Disadvantages Of Gun Ownership

Introduction

Mass gun ownership is today the greatest threat to American citizens. It has been and still is both a right in America and one of the highly controversial political and social issues. Currently, there are over 250 million guns owned by Americans. Statistically, this means that almost every American owns a gun with a third of the population owning these fire arms. Consequently, America has the highest number of gun related deaths in the world. While a gun is acquired with personal protection in mind because it is the most effective defense weapon, it does not mean it is the only choice.

Over the years, gun ownership and their use has been under the jurisdiction of individual states with each having its own statutes. For example,

The main point of argument for this is derived from the fact that protection of property cannot be equated to loss of lives. Those with ill motives will argue that there is no evidence that banning or reduction in ownership of firearms will automatically result in gun crime. This is a very lame argument and lack credible information will support it. However, it can be substantiated from other countries that where there is abundant availability of firearms, there is high gun related violence and

It is also important to note that it is not every gun related suicide or homicide that could have materialized if there was no or limited availability of guns. This can be interpreted to mean that gun related social costs are escalated by the availability of guns. In addition, the numbers of young people involved in gun related crime continue to rise. This is as a result of several factors and key among them lack of legislation barring them from owning firearms.

• Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a phenomenon that has been since the existence of family units and will continue to be as long as people live together. The level of violence notwithstanding, domestic violence stands as an infringement of the affected party’s rights. It is common also that domestic violence may escalate in levels of violence meted with the passage of time. Where weapons are used, this form of violence results in serious injuries and even death. It is common that parties involved in this form of violence will often try to use weapons such as guns to intimidate each other or for protection. Consequently, such incidences will turn fatal because the intimidated person may think the other may not harm them because of the family