Carlos Aguilar

Bette Petrides
November 3, 2015
Should Severe Gun Control Laws Be Enacted in the U.S?
Gun control has been a hot topic for a long time; however, politicians have failed to pass laws
that further restrict the easiness of obtaining guns due to the National Rifle Associations (NRA)
high influence and the many lobbyists that keep this from happening. Nevertheless, gun control
should be enacted in the U.S. because the implementation of tougher laws would decrease gunrelated injuries and deaths.
Gun control is a restriction on the kinds of firearms that can be sold and bought, who can
possess or sell them, where and how they can be stored or carried, what duties a seller has to vet
a buyer, and what obligations both the buyer and the seller have to report transactions to the
government (Perez-Pena).The poor job done on the execution of tougher laws has led to many
devastating incidents. However, the most frequent ones have been caused by mentally unstable
individuals. In the last couple of years, tragic events have happened due to the unresolved efforts
made by some politicians who failed to enact resilient gun laws. The shooting at the church in
Charleston, South Carolina was caused by a mentally-ill individual who felt strong hatred toward
African Americans and killed nine of them during their prayer. The mayor of Charleston
expressed his grief and anger toward gun control in an interview with the press and said that,
there are far too many guns out there, and access to guns, its far too easy. Our society has not
been able to deal with that yet (Costa). However, this has not been the single event that has
struck American families and civilians. At the University of California at Santa Barbara, Elliot
Rodger, a college student who encountered psychiatric issues, killed 20 college students at

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UCSB (Rucker, Costa,Tate, and Crites). Rodger felt intense anger about the unfairness of society
and coped with this by taking the lives away from those whom he loathed. His distress was
caused by frustration of being a 22-year-old virgin who had been widely rejected by women and
even though he had followed advice from relatives to become more appealing to women, no
favorable outcome was evident. As a result of his frustration, he saw no greater option than to
spread bloodshed around campus. Considering this, two questions that should be asked to further
understand the current situation of gun laws are: how did Rodger manage to purchase guns? Was
this an easy process? California has some of the toughest gun control laws nationwide, but
Rodger still managed to obtain guns because gun stores failed to run careful screenings on him.
In his 140-page manifesto written before his death, he described how simple it was for him to
obtain guns. This shows clear evidence that even in California where stricter laws have been
executed, gun control laws seem to have deficiencies that need to be addressed (Bernstein).
Rodger was able to get firearms legally, but used them unlawfully. Therefore, states that prove to
have stronger gun control laws should tighten their laws even more and others which are more
lax should address this issue by implementing more dramatic changes. Everyones lives are at
stake from a crazy-minded creature who holds guns freely or publicly due to deficiencies
background checks. Tougher laws implemented on guns might have prevented Californias tragic
event from happening. People do not deserve to live on the margin of the scene; they deserve to
live free from risk, in a gun free zone. In a statement published by the Washington Post, Joseph
P. Riley Jr, the mayor of South Carolina, emphasized his disappointment on gun violence and
said that, easy ability for people to gain possession of [guns] no doubt contributes to violent
acts(Costa). If a mentally unstable person is able to obtain guns, this immediately awakens the
idea of passing uncompromising laws. The more the government procrastinates on this issue, the

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more gun-related deaths and injuries the public will be exposed to. Even Republican Peter T.
King agrees that the shooting underscores the need to expand background checks for firearm
sales and enhance mental-health screenings(Costa). Guns are to be kept out of the reach of those
who are mentally-ill and, again, this will only happen if rigorous laws on guns are implemented.
Giving arms to mentally unstable individuals is like letting a four year-old baby drive a car. This
being the case nothing good can come out of this, just as nothing good can come out of lenient
laws on gun control, absolutely nothing.

Gun control would, in fact, diminish wide-spread violence. The wide availability of guns
is nothing but a catalyst to violence. Guns only lead to bloodshed. For example, if there is a fight
and someone has a gun, there is a high probability that the individual with a gun will think of
using it even though it is not necessary. Guns should be used as a last resort and not as an
alternative to end non-threatening chaos. According to a thesis done by the Bostons Children
Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health, they found important information that further

corroborated that, states with the lowest rates of firearm ownership (Connecticut, Hawaii, New

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Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, California, Florida, Illinois, and Maryland) had
significantly lower rates of firearm-related assault and robbery, firearm homicide, and overall
homicide(Defilippis and Hughes). It is also upheld that states with the highest gun-ownership
levels (Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Arkansas, Arizona, West Virginia, North Dakota,
Idaho, Mississippi, and Alabama), meanwhile, had 6.8 times the rate of firearm assaults, 2.8
times the rate of firearm homicides, and twice the rate of overall homicides than states with the
lowest gun-ownership levels(Defilippis and Hughes). This shows that in general high levels of
gun ownership lead to more violence while stricter regulations on guns lead to less violence and
less gun-related injuries and deaths.
There are many who are in favor of gun control and many who are not. This is what
makes this a highly controversial topic and a hard topic to settle among people. Huge
disagreement from both sides prevents the execution of more regulated laws on guns. Instead,
politicians who failed to come to an agreement have left this subject in oblivion. Nonetheless,
when some gun event arises, gun advocates claim that, the only way to stop a bad guy with a
gun is a good guy with a gun(Hughes). Yet, this is not true because the average American
individual is not prepared to handle such responsibility and to make this kind of critical
decisions. Instead, most people make choices that make them better off by caring about
themselves first, instead of others. I can say this because this happened to me and, believe me,
when I was there I never thought of what would have happened if I were to have had a gun. Two
months after I had arrived in the U.S. my father, sister and I were heading to school on what
seemed to be a normal day. This place had many buildings and we all shared a parking lot. We
were in the fifth floor and had to go down the ramp in order to exit. We were about to head down
the first ramp that went into the fourth floor, when suddenly just before entering the ramp we

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heard a gunshot. We were not quite sure what that was, but my father was. My sister and I
thought we had heard fireworks instead. My father realized that something wrong was happening
and decided to reverse the car, as he was doing that we saw a white male carrying a rifle and
running, wearing scrubs. He ran in front of us and looked in such a hurry that seemed that he
barely even noticed we were there. We all panicked and did not know what to do. We did not
know what he was planning or what was really going on. We, however, called 911. Five minutes
after this fright, we saw armed policemen making their way into the building in the search for
this man.When we saw them we all felt relieved and safe. At this moment, they had blocked all
entries in and out of the building to prevent the guys escape. Our high school had also declared
a code blue alert since this had happened just one block away from our school. Although
policemen had done everything they could to catch him, they had no success because he had
made his way out before police showed up. Nevertheless, he turned himself in two hours later to
Pennsylvania State Police. The next day, all the residents from the building received a letter with
a full disclosure of the incident. Based on this personal experience, I do not wish for anyone to
go through the same situation as I did. Because of this, I am a big advocate of this law since I am
sure that guns are the problem to humanity and not a solution. I believe that the best way to
prevent mass shootings from happening again is by implementing tougher gun laws in states that
seem to be too lax on gun control and to toughen gun control on those that already have some
sort of law that prevents civilians from using guns in an unlawful manner. The idea that a good
guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun is just not true because when I was in that situation
I was too much in shock to assume any kind of responsibility other than to care about my wellbeing as well as my parents and sisters. Guns should be used by those who are trained to do so
and who know how to handle these situations, not civilians.

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Without further ado, it can be said that while politicians keep delaying the
implementation of this law, civilians keep suffering from gun-related incidents. Americans will
continue to see an increase in crime rates and those who are mentally-ill will be able to operate
freely without further constraints implemented. Andrew M. Cuomo, former governor of the state
of New York expressed his desire to change this and suggested that, congressional Democrats
should consider shutting down the federal government until the issue is addressed(McKinley
and Kaplanoct). He also made remarks, [on] how many mass killings would it take to get an
elected official to show some courage (McKinley and Kaplanoct). I personally do not know
when officials will decide to show courage, but I hope that they do this as soon as possible.
Yet, if they do not we will still keep being vulnerable and fearing for our lives and those of our
loved ones.

Works Cited
Bernstein, Sharon. "California Lawmakers Aim To Tighten Handgun Restrictions." The
Huffington Post 24 Apr. 2014, U.S. ed., Politics sec. The Huffington Post. Web.
10 Nov. 2015.
Calamaio, Cody. "Search for Man Who Shot at Woman in Bethesda Ends in Surrender." Gazette
8 Sept. 2010, Local sec. Gazette. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

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Costa, Robert. "Shaken Charleston Mayor: Far Too Many Guns out There." Washington Post
18 June 2015, Politics sec. The Washington Post. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Defilippis, Evan, and Devin Hughes. "Study Links Higher Gun Ownership to Higher Violent
Crime." The Trace New Study Is Latest to Find That Higher Rates of Gun Ownership Lead to
Higher Rates of Violent Crime Comments. The Trace, 24 June 2015. Web. 10
Nov. 2015.
Lampo, David. "Gun Control: Myths and Realities." Cato Institute. Cato Institute, 13 May 200
Hughes, Evan. "The Good Guy With a Gun Is a Myth." Slate. The Slate Group, 25 Jan. 2015.
Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Masters, Jonathan. "U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparisons." Council on Foreign Relations.
Council on Foreign Relations, 24 June 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
McKinley, Jesse, and Thomas Kaplanoct. "Cuomo, Citing Oregon Shooting, Criticizes Failure to
Pass Gun Control Laws." The New York Times 2 Oct. 2015, N.Y./region sec. The New York
Times. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Perez-Pena, Richard. "Gun Control Explained." The New York Times 7 Oct. 2015, U.S. sec. The
New York Times. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Rucker, Philip, Robert Costa, Julie Tate, and Alice Crites. "In Elliot Rodger, Authorities in Calif.
Saw Warning Signs but Didnt See a Tipping Point." The Washington Post 25 May 2014,
National sec. The Washington Post. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

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