Essay About Gun Control in The United States of America

Since the dawn of the United States of America the right to bear arms was written into the Bill of Rights. The citizens of the United States have been given the right in order to protect themselves from a tyrannical government as well as other threats such as thieves and criminals to equalize the playing field and become proactive. This right is slowly and unjustly being taken away. Under current administration the idea would be to ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. This is in order to limit the number of deaths by guns, but is it justified? An infringement on every American’s Second Amendment right is not justified in any fashion because of the importance of guns in America.

The first problem is the logical fallacy that guns will be leaving criminals' hands. The emphasis being that criminals are not law abiding citizens. When a law pertaining to gun control is passed that has been spurred due to recent events such as shootings, criminals do not step forward to surrender their things because they do not listen to the law. In the 1920’s for example when congress passed the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors, criminals thrived. Among other illegal activities mob bosses made millions off the distribution of alcohol which was considered an illegal substance. Although it was a prohibited substance alcohol sales continue as normal just from another source, causing criminals to profit. Another example is the war on drugs that was declared in 1971. The war on drugs was a plan to crack down on recreational drug use and abuse in a positive manner by increasing the opposing forces and classifying drug use as a criminal offense. Classifying drug use as a criminal offense didn’t work, all it did was create more criminals. The number of drug users in America continued to skyrocket and drugs became more readily available. Mexico is another great example. “Mexican citizens' gun rights are severely restricted. Mexico's gun control laws are supposed to prevent drug traffickers and other criminals from arming themselves. But these criminals are heavily armed despite the laws. The restrictions keep guns from law-abiding citizens but do little to stop criminals from stockpiling them” (Doeden). Making items illegal in the past has failed miserably and this wouldn't be any different. 

A simple fact of gun control is that it leaves a weaker populous. When Hitler took charge, Jews were banned from purchasing firearms. Later into his dictatorship Jews were banned from owning any firearm. It left the Jews ripe for the taking without any backlash because they could not fight back. Having a weak population is how countries have kept their people under control for thousands of years. America was formed on the basis that the monarchy that controlled them gave them no freedoms. America had to fight for its independence in order to gain the right of freedom and so that it could not be lost.The Second Amendment was written to in part to protect the citizens of the United States to never have to deal with an overbearing power hungry government, but more and more of the rights are being violated every day. It was written with the idea that a tyrannical government will never be able to control the people again. It has been argued that the citizens would lose if the government became tyrannical so the original argument doesn't matter, but that is not true. The citizens would lose in a firefight and all out military battle yes, but the ability to fight before giving into a monarchy or dictatorship is exactly what the second amendment protects from. “If you could be sure that a given government would forever be democratic, there would be no need for arms to resist a possible domestic dictatorship. Unfortunately, certainty on that score is impossible. The list of nations to have maintained both independence and free government at all times since 1900 is short: Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. That’s just seven nations out of 196 worldwide.”(Kopel) Taking away guns can prevent people from protecting themselves. There are many instances in which people have used guns in order to protect themselves and others from bad people. With an increase of ownership of guns in America “one reason crime has been dropping in America is use of guns to stop crimes” (“Gun Control Advocates Should Stand Down, Post-Aurora Shooting Tragedy”). If the right to protect oneself and others is taken away then more tragedies are bound to happen. “Kiarron Parker was a convicted felon just out of prison, and so legally barred from owning a gun. Yet he still obtained one and murdered Josephine Echols, the mother of the church pastor. Fortunately, his rampage ended there, the huffington post reported that, echols nephew Antonio Milow, an off-duty Denver police officer who was attending a church service, then shot and killed Parker” (“Gun Control Advocates Should Stand Down, Post-Aurora Shooting Tragedy”). Without this police officer being there a lot more deaths could have occured and instances like this occur around the country every single day.

The proposers of gun control believe gun control would stop death by guns. There's multiple problems with this. The first being that there are relatively few deaths from guns comparatively to other sources. Heart disease, the number one leading cause of death, took “690,882”(Emerling) people in 2020. Guns in comparison took “39,707”(“Facts and Figures”), with “23,941”(“Facts and Figures”) of those deaths being sucide. Through these figures it shows that death by gun violence is very low in America. Proposers of gun control would also look at the suicide numbers and say that is a problem. Yes, it is a problem, but it is not a gun problem it is a mental health problem. Someone that is in the state of mind to commit sucide is going to do it whether they have access to a gun or not. Taking away guns will bring down suicide deaths by gun but it will not bring down the number of people that die by suicide each year. The remaining numbers leave Accidental shootings. Accidental shootings are caused by careless gun owners or uniformed children, teens, and adults. This is a problem with the system. Every child goes to school starting from a young age, schools should be able to instill kids with the knowledge required to learn how to act around a gun, to not touch it, and that they are dangerous when not used correctly. It is hard to give kids gruesome truths but it is even worse for a kid to die because of the lack of information.

The rights of Americans to bear arms get reduced every day and it is not justified. It will not work, people will be weak, and people will have no way to protect themselves. The country needs to look at the actual roots of problems such as mental health and poverty. Instead of using guns as a scapegoat and a tool for political gain it should instead be used as a chance to fix the real systematic flaws of our country.
 

Works Cited

Doeden, Matt. Gun Control : Preventing Violence or Crushing Constitutional Rights? Twenty-First Century Books ™, 2012. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e862xna&AN=386714.

“Gun Control Advocates Should Stand Down, Post-Aurora Shooting Tragedy.” Human Events, vol. 68, no. 28, 30 July 2012, p. 22. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=78199918.

Kopel, David B. “Gun Control Puts Your Life at Risk.” Reason, vol. 52, no. 5, Oct. 2020, pp. 12–13. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=145168693.

Emerling, Gary. “The Top 10 Causes of Death in America.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 20 Apr. 2021, 10:12 a.m., www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/slideshows/top-10-causes-of-death-in-america?slide=11. 

“Facts and Figures.” UC Davis Health, UC Davis Health, health.ucdavis.edu/what-you-can-do/facts.html.