Pro Gun Control | Teen Ink

Pro Gun Control

January 29, 2014
By djavon4 BRONZE, Phila, Pennsylvania
djavon4 BRONZE, Phila, Pennsylvania
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Pro Gun Control Essay



In the U.S. about 88.9 guns are owned for every 100 people (Zakaria, "The Case for Gun Control." ). How many of those people are actually qualified to have a gun? That is the question we, as Americans need to be asking. Gun laws eliminate the people who aren’t qualified to possess a gun. People who aren’t qualified could have mental issues or a history of criminal acts. They help protect citizens from people like James E. Holmes, who went into a movie theater, on July 20, 2012 and shot and killed 12 people, and injured 58 (Mother Jones, "US Mass Shootings, 1982-2012: Data From Mother Jones' Investigation."). Twelve innocent people were killed, 58 were injured and 70 could’ve been saved if we had gun laws. Gun laws provide safety and structure so innocent people aren’t killed. These laws prevent incidents like Sandy Hook (December 14, 2012), Wisconsin Sikh Temple shooting (August 5, 2012), and Tuscon shooting (January 8, 2011) from happening (Mother Jones, "US Mass Shootings, 1982-2012: Data From Mother Jones' Investigation."). I am pro-gun control because not everyone deserves to have a gun, and too many people have died because the law has allowed them to possess a gun.

Society has changed and so should the gun control laws. During the time when the 2nd amendment was written, there were gun laws. Since there were gun laws when the second amendment was created, having gun laws now isn’t anything new, or going against the 2nd amendment. The amendment states that a “well regulated militia” is necessary for the security of a free state(Constitution). The amendment calls for regulations, but groups similar to the NRA and other anti-gun control people, focus on the part in the amendment where it states that everyone has “the right to bear arms” (Wrinkler, "The Second Amendment Is All for Gun Control." ). They ignore the part where it says that there should be some kind of regulations for who can and can’t possess a gun. Therefore if, “everyone has the right to bear arms” then young children are qualified to have guns. . By saying children can’t have guns is setting rules and regulations, exactly what gun laws are made to do. They are made to protect children and adults from dangerous people with guns.

Recently, in many cases guns have gotten into the wrong hands due to lack of an effective system. Guns are dangerous and have gotten into the wrong hands too many times. Now anyone can get their hands on guns, as long as you have money and a supplier. According to the 1977 Justice Department, they surveyed more than 18,000 convicts and reported that 39.6% of criminals obtained a gun from a friend or family member, 39.2% of criminals obtained a gun on the street or from an illegal source, 0.7% of criminals purchased a gun at a gun show, 1% of criminals purchased a gun at a flea market, 3.8% of criminals purchased a gun from a pawn shop, and 8.3% of criminals actually bought their guns from retail outlets (Olmsted, "The Daily Caller." ). As you see, most criminals get their guns from someone they know. People also can buy guns off the internet and the black market, it’s just that simple. Easier access to guns is allowing more unqualified people to get possession, and more people, including children killed. There is close to 300 million guns owned in the U.S.(Tucci, "The Daily Caller." ). Imagine your child getting hold of a gun and harming themselves or another person. Would making stricter gun laws then sound like a good idea?

Countries other than the U.S. have been successful with their gun laws. The gun violence rates in America are higher than every country. Since guns are becoming more available, more crimes are being committed. From 1982 to 2012, the U.S. had over 62 mass shootings, 49 were using legal weapons (Morris, "10 Arguments for Gun Control." ). The homicide rate in the U.S. is 30 times Britain and Australia’s, 10 times India’s, and 4 times Switzerland’s homicide rate (Zakaria, "The Case for Gun Control." ). Yes, sometimes guns are used to protect people and for self defense, but only 1.6% of all mass shootings since 1980 were successfully intervened by and armed civilian (Morris, "10 Arguments for Gun Control."). That percentage is not high enough to justify the use of a gun.
People should have the right to bear arms. Gun laws aren’t taking away that right. Whether you’re pro gun control or anti gun control, we all know that there’s certain people who should never have guns. Stricter gun laws protect everyone good or bad. Gun laws prevent the use of guns for certain people, so people don’t feel the need to protect themselves with guns. Nobody wants anymore kids to die. No more unjustified homicides, no more incidents where guns get into the wrong hands. Making stricter gun laws is taking a step forward into a safer world, where kids can go outside and play without their parents worrying if they will come back alive. Lets live in a safer world.


The author's comments:
English essay on gun control

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 15 comments.


ejg14 said...
on Oct. 19 2016 at 3:37 pm
ejg14,
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
lol egn/n./fwmer/wemlj

ejg14 said...
on Oct. 19 2016 at 3:36 pm
ejg14,
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
lol sjpd'q

ThatOdd1Out said...
on Oct. 19 2016 at 3:30 pm
ThatOdd1Out,
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
YOU JUST WALK INTO A GUN FREE ZONE WITH A GUN THAT IS HOW YOU MORON!

on Apr. 12 2016 at 3:08 pm
Infralalenshka BRONZE, Boom A Chick A Wow Town, Other
3 articles 1 photo 15 comments

Favorite Quote:
All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. -Georges Orwell<br /> It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.<br /> To hold a pen is to be at war. -Voltaire

Maybe in some countries there isn't much to reduce. 1985, deaths by revolver: 8092 in the US, 47 in Japan, 35 in Canada, * in the United Kingdom and 5 in Australia.

on Dec. 18 2015 at 10:42 pm
ScarletCity PLATINUM, High Ridge, Missouri
40 articles 4 photos 68 comments

Favorite Quote:
Anything that can be done, can be undone. ~Scarlet City<br /> http://eepurl.com/dcyZMn

If you take away guns, then all you are doing is supporting the bad guys. If a man tries to commit a school shooting, but one of the teachers has a gun, and shoots the man... that would save lives. Gun control = more lives lost.

