Taylor-Anne Atou

Mr. Smith
Adv. American Lit. Period 2
25 August 2016
Should There be a Ban on Guns?
Guns. When most people think guns and weapons they think of violence, war, death, and
many other things but guns arent always bad, it depends on the intentions of the user. Is a knife
evil? Only if the wielder is evil (R. Riordan). A gun is not evil just like the knife it depends on
the intentions of the person using it. Guns can be used for good things too; some people rely on a
gun to protect themselves, their families or others, some use guns to hunt for food to provide for
their families, and for recreational uses. The ban on assault weapons, should not be allowed in
the US.
Gun control has always been a hot topic in American politics and the previous election
race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump proves that. Trump was a supporter of guns
contrary to his opponent and because of this Trump gained the support of many militia families
who felt that the second amendment was being under fire from Clinton. Philip King, a member
of the Georgia Security Force, said that, ...their view of Mr. Trump as someone who will
insulate them from the tyranny of the political left (Zucchino).
Many people believe that there should be gun-control laws and that it would help reduce
violence. Anti-gun groups found that, States with relatively tough gun laws, including
Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, generally had much lower rates of gun
violence, while those with looser gun laws including Alaska, Louisiana, and Mississippi

had higher rates, the study found (Lichtblau). However, you are comparing more urban areas,
being the states with tough gun laws, to more rural states with the looser gun laws.
According to Time Magazine, The risk of firearm-related death showed no difference
across the rural-urban spectrum for the population as a whole (Walsh). This shows that if people
had better access to more informed training courses, many rural households have guns and they
leave them out where children can reach them. The result of the children getting their hands on
the gun is often tragic but, At the same time, the bulk of victims killed by homicide are young
men, according to FBI statistics. And they are more likely to be shot and killed in the cities
(Walsh).
The ban and restriction of guns should not be allowed. The ban will not do much to help.
The majority of people that do use assault weapons are militias, so the ban would be an
infringement of the 2nd amendment. The NRA spokesperson, Ms. Baker, said that, such studies
cherry picked evidence, and she pointed to research by John Lott, a popular conservative
researcher, as evidence that tougher gun restrictions have no real effect on reducing gun violence
or deaths (Lichtblau). The evidence shows that tougher gun restriction will not help reduce the
gun violence or deaths.

Citations and Bibliography

Lichtblau, Eric. "Gun-Control Groups Push Growing Evidence That Laws Reduce Violence."
New York Times. New York Times, 11 Oct. 2016. Web.

Zucchino, David. "A Militia Gets Battle Ready for a Gun-Grabbing Clinton Presidency." New
York Times. New York Times, 4 Nov. 2016. Web.
Aborn, Richard. "Revive the Assault Weapons Ban." New York Times. New York Times, 2 Nov.
2016. Web.
Walsh, Bryan, and Bryan Walsh. "In Town vs. Country, It Turns Out That Cities Are the Safest
Places to Live | TIME.com." Time. Time, 23 July 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
http://www.azquotes.com/quote/516376 (Quote of Rick Riordan)