Gun Control: Why I Am Against It
Gun Control. You’ve heard it all over the news, they all talk about it. From CNN to Daily Wire, Gun Control has never escaped from political talk. Like a lingering cloud, when one brings it up, it explodes into a storm – no one can agree on it. A hurricane of accusations and angered shouts. Well, I’m here to throw my hat into the ring… and into the eye of the storm. Gun Control is not the answer to gun violence, however, it is an odd solution to such a divided political topic. Rather than regulating access to guns, we should instead educate the usage of guns and how to quickly defuse an active shooter situation. Research shows that clamping down on firearms had a reverse effect than intended and most deaths in America as a whole is related to heart disease, not gun violence. Not to mention that Gun Control did not deter the number of deaths by gun violence.
According to a study by The Lancet, most gun laws put in place to reduce firearm violence failed to work. From 25 state-enforced firearm laws, 9 of them even increased gun violence. Also, between 1980 and 2009, assault weapon bans did not deter deaths by murder at state levels. In fact, states with restricted concealed carry laws had an increased rate of firearm-related murders. Obviously, this has already shown how firearm regulation laws have failed to do the function they were made for – to reduce firearm deaths. That means that increasing firearm regulations would be ineffective as a whole and it may even make it worse.
Furthermore, The CDC’s “Leading Causes Of Deaths Report” states that most people died from heart disease, cancer, and Diabetes from 1999 to 2013. While gun-related violence, wherever it was accidents or murder, is ranked 12th on the list. Gun violence also only contributed to a mere 1.3% of deaths during the time of the report. This shows that gun control is simply not needed in these times. Even the usage of high-caliber and high-magazine weapons still is irrelevant to the massively minute amount of overall deaths by gun violence in the U.S.
Finally, instead of regulating the usage of firearms we should instead be educating people on how to handle firearms and what to do when an active shooter is in the area. Some schools are already doing this after the many infamous shootings of Orlando, Vegas, and Virginia Tech. Educating people how to safely handle firearms and educating how to diffuse a shooter can save dozens of lives in seconds, especially if the shooter is using a high-caliber and high-magazine firearm. That is why Gun Control is not the answer for gun violence. The research against it shows errs of state laws, minute murders by gun violence, and laws that did not deter gun violence. Also, the fact that the top killer is heart disease shows that gun violence isn’t as big as its shadow. That is why I personally believe that gun control is not needed and why gun education is much better than the former.
Thong Nguyen is a sophomore and a section editor for The Advocate. He loves English and History. He also plans to stay in Journalism as long...
Johanna Peeters Weem • Sep 26, 2018 at 9:36 pm
First of all I’d just like to say that you wrote a wonderfully worded article that addressed a lot of interesting points. I get the impression that you are trying to bring clarity to a generally confusing debate, one which many feel strongly about, and one which comes up often.
Despite this I have to say that I completely disagree with your stance.
For one thing, the source you sight in the second paragraph has one really large flaw in it’s support of your idea. The statistic you sighted was relating to something which controlled the purchasing of assault weapons. At the time, however, assault weapons had barely become available for consumer use and were not, generally an intrument of homocide. Homocides for the most part were, and still are, mostly done using handguns. Therefore it would make sense that statewide murders would not drop.
In recent times however, the statistic is different. Although the amount of murders made using assault weapons, is still lower than that of a handgun, it is still unsettlingly high. Instances of mass murder are becoming more and more common (https://www.cato.org/blog/are-mass-shootings-becoming-more-frequent) and, thanks to new technology, killers are able to kill ever increasing numbers of people. Making a ban on the weapons that cause this, seem like a no brainer.
As for your second point, I shouldn’t have to say that 1.3% of deaths is still plenty more than we need. In 2016 alone 38,000 people had died of gun related deaths. 1.3% is a lot more than you think it is when you think of it in terms of lives lost.
And finally I would like to just say that the idea of educated students how to react is a good one, in principal. Teaching students to keep them self safe is a good idea, but you also can’t rely on a high schooler to remember all of this training in a moment of panic. You shouldn’t have to rely on a student who has a gun pointing in his face to save your life. There shouldn’t be a gun in the equation for the first place.
Government tells us they want to keep us safe.
They finally need to follow through on that promise.