The Pros And Cons Of Stricter Gun Control

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America has a massive gun problem, and lives are lost everyday because of it. Stricter gun control laws would reduce gun deaths. Firearms are the leading implement used in homicides and less access to guns would help lower this statistic. Massacres can and would be reduced as well. Guns cannot safely be used as a means of self defense either, and bringing a gun into any situation turns it into a life or death scenario. If a gun is locked in a safe then it is not useful, and if it is not in the safe then it is not safe (Jefferies). Criminals also have easy access to guns, easier than any regulated country (Jefferies). Stricter gun laws and background checks would help catch criminals and stop them getting guns (Jefferies). More gun control is …show more content…

The United States has a history with firearms due to its colonial, revolutionary, and frontier history and guns have been ever-present in American culture. It is true that most countries have semi strict gun laws and most countries have a higher crime rate than the US. But it is also true that most countries have a lower Human Development Index as the US. Background checks are a suitable way of stopping criminals from getting guns. Gun background checks did not prevent massacres in countries with strict gun laws and simply prevent law abiding citizens from getting guns easily. But they do prevent known criminals and people with mental health issues that may be prone to violence from getting guns. A significant amount of firearm massacres in the United States have been committed by people with mental health issues and could have been prevented with stricter background checks. Guns have already accounted for 11,586 deaths in the United States in 2016 as of October including 527 children under eleven, and there has been over three hundred verified mass shootings in 2016 alone (Gun). In comparison, Australia, which has stricter gun laws across all states and territories, has had only 230 gun homicides in total in 2014 (Australian Bureau of Statistics) and has had 0 massacres since 1997 when the Australian Government implemented its strict gun laws. Since 1997, Australia has not had a single gun massacre but the US has had 300 in ten and a half months. In Australia the gun crime rate dropped after guns were banned, but this has also been linked to a general drop in violent crime (Australian Institute of Criminology). Every form of violent crime was dropping before 1997 and the strict gun laws, and continued to drop after it. This cannot be taken as an indicator that banning a huge array of guns leads to a lower firearm crime rate, at least in Australia. It can be said that background checks

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