Research Paper On Gun Control

Gun Control Essay

The United States has about eighty nine guns per one hundred people (Procon 10/3/17). This proves that there are many American citizens that own firearms. I believe that this can be an issue. It should not take any more mass shootings or death by guns, for tighter restrictions to be put in place. The Second Amendment gives people the right to bear arms. The issue with this amendment is that it does not specify what kind of arms. This amendment is very vague and people have taken advantage of that. The Founding Fathers intended for it to protect the rights of the militias not the rights of the individuals.
I do not think taking away all rights involving guns is the most productive way to go about this. If owning a

gun became illegal, I do not believe the majority of gun owners would follow the law. At this point, I really do not think that laws could stop somebody with intentions to hurt innocent people. Legally owned weapons are still frequently stolen and used by criminals (Procon 10/3/17). Some invasion of privacy may be needed to go more in depth involving the people attempting to own a firearm. The amount of death by guns should not be looked at lightly. One death of an innocent person is already too many. There should be actions taken to prevent this from reoccuring. There should be a mandatory class after purchasing a firearm on how to work it, in order to prevent accidental deaths. This should obviously take place after the owner has had an extensive background check. Military-grade weapons should not be available to the public under any circumstances. Owning a pistol is extremely different from owning an automatic weapon. Mexico has some of the strictest laws regarding guns, yet in 2012, they had 11,309 gun murders. This proves that even the strictest laws can not prevent gun violence from occurring.
Australians have been observing recent events in the US and are sadly disappointed. They believe that we should take action before things become too unmanageable. Australia was capable of executing a buy back program taking 600,000 semi-automatic rifles and shotguns out of circulation (Polman 10/13/17). They also banned private gun sales and put elaborate background checks in place. The buyer was also required to have a reason for wanting to own a weapon. Self-defense was not a valid answer. Australia also instituted a program that resulted in citizens handing over 26,000 unregistered guns (Polman 10/13/17). These extra precautions have kept Australia free of mass shootings. Half of the households that owned guns prior to all of this, do not own them now. The Australian government was successful in buying back the weapons and destroying them. If it was that easy for them, why haven’t we attempted it? Even if there was some compromise involved. For example, hunters that survive off of their game would still be able to hunt. This was also another productive strategy Australia used to keep their people satisfied but safe.
Personally, I believe that the United States really has nothing to lose. We should be trying anything possible in order to protect the people. There have been way too many fatal tragedies involving young, innocent people. The most productive method is trial and error. Nothing will improve if laws and restrictions stay the same. There needs to be change, but change that will not cost people their lives.