Gun Violence And Gun Control

The problem of gun violence is something that really needs to be dealt with. Every day in the world someone is shot and killed, either out of anger, accident, or suicide.

In this country guns are kept commonly and are a cultural acceptance. Most people have a gun. In the article "Finland Defends Gun Laws," Jari Tanner has a graph sourced from, "Small Arms Survey 2007" showing that out of every 100 people in the U.S., 90 people have a gun; ranking number one in the world for weapons possession.

Most people who own guns believe in the 2nd amendment, "The right to bear arms." They believe it is their constitutional right to have them. But when there is a school shooting, these people like the NRA, they do not blame themselves for their beliefs, but they blame movies, music, and video games. For example, in the movie,"Bowling for Columbine," by Michael Moore, it was said that rock artists like Marilyn Manson were to blame for the shooting. This was also said in news coverage of the time, and also they eventually went on to blame movies and video games as well.

When people play violent video games it is believed that the person playing will get desensitized. This is not entirely reasonable. What about those who go hunting for game everyday? They kill animals with their shotguns, they kill real living creatures, and no one ever seems to blame them and you never hear anything about them being "desensitized". What I am trying to say is that violent video games, movies and television should not be entirely blamed for what is going on now in society. However, when people are affected by these things and turn into violent rages, which may be influenced by some sort of media, these people are not well in the head, and should be placed under some sort of psychiatric watch.

There are some people in this country who believe that there should be no gun control. These people's values, as I said before, fall under the 2nd amendment. It is their constitutional right to carry and own their gun, their "right to bear arms." But this amendment was written over 200 years ago, a time when a firearm was really needed to protect yourself, your family and land.

Wayne LaPierre argues, "How many more people will die before we realize it's time to devote our resources and public debate toward direct confrontation with violent criminals?" LaPierre also says,"guns are not the problem, people are." LaPierre is placing all of the blame upon the criminals, when the weapon itself had a part of the crime. If the weapon weren't in the hands of the criminal in the first place then the crime might have never happened, or even if the laws were much tougher. However, it's a known fact that most criminals do not purchase their guns over the counter, and therefore the laws LaPierre is speaking of won't prevent many people from buying them from the black market.

Though, if the government were to enforce a full ban upon firearms it would create a social stigma. They would be reduced as a social norm, and considered or thought as of something like drugs, or racism. With a full ban all crime would drastically drop, though people would attempt to buy firearms