English Paper

Gun Controls in the United States of America

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Gun controls in the United States of America

Part 2d

Gun controls have been an issue in the United States of America over a while now. Gun controls are the rules and regulations that regulate the manufacture and possession of firearms. A research conducted indicates that so many of the Americans possess guns in their homes. Although gun controls are effective and are for the advantage of each individual residing in the nation, there are still individuals who think that gun controls should not be implemented and individuals should be allowed to own guns as they wish. To begin with, there are individuals who argue that banning possession of guns will increase gang violence in the state. It is true that there are so many individuals who possess guns and some of them possess them illegally. When guns are banned, only those who possess the guns legally will submit their guns. However, the other criminals who possess guns will not use them as before since they are aware of the restrictions. Therefore, banning guns may not increase gang violence (Kleck, 2017).

Moreover, the opposition argues that gun controls will not prevent school shootings. Over recent years school shootings have been on the rise and it is very sad to see innocent students’ dies because of a simple policy that the government could have implemented. A research conducted indicated that most of the school shootings that have been conducted have been done by individuals who are not students. It is in rare circumstances that a student decided to carry out a shooting and kill fellow students. It is the ordinary criminals who decide the carry out shootings on schools. For instance, the shooting on Sandy Hooke mainly affected the young kids. Though the opposition argues that such shootings can be brought to an end by making use of local and cultural policies, it is very important for gun control policies to be set up.

Furthermore, the opposition argues that gun controls won’t save lives. It is very ironical for one to argue that gun controls will not save lives. As stated above, there have been so many shootings that have been carried out in schools and innocent students and teachers have ended up dying innocently. If these gun controls would have been implemented early enough these shootings would not have been executed and the innocent lives that were lost would have been saved. The issue of controversy is that most Americans believe that they can protect their own lives even without the strict controls. The gun controls will ensure that lives are saved as very few individuals will possess the guns and the shootings will decrease. Moreover, when there are strict gun controls it will be easy for the authority to identify a criminal who possesses a gun and intends to carry out killings.

Similarly, the opposition claims that gun controls should not be implemented but there should be fallacy control. Members of the opposition argue that the influential people of the United States of America who include the politicians and the celebrities tend to give people false ideas and misrepresentations concerning the gun controls policies. For instance, after the attacks in Las Vegas, most celebrities and politicians gave very bad reports concerning the gun controls in the state saying that the controls are ineffective thus putting the lives of the citizens at risk. These negative statements brainwashed the minds of the citizens and the citizens were left in a state of confusion because of the fallacies. The opposition argues that the government should work towards ensuring that there is fallacy control first and do away with gun controls (Spitzer, 2018). This is not a good idea as it puts the citizens at more risk. Instead, the government of USA should work towards ensuring that the fallacies in the citizen’s minds are cleared and at the same time gun control policies should be implemented.

Besides, the individuals who oppose gun controls argue that increased civilian ownership of guns will not reduce crimes. The opposition to gun controls believes that if gun controls are to be effective they should be imposed on all individuals because imposing the controls on few individuals will make it hard to reduce crimes. As stated above, there are so many individuals who possess guns illegally. In the event that civilians are allowed to own guns, criminals too will take advantage of the freedom and do anything that they wish to do because they have guns (Forster, 2015). Therefore, if the government of the United States of America wishes to reduce the crime levels in the nation the civilians should not be allowed to possess guns because the crime levels will still increase. Since it is difficult to identify an innocent citizen from a criminal, there should be no guns held by the civilians.

It is clear that gun controls are effective and should be implemented in the United States of America so as to bring an end to the problem of mass shootings that lead to the death of so many innocent civilians. Although there is a lot of opposition as indicated above, the government should still formulate the policies since they are for the good of the nation. Moreover, the government can look for means of convincing the opposition that gun controls are effective and that they should be implemented. The opposition can be lured to accepting the controls by being told about the number of lives that have been saved as a result of implementing the controls. Although