Rlemerysgt said...
on Feb. 4 2014 at 10:08 pm
Whats wrong, too scared to post contradictory facts and data you cant prove wrong, shame, not only do you want to eliminate the 2nd amendment, now you want to eliminate the 1st amendment like a good little Stalin did!

ExNuke said...
on Feb. 4 2014 at 6:53 pm
For starters, every mass shooting but one in the last 10-20 years has taken place where law abiding people were forbidden to carry a gun but that did nothing to keep out the lunatic who did the shooting. Imagine that, people disarmed by the law unable to even try to stop the lunatic. Oh yeah, the Internet "loophole". You mean the Federal Law that requires that a gun bought on the Internet and delivered by common carrier must be delivered to a LICENSED dealer who is required by Federal Law to run a NICS background check before he is allowed to deliver the firearm to the Buyer? 300,000,000 guns in private hands is a Brady Bunch wish, it is a lot closer to 400 million, over a hundred million background checks had been done by the FBI years ago. Background checks have done a pretty good job of stopping Criminals and Lunatics from acquiring TRACEABLE guns but no one can show that there are any less out there with guns that cannot be traced back to them. The Supreme Court has ruled that a criminal cannot be prosecuted for failing to register a gun because it would violate his 5th Amendment Rights so the Pre-Confiscation List that would be required to make Universal Background Checks work would only generate a list of Law Abiding Citizens, now why would the Government want that I wonder? 

Gordon said...
on Feb. 4 2014 at 1:44 pm
First of all, the word "regulated" in the 2nd Amendment meant (and continues to mean) "trained" not "controlled by regulation".  Second, where do you get the idea that someone bound on committing murder (in contravention to laws against it) will be stopped by a law saying they cannot have a gun? 

Melani said...
on Feb. 4 2014 at 1:41 pm
Almost nothing in your article is accurate.  Sounds swell, but false.  Also, each of these mentally ill killers broke many of the 22,000 existing gun laws.  ex: Each shooting took place in a "gun free zone". How is that possible?  No guns are allowed there!  Did you also know that murder is illegal?  Yes, it is! No existing or proposed gun law would have stopped a single one of these shootings.  So, what is your real purpose in proposing new laws against gun owners?

Dale said...
on Feb. 4 2014 at 1:34 pm
"Since guns are becoming more available more crimes are being commited".  This is absolutely false.  The latest FBI UCR data show that per capita homicide in the U.S. is the lowest it has been since 1963.  The violent crime rate in the U.S. has dropped five times faster that the violent crime rate in Australia since they changed thier gun laws.

UncoMN cents said...
on Feb. 4 2014 at 1:25 pm
Of the people who vote how many are qualified?  Do they have a decent enough education to understand the issues?  Do they know the positions of the person they are voting for?  Do they understand that they shouln't vote just for thier own self interest but, what is best for the country.  Voting for ploliticians that have bad ideas can harm people.  Having people prove they know who is running for which office and having passed some basic education requirements is not taking away thier right to vote.  Changes need to made to this right also. 

BHirsh said...
on Feb. 4 2014 at 1:03 pm
There is no argument for gun control that can overcome the burden necessary to broadly deny a fundamental right. Rights are not privileges, and are not subject to pragmatism, majoritarianism, or anything else. Any law that proposes to limit the exercise of a right must meet all three prongs of strict scrutiny: it must declare a legitimate "compelling interest", it must bring proof that it will actually achieve its stated goal, and it must use the least intrusive means possible. Most gun laws fail at least one of these prongs. The only reason they survive lower court challenges is that many of those courts refuse to use the correct standard of scrutiny because the SCOTUS hasn't yet beat them over the head with it.

on Feb. 4 2014 at 9:01 am
We have more freedoms than any country in the world yet a student such as you would surrender your rights for a false sense of security. If you were really interested in public safety, research the number of child deaths due to medical malprace which far exceed those of accidential death by firearms. Also accidential death by firearms did not even make the top ten causes of death.  And may I add that crime has decreased while firearms ownership has increased during the past ten years,  You definately need to research prior to posting.

Johnny D. said...
on Feb. 4 2014 at 8:59 am
Could you please explain to your readership that we already have 25,000 + gun laws already in place. And that in all of the murders you mentioned in your article many of those laws were broken. Murder is illegal. Criminals do not obey the law that is a fact so how are more laws going to protect us? Laws only apply to people who abide by them and none of them are murderers. Slow down on the Kool Aid they teach you at school.

RLEmery said...
on Feb. 4 2014 at 5:55 am
So show everyone where gun control of the law abiding has reduced violence by the bad guys, EVER, in ANY country! Funny how the US has added 42% more firearms into law abiding civilians hands since 1991, yet our country has the largest reduction in violent crimes -39% and largest reduction in murders by illegal use of guns -52% in the world during that time frame! Make sure you demonstrate where the implementation of strict gun control resulted in a reduction, we would love to see Hell actually freeze over for the first time ever!