violent behavior. Every day people are killed by guns. “Every day in the United States, 14 children are killed with guns” (Children Are Not at Risk from Handgun Violence). From this data a conclusion can be made that a lot of people are dying from guns. Gun control advocates also claim that there are ways to reduce gun violence. “A push for restrictions on bullet purchase, programs to rehabilitate criminals, devices to block out television violence, and growing citizen action groups are some ways of that gun violence can be reduced”(Bender 165-166). They claim that doing all this will help reduce gun violence. Trying to rehabilitate criminals might not be that effective. They also claim that death isn’t the only problem guns create. “During 1987 and 1988, Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, treated about 700 gunshot victims at a total cost of $10.5 million. Most of these victims- 2 percent of the hospitals patients- used 40 percent of its blood supply” (Newton 103). This data shows that gun shot victims are using almost half of the hospital’s donated blood.

This justification is wrong for many reasons. For one, just because someone assassinated the president 40 years ago doesn’t mean that we have to limit what guns we can buy today. Lives can be saved if more people are able to buy guns. “In 1990 30% of the guns in the U.S. were used for self-defense” (Newton 24). This number should be much higher. Guns have more than just one use, for instance to go hunting or just to have a collection for a hobby. “Nearly 60% of the guns in the U.S. were used for hunting (Newton 24). That leaves about 10% left of guns in the U.S. “Law enforcement owns 3% of guns and 5% of guns was for collection purposes” (Newton 24). So that leaves only a small percentage of people who own guns with no purpose for them. Now, legalizing some illegal types of guns wouldn’t really affect people if most of them are using them for hunting and self protection. Just try to imaging a woman in an alley coming home from work with a gang following her. The gang finally catches up to her and corners her in the back of the alley. In most cases she would die, unless she had a gun. If she had a gun she could have just pulled it out and scared the gang away. Possibly saving her life or any others around her.