Qualitative Research Paper

1

Gun Control

Lisa M Shaw

South College

ENG1211_ONL10C_ONL10_20

December 22, 2020

2

Gun Control

Introduction

Gun control measures is a debate that covers a wide area of beliefs to amend changes in

criminal activities. Despite the current gun laws being enforced, there are still massive shootings

and an increase in dissatisfaction on gun laws. Most individuals do not support the gun laws idea

with the belief that it is the determinant of criminal activities; thus, the focus of this paper

determines whether gun laws save lives or cost lives.

Discussion

Generally, the existence of the gun laws has no significant impact on the crime rates as

Murray (1975) describes that crime rates increase due to social conditions that implore the crime

victims to engage in crime. According to the author, acquiring a gun is not evident that the owner

will commit violent crime. The author suggests that there is a relationship between the guns, gun

laws and violent acts. Most individuals are not familiar with the use of firearms, and even if they

are knowledgeable, they will not use the guns on peculiar reasons. Guns have protective

measures, and not every individual would act freely and confident to use a weapon. The author

argues that laws limit individuals to exercise their rights freely and therefore, most places with

strict conservative gun laws have high crime rates since individuals have been restricted from

exploring the sufficient opportunity given.

Lott (2013) argues that the existence of many guns results to fewer crimes since the gun

owners take many precautions to affect the use of firearms on a crime committed and can only

use the guns when the situation calls for gun action. Additionally, the author relates homicide

with firearms in that the gun owners who end up killing themselves engage in homicides because

3

they are victims of the activities, causing them to kill themselves. Lott (2013) further argues that

crimes are isolated into different categories, those that are committed with handguns which are

affected by handgun laws and other crimes like pickpockets, shoplifters, crimes from buildings

which cannot be concealed with handgun laws, that is further concluded that have a low effect in

discouraging criminals.

Murray (1975), describes the category of people who own guns to be high paid

individuals, independent or divorced women, political groups, and highly influential individuals

who the gun laws might not affect them in case of criminal activities committed by them. The

author explains that higher offence rates result to lower arrest rates due to the gun laws that have

been put in place and that most individuals who commit high offences have firearm licenses and

they find themselves on the safer side of the law when a crime has been committed.

Jacobs (2002), argues that homeowners use firearms as a self-defensive mechanism to

provide a social benefit which acts as a security to them, according to the author, homeowners

use guns as a threat to intruders, but they do not fire the arms indicating the lesser chances of

committing crimes with guns at hand. The homeowners according to Jacobs (2002), find security

by having their guns available with a reason that life insurance is paid not with the belief that the

individual will die but act as a security measure to the protection it offers to the policyholder

which is the same as the gun-holder, they do not own guns to use them to kill, but the gun’s act

as security to protect their lives in case of a threat.

Cook et al. (2011), describes America to contain gun culture due to the development of

many homeownership and many crimes related activities taking place, the author indicates that

gun ownership benefits citizens if it is used to deter crimes and further describes that it is the

happiness of citizen when potential criminals are ganged down using guns for it increases their

4

fears to commit crimes since they believe that most citizens own guns. Cook et al. (2011)

additionally indicate that regular and violent crime rates have reduced due to increase in gun

ownership and that the US crime rates constitute their history, demographics, culture, and social

structure.

Cook et al. (2011) further describe that gun control acts, and amendments have not bored

any fruits in gun restrictions since many American citizens have recorded higher deaths using

firearms even though the limits are strict on gun manufactures. The author argument is based on

the fact that, whether there are strict gun laws or not, American citizens still find loopholes to

acquire handguns which they term as a right to them and therefore, questions are raised on the

amendments and laws that govern the guns since they are broken in many ways by the same

administration personnel who make them.

According to Murray (1975), there has been an increase of handgun ownership which is

used for self-defense in the US, and most citizens and homeownership view it to be an essential

part in their lives to own a gun. US is regarded to have the highest number of both violent crime

rate and common crimes with an argument that the citizens need a handgun to protect

themselves, the authors od the gun control as much as they argue that measures have to put in

controlling the firearm used in the US, they all support the acquisition of guns to be every citizen

right of owning the guns with the belief that, the US is a developed country with many diverse

nations migrating annually, and because the laws put in place are not in a way protecting the

citizens, then those citizens have a right to defend themselves from threats and violence.

Murray (1975), moreover, argues that the various types of gun laws should have an

impact in lowering the violent crime rate caused by firearms but if it does not constitute that,

then the law itself is a failure and has no subjection to citizens lives. Additionally, the authors

5

use of different hypotheses to relate access of guns and gun laws indicate that the gun laws do

not give a substantial effect on the reduction of crimes and therefore conclude that having gun

laws have no superior effect on crimes.

Conclusion

The rate at which violent crimes are committed in the US according to recent studies

indicate that there is no relation between gun laws and acquisition of guns, and therefore,

conclude that the gun laws cannot change the crime rates in the US, thus the need for firearm

acquisition to be publicly endorsed as a right to every citizen.

6

References

Cook, P. J., Braga, A. A., & Moore, M. H. (2011). Gun control. Crime and public policy, 257-

292.

Murray, D. R. (1975). Handguns, gun control laws and firearm violence. Social Problems, 23(1),

81-93.

Lott, J. R. (2013). More guns, less crime: Understanding crime and gun control laws. University

of Chicago Press.

Jacobs, J. B. (2002). Can gun control work?. Oxford University Press.