Kacie Stephenson

Pols 2300
Gun control vs gun rights
10/12/2016

What do you think is more importantto protect the right of Americans to own guns, OR
to control gun ownership? The debate between gun control and gun rights is one that is cultural,
geographical, and lifestyle implications. (1) The US is the leading country in the world in gun
violence as well as gun ownership, coincidence? Statistics show of the 233,251 people who died
between 1988 and 1997, 68% of them were killed with guns. This clearly backs up the argument
that guns kill people. Around 38.4% of Americans own a firearm, the scariest part is the market
is spewing with unregulated gun sales making ill-equipped people prone to obtaining them.
However some people would argue the only way to stop a bad guy is a good guy with a
gun. This only hits the tip of the iceberg, studies show that ownership is more or a catalyst than a
deterrent. Our findings refute the argument that gun ownership deters strangers from
committing homicide. Instead, these findings suggest that gun ownership actually increases the
risk of violent death. (2) From a study done by Harvard School of public Health is shows states
with lower crime rates had significantly lower rates of firearm related assault, robbery, and
homicide. States with the highest ownership rates ate 6.8 times the amount of assaults, 2.8 times
the amount of homicides. Rather scary thought to think about, really raises the question if gun
control is really needed here in the US.
Outlawing gun ownership in the US is unconstitutional and defeats the power of the
second amendment. The second amendment of the United States reads A well-regulated Militia,

being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed. (3) The founding fathers knew that there needed to be a difference
between prohibition and making sure the Federal Government could only place reasonable
restrictions on the right. There are already many restrictions in place that have helped more than
harmed the Second Amendment. For instance some restrictions include prohibiting convicted
felons from possessing firearms, insane or mentally incompetent people from owning guns, and
firearm free zones. Obviously all of these infringe on Americans right to bear arms, but they are
in place to help prevent those who have proven they cant use firearms responsibly from doing
so. All these go to show that gun control, to an extent, can be a good thing.
It has been found that 90 percent of criminals obtained their firearms through variety of
off-the-book means like gifts, sharing, or fellow gang members. So if there are already firearm
controls in effect, why are these still issues? Most of it starts with firearm trafficking, or the sale
of firearms from lawful commerce to the illegal market. The most common types of firearm
trafficking are corrupt firearms dealers, unlicensed sellers, lost or stolen firearms, and straw
purchasers. Traffickers are found through firearm tracing that is generated when law enforcement
recovers a firearm from a crime scene and requests that they do an investigation to determine
who originally sold and purchased the firearm. Unfortunately, prosecuting for firearm trafficking
is rather limited due to lack of funding. With these problems still rising, it goes to show that gun
control is not 100% effective, nor has it been.
Firearms in the wrong hands endanger everyone. Responsible firearms policies focus on
thwarting dangerous people and do not attempt to infringe the constitutional rights of good
people. (4) This has proven true time and time again the problem isnt the law abiding citizens
with firearms, so why are they trying to infringe our rights? The truth seems to be most law

makers are not trying to infringe on our rights, they are trying to make the laws right so firearms
arent getting into the wrong hands. The objection is to create a cultural device to protect us from
the day to day failures of the system so far, to build a structure that reflects and enforces the
understanding of being a well-rounded person. Laws are about building social foundations to
govern behavior so we can live in a society based off diplomacy and compassion instead of
deterrence and destruction. Gun control to an extent would be a good thing for the US so we
cannot live in a world full of fear, we need a sense of security while still feeling like we have
rights.

Works cited
(1) gun.laws.com/gun-rights/gun-control-versus-gun-rights
(2) www.thetrace.org/2015/06/new-study-is-latest-to-find-that-higher-rates-og-gun-ownershiplead-to-higher-rates-of-violent-crime/
(3) www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second-amendment
(4)freebeacon.com/issues/report-most-gun-control-policies-ineffective-at-preventing-gun-crime/
Other works used
www.Armedwithreason.com