Webster 1

Caleb Webster

Aughenbaugh

English 12

6 February 2017

The Negative Effects of Gun Control

Gun control should not be limited by the government because it is the right of a U.S.

citizen to own a gun. The founding fathers paved the ground of the American constitution that

citizens keep guns for protection, from both foreign and domestic invaders and to protect from a

tyrannical government (Gun Control). We the people, have the right to defend our constitution

from the government. In order to to do so as written in the constitution we have to the right to

buy, own, and sell guns. The issue today in America is that there is a lot of gun violence and the

government wants to ban certain guns so they cant be sold to the people and limit the amount of

guns being bought by violating privacy and making it mandatory to go through in depth

background searches, etc.

The first issue is that they are trying to bend the Constitution written by the founding

fathers. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed (Dolan 39). That

was placed in the Constitution for a reason. It was so American citizens could protect themselves

from invaders, foreign and domestic. Its obvious that a person would feel safer having a gun to

protect oneself from harm. People all the time say, Thats what we have police for. However,

unless a police officer is right beside a victim, he is no good to that person at that very moment..

The average response time to a police call is twenty-three minutes; the average response time to

a .357 magnum is1400 feet per second (source). Guns are not violent weapons until they are held
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in the hands of a violent person. The best way to act against crime and violence is to not act

against the gun.

The second reason is guns are meant to be used for survival.. Guns don't kill people,

people kill people(Gun Control) Guns aren't used as a murder weapon until put into the hands

of the murderer. Regardless of how many background checks are done, guns will always find

their way into the hands of murderers. Taking away the rights of law-abiding citizens is not the

answer. Taking away a gun owners ability to protect himself from a murderer or robber only

makes the situation that more dangerous. Guns are accounted for about 1.3 percent of deaths in

America, ranked at number twelve (source). According to a Lancet study done in 2016, Most

state-level gun control laws do not reduce firearm death rates (source). Of twenty-five state

laws, nine were associated with higher gun death rates (Gun Control). In Mexico, they have

nearly two thousand more gun deaths, and they are one of the strictest places on earth when it

comes to gun control. Mexico has one legal gun shop compared to nearly seventy thousand in the

United States. Mexico has one of the most complicated background checking systems for

checking a persons eligibility. In Mexico, there are thirteen guns per one hundred people. Based

on these facts, does gun control really work?

The last reason to protect second amendment rights is because people feel safer and want

guns. A Pew Foundation study report shows that seventy nine percent of male gun owners and

eighty percent of female gun owners feel safer when carrying a weapon. (Gun Control)

Sixty-eight percent of people said they sleep better at night when there is a gun present that they

know of (source). So if people feel safer with guns why would the government eliminate them?
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So a counter argument to it is our right is, mostly liberals and democrats saying this, is

that the amendment was meant for guns of the time meaning muskets not semi auto guns. THe

second amendment protects modern forms of speech so therefore it protects my right to own

modern guns. Second argument is that we have cops for a reason and we don't need guns to

protect ourselves cops will do that for us. True, they will protect us but they can't be right there

all the time and it takes time to respond to an incident. Cops can't protect you everywhere you

go. The last argument is people say guns are kill people and you banning guns should make you

feel safer. No, guns will still be bought no matter what whether its at your everyday gun store or

on the black market you will just be taking guns out of the good peoples hands and the bad

people will still have guns.

Conclusion

The conclusion is that gun control is unnecessary and doesn't work. Gun control hasn't

worked in Mexico and it won't work in the United States either. There is clear evidence that gun

control doesn't work and in some cases makes things worse. Gun control literally takes the guns

out of the law -abiding citizens hands, who use them to defend themselves, and keeps them in the

hands of the criminals.

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Works Cited

A Ban on Assault Weapons Would Not Reduce Crime. Guns and Crime. Ed. Noel Merino.

Farmington HIlls, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2015. At Issue. Rpt. from Ten Reasons Why States

Should Reject Assault Weapon and Large Magazine Bans. National Rifle Association

Institute

for Legislative Action [NRA- IVA] (June 2014). Opposing Viewpoint in Context. Web. 13

Jan.

2017.

Dolan, Edward. Gun Control A Decision For Americans. New York: Library of Congress

Cataloging, 1982. Print.

Epstein, Richard A. There Is No Easy Solution to Preventing Gun Violence. Guns and Crime.

Ed.

Noel Merino. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2015. At issue. Rpt. from Will

Banning

Guns Prevent Another Aurora? Defining Ideas (24, July 2012). Opposing Viewpoints in

Context. Web. 20 Jan. 2017

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Schaus, Michael. There Is a Problem with Politics, Not Guns, in The United States. Gun

Violence. Ed. Noel Merino. Farmington Hills, Mi: Greenhaven Press, 2015. Opposing

Viewpoints.

Rpt. From Guns Dont Cause Gun Violence - Democrats Do. Townhall 5, May 2014.

Opposing

Viewpoints in Context. Web. 18. Jan. 2017

Should Gun Control Laws Be In The United States! Proconorg. ProCon, 2016. Web. 19 Jan.

2017.