Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Gun Control
Gun Control
Full Name
Professor Name
Subject
Date
Gun Control
This paper analyzes the fact of debating over the gun control around the globe with an eye
to sociological perspectives. Much research has been conducted so far in order to find out what
sociological theories play important role making people taking one side of the debate showing
their behavior towards guns, its effects and some policies deciding to have the extent of gun
control. It has been revealed that those who keep it have much negative attitude towards society
increasing their aggression and lack of control on theory aggression. On the contrary, much study
has been conducted for the people who feel that some policies must be decided in order to carry
guns and not loosing control that government has to design such policies that citizens may not feel
Gun control, therefore, has become an increasing concern for people all over the world.
Some may demand that government should take strict measures and design strict control policies
because according to them this is a root cause of sudden shootings at different places specifically
at schools, malls, stores, etc. increasing the terrorism. However, in this essay it has been deeply
discussed what social aspects are involved in gun control, how adversely it affects the society, and
There is no doubt that the main focus of this essay is the individuals’ attitudes towards gun.
It is however evident that by keeping guns for a longer time relatively gives more chances that
people starts feeling positive towards it. Since we are living in such a society or era where we find
Last Name 2
negativity easily than positivity, we are surrounded with many of the violent video games, TV
serial, movies and these are the real sources to provoke a person to carry gun with him. Definitely
when a person carries gun with him, it becomes easier for him to have superior complex and he
becomes over confident, he tries to face any conflict comes his way and strives to solve it through
bullets which is indeed life threatening (Crisp & Turner, 2010). It is quite vivid that many
individuals of our society finds it their pride and status symbol holding a gun with them and for
them guns to be considered as a object which is ‘sacred’ (Lifton, 1999). As appeared in the Journal
of Social Psychology, guns are the power for people and they are considered to be stronger with
their guns, another reason to feel positive about carrying a gun (Cookie & Poodifoot, 2000). Since
the world is majorly male dominant in its nature, therefor it is easily understood that males carry
more guns than females; however, this ratio is changing with the changing need of trends. One
study shows that in US females carry more guns than in United Kingdom (Cookie & Poodifoot,
2000). However it cannot be denied that it is quite difficult to decide whether gun control be more
strict or it should be restricted by all means because it is evident from many research studies that
carrying guns adversely affect on the behaviors of individuals than those who do not. It is greatly
found that people with guns have been more aggressive in nature and violent than those who do
Many psychologists are of the view that even presence of a gun can contribute to the violent
behaviors in individuals so it is not necessary that a person must possess aggressive nature.
Leonard Berkovitz and Anhony LePage, in 1967, conducted a research study which provided fact
to believe that when a person is frustrated, it leads him to anger and the ultimate reaction is
evidently aggressiveness. They conducted this study on 100 male students of a college in which
these students were put under a problem solving situation and afterwards, were given electrical
Last Name 3
shocks, then were confined in a rom with no other thing than a table on which a revolver was there.
They were also asked to fill out a questionnaire which provided guidance about how they are
feeling and some of them made fires from the revolver lying on the table. Therefore, it became
evident that not only the aggressive nature but the presence of gun is also the factor motivating
people to be aggressive and may be more violent sometimes taking lives of their on or may be
somebody else’s (Crisp & Turner, 2010). Another example would be great from Jamaica (in 1974)
that when the act of keeping guns was amended with a view that it is rather illegal to keep a gun
in civiliens ownership made it clear that crime rate was subsequently lowered in the region
reducing it to the 14% of homicide, rape ratio dropped to 32%, robbery and other like robbery
It is not doubtful that citizens want to be safe yet there is another side of the population
who feel that some policies of strict regulations must be designed and be abided by everyone
instead of making it illegal to keep guns (O’Hara, 2013). Therefore, it can be added that strict
control over carrying a gun is a way to prevent people to hurt themselves or others yet it does not
seem to work like it because in every society there is always a back door open to find out something
in black. While looking at the Conflict theory which was developed by Karl Marx, it is found that
every society is always in a state of competition due to any conflict. This theory implies that
p[people who possess more wealth and resources would be in the position to protect and collect
those resources for future whereas those without such resources would be doing anything to obtain
them.it means that there is always some kind of conflict going on in the society. It is rather
unfortunate to find out that those who keep guns legally are to face most tragic endings of their
lives because such legal weapons are easily stolen and can be used by others with no restriction
because it is legally licensed (Tversky & Khaneman, 1973; Crisp & Turner, 2010).
Last Name 4
Therefore, it is well-understood fact that the availability of gun is the real factor of
negativity and adverse effects because it is easier for a person to shoot when a gun is in the hands
or available to him no matter legal or illegal. That’s why people are taking the scenario of keeping
guns with them so seriously and it has been a concerned debate since long all around the world
that what policies to gun control be designed in order to make sure that no matter whatever the
nature a person possess, he must not be available with a gun so to take any violent action
unnecessarily (Payne & Riedel Jr., 2002). This must be made restricted that no individual will take
keeping guns as a symbol of being more powerful than the laws and regulations and they may not
be to have greater sense of superiority complex over others that whenever they may find any