How The Negatives Outweighing The Positives Are Playing Against Gun Control in America

Have you ever walked into a building with a sign labeled gun free zone? What do you think a robber sees when he walks in to rob that gun free zone? The overall safety of the population of the United States is limited by gun control, even our president is protected by guns. If we were to seize all of the legal guns what would happen to all of the grandfathered and illegal guns out there? The United States has started to notice that either way you try to limit gun control and gun rights terrible things will happen. In gun free zones there has been a spike in terrorism and attacks. Whether or not the United States needs more gun control is a popular topic that.

Many Americans believe gun control could limit how safe they could keep their community and their families. The United States has about 8.8 guns per 100 people, about 270 million guns, and only 22% of Americans own guns. The Second Amendment of the US Constitution reads, 'A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' The second amendment clearly states that the people should be armed for our protection. We as the people of the United States have the right to arm ourselves and not have our guns taken away. Yet the government feels the need to make more gun laws limiting us on the second amendment. More gun laws infringe on our right to keep our weapons not intact with the service. A ban on assault rifles has not shown a significant difference in gun related crimes. A December 10, 2014 Pew survey found that 57% of people believe that owning a gun protects them from being victimized.

Banning guns will just give criminals easy targets since they don't have to worry about other legal gun owners carrying weapons due to the restrictions of carrying a gun. States with the largest increase in legal gun ownership show a decline in robberies and violence. So if we outlaw gun ownership then the outlaws will eventually illegally own all of the guns, giving them the lead over the rest of the competition. Gun ownership has doubled in the 20th century and the amount of gun related crimes has decreased. According to the National Rifle Association, guns are used for self defense 2.5 million times a year. Police cannot always protect everyone. The average response time of a 911 call is 22 minutes for a non-emergency, and 9 minutes for an emergency. In that allotted time things can escalate quickly and people can be shot or injured, or a robbery could turn into a hostage situation. Now if a person has their concealed carry permit can stop the situation right away then injuries and death can be avoided. What if the criminal takes away phones and you cuts off contact to the outside world. Then a concealed permit can come in handy. A person with a concealed permit could assess the situation, react, and possibly save someone’s life.There are over 13.7 million hunters in the United States sixteen or older, and spend 7.7 billion dollars on guns, sights, ammunition, and other various equipment needs.

More often than not, assault rifles are said to be no more powerful than your regular hunting rifle. Legislature has labeled these weapons as “assault” to scare people into not buying them. This was also their tactic to stop the selling of these weapons. The government already banned fully automatic assault rifles but, semi automatic rifles fire just as easy as your hunting rifle. Sport shooting is a big industry and competitors spend on average about $1,580.83 per gun. What would happen if the government got so strict with the gun control laws that we had to basically give up all of our guns? That would create tyranny, and on December 10, 1791 that's why we passed the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights included the second amendment because the United States were tired of falling under the tyranny of King George. Banning guns and enacting gun laws would not prevent crimes and mass shootings. Of 62 mass shootings in the United States between 1982 and 2012, 49 of the shooters used legally obtained guns. Most gunmen will do whatever it takes for them to obtain a gun, even if that means it is obtained illegally.

Gun laws take away guns from the citizens that obey the law, while criminals would still ignore them. Criminals are desperate enough to steal guns from family and friends, which further proves how deceiving criminals can be. Many Americans fear the government will have too much power if it decides to enact gun control laws. They also fear the government could take all the guns away from the citizens. Americans who are against gun control argue the second amendment provides citizens with the right to bear arms. If they enact gun laws the government would be infringing on the second amendment. The second amendment is in the constitution to protect us from a tyrannical government, a cruel and oppressive government. Many enraged Americans would protest and many riots would break out if they lost their right to bear arms. Owning a gun comes with a sense of security that many Americans would not like to lose. If gun control laws were enacted many Americans would have to have a background check and even possibly microstamping. If people needed a background check it would require a government database that would hold all of the personal information. The personal information would include their name, address, mental health history, and criminal records. Microstamping is the use of a laser to engrave markings onto the firing pin and face of a firearm. So if that cartridge is spent the microstamping on the cartridge will give information on the firearm. Americans feel microstamping and background checks are an invasion of their privacy, and fear the government will use the database and their information for something it is not intended for. A very popular belief among those who are against gun control laws is that we don’t need gun control, people need education on guns.

In order to prevent accidental shootings, people need to be educated in gun safety and how to use guns. Americans who oppose gun control laws say it's not guns who kill people, it's people who kill people. They also believe there should be an increase in mental illness screening to reduce the amount of mass killings. 95% of all US gun owners believe that children should learn about gun safety. In homes where children are introduced to guns and are taught about the use of guns do not associate them with violence. Instead they associate guns to freedom, security, protection, and for recreation. People aren’t always aware of their surroundings and accidents are more likely to occur when that happens.

Other countries such as Mexico have tried to have strict gun control laws. The citizens of Mexico do not follow these laws, and therefore these laws have failed. Mexico only has one legal gun store, which is located on a secure military base. In order to buy a gun they need to supply many items such as a valid ID, proof of income, references, and prove military duties were honorable. Along with those items they must also go through a metal detector, hand over any phones, be fingerprinted, and photographed. Once they are allowed to buy a gun, they can only buy one gun and one box of bullets. For many people they believe the government has too much control over their ability to purchase a gun and how many guns they can purchase at one time. Even with these strict laws, Mexico still has more gun murders than the United States. If gun control laws come into effect, gun violence could decrease, but crimes involving other weapons could increase. If guns became harder to obtain, criminals may turn to other weapons such as knifes to replace the gun. Most criminals are very intelligent and could even make a weapon themselves. If a criminal decides to kill someone they will do whatever it takes for them to complete what they are wanting to accomplish. Gun control would also make citizens more vulnerable. A citizen would be unable to defend himself because gun control laws would prohibit them from carrying a gun with them. Instead of protecting citizens, guns laws would only be hindering the citizens and victims of crimes.

Some Americans feel as though gun control laws are racists and are directed toward inner city, poor, black communities. Those communities are perceived as more dangerous than a white neighborhood. A white male carrying a weapon is seen as defender of his community and family, while a black male is seen as a public enemy. Black communities are feared by many who are afraid they will revolt and cause a riot in their community. Gun control laws would have to overcome the stereotype that they are racist before they could ever be passed. Even though there are many supporting reasons to oppose gun control, there are also many supporting claims to support gun control. Many supporters believe gun control would reduce gun deaths, and decrease the amount of deaths related to domestic violence toward women. They also believe legally owned guns are frequently stolen and used by criminals. More gun control also leads to fewer suicides. If they make getting guns harder, people contemplating suicide would have a harder time finding a gun to use. If a gun is present it makes the situation more likely to become violent. The more guns a country has the more deaths and violence occur in that country. Reducing the number of guns in a country could help control the violence and hopefully reduce the number of deaths. Many supporters believe gun control could benefit American citizens.

Overall, there are many credible opposing arguments to why there should not be gun control. Supporters of gun control believe the United States should tighten restrictions on gun control to make it harder to obtain a gun. People who are against gun control laws believe the government should not interfere with their ability to purchase or use guns. The safety and wellbeing of our country is in the hands of the government, what they choose to do will be the overall decision of how gun control will end up in the near future. The overall safety of the population of the United States is limited by gun control, even though our president is protected by guns. If we were to seize all of the legal guns what would happen to all of the grandfathered and illegal guns out there?