essay

Jamil

Qamar Jamil

Laura Powell

English 103

04/28/2018

HANDGUNS OWNERSHIP

Abstract:

The rising deaths in United States are forcing the government to take this issue into the account and make some decisions regarding the increasing number of deaths. According to the second amendment citizens have right to have their own guns for personal protection. This amendment is inducing the protesters to give several reasons of not allowing handguns ownership. According to them the guns ownership and homicides are directly proportional with each other which means that the increasing number of handguns ownership will also increase the homicides because when everyone has their own gun they could use them in personal fights. Another point is that eighty-eight children died in California because their toy guns look similar with the original guns. On the other hand, the pro supporter of gun ownership argues that it’s important to have personal gun for safety purpose and according to the law it’s ethically right to kill someone for the survival of one’s own self. Furthermore, the similarity among both is that both of the views want to save humans from misfortunes for this purpose we should not ban the guns and also not allow everyone to have a gun but can train the people and make them learn the precautions that need to be implemented for achieving the main objective.

Handguns Ownership and Surrounding Issues:

The handgun ownership is currently the biggest debate in the world. It states that whether guns ownership should be allowed or prohibited. The two views are holding quite strong support on their backup. In America according to the second amendment which states that people should have right to have handguns for their personal safety because they should hold something for their defence against any kind of criminal activity affecting them. Whereas, the second view states that people don’t need to have guns in order to be safer. Police departments are for their safety and the increasing number of handguns are causing the homicide and other problems. These two views are currently in conflict with each other. One is supporting the gun ownership whereas the other one is to control the ownership of guns.

Handguns Ownership should be Allowed

According to the pro supporters of guns ownership, guns should be allowed because the people should have right to defend themselves whenever needed. There come certain situations when we feel helpless and in order for the survival we need some safety instruments (Handguns) otherwise we would not be able to safe our life. According to the law it is ethically right to kill someone when we have the choice to live our life or lose it. According to the (Hunter) it is important to allow every citizen to have gun. The control of handguns means giving death penalty. This shows that the control on handguns is directly proportional to the increase in death penalty. His argument is that if every citizen is armed with the guns then it would be easier for them to protect themselves more actively. This will also confirm their security. Moreover, another view on allowing guns is that it increases the number of crimes for this (Davidson) argued that since 1990’s the number of violent crimes are decreased even though the firearms are increasing by 10 million every year which shows that there is no such relation between the crimes and guns ownership. Another claim is that most of the deaths related to guns are suicide but not murders every 30,000 deaths, related to guns out of which 20,000 are the suicides and not the homicides which means people took their own lives.

Handguns Ownership should be Prohibited

Another view on the ownership of guns is that every citizen should not be allowed to have their own guns because everyone is not capable of understanding the need to put it in a safe side. Number of children die because of the fact that the real guns just look like their toys they play with. This attracts them towards their usage and sudden loses occurs. According to (Wintemute) eighty-eight deaths in the California among the age group of 0-14 when children were playing with the guns that looked alike with the toy guns they had. Furthermore, (Kellermann) the use of drugs and the physical fights at home makes human being unable to think causes them to take some immediate decision against family members which results in homicide. This claims that increasing homicides and guns ownership are in direct relationship with each other. This shows that they feel that the homicides and the children deaths are increasing with the handguns because rather to use it for self-protection it is also being used when people get angry or emotional. Moreover, (Hemenway, Azrael and Miller) stated that the people of America feel less safe when the citizens have their own guns and they carry them with themselves when going to the restaurants, college campuses, sports stadiums, bars, hospitals and government buildings. This view shows that they think that when each citizen carries their own guns to the public places it would be dangerous for them and may create troubles for them.

Issues

Both of the perspectives of allowing gun and not are having some pros and cons because every coin has two sides and we cannot make judgements without carefully taking both sides into the account. When we argue that guns should be allowed for the protection of oneself in order to make the citizens able to defend themselves when they feel that the situation is out of control and without taking serious action they may lose their life another view on allowing is that the citizens are not aware of using the guns and the precautions of it. This is the reason which may cost them their life or the life of their love ones. Whereas, the second perspective claims that the handguns ownership should be prohibited because of the fact that some people are of angry type and when they come at home and fights occur between the family members could use their guns and this may cause the increasing number of homicides occurring all around the world. Moreover, when the guns come in the reach of children they may use them by assuming that it’s their toy which makes them lose their life or another children’s. The people also feel that their lives are in more danger when everyone has their own gun. But another view of prohibiting guns ownership is that what would people do when it comes to lose their life. When it is ethically right to kill a person for self defence then why should it be prohibited. If it gets prohibited people would not be able to save themselves from misfortunes and the criminals would easily harm others.

Common Ground between both Sides

When we say that allowing handguns is right this means that making citizens able to protect themselves from criminals but the mistakes they make leads other humans to lose their life which is the disadvantage which don’t let us decide to allow them or not. On the other hand, if we don’t allow citizens to have their own guns this may cost them to lose their life when they may have opportunity to safe themselves from the misfortunes. Their life is important to them and they must have permission to take serious actions whenever needed. Both of the views are emphasizing on the fact that the human life is very important and any kind of mistake may cost them to lose their life. Although the two views seem to be in conflict with each other but the fact is that the main objective is same which is to make wiser decision that would save the life of as much human beings as possible. The people although have different views but the government have to take actions on the basis of the fact that they need to have a holistic view rather that specific.

Proposed Solution

According to the second amendment the people have right to have their own guns. This amendment was done to address the safety issues regarding life of humans. Of course, it was done by taking into account the problems that were arising because of the fact that people were unable to protect themselves. The solution to the problem would be to check the people’s background and their whole history and psychological normalities before allowing them to have handguns ownership. Moreover, they should be trained to put their handguns on the places where the children cannot reach easily, they should put their guns on child lock which would not allow the children to easily access and use the guns. Furthermore, teach them to not put the loaded guns at home. These solutions may help them to prevent the homicides and children deaths without taking off their defence right. Also, checking the history and psychology may help to take wise decision to allow handgun or not because the people having mental illness should not be allowed to have guns because they may kill others.

Work Cited

Davidson, Jacob. "A Criminologist’s Case Against Gun Control." Time (2015).

Hemenway, D., D. Azrael and M. Miller. "National attitudes concerning gun carrying in the United States." BMJ Journals (2001).

Hunter, Jack. "How Gun Control Kills." The American Conservative (2012).

Kellermann, Arthur L., et al. "Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor for Homicide in the Home." The new ENGLAND JOURNAL of MEDICINE (1993).

Wintemute, Garen J., et al. "When Children Shoot Children." JAMA (1987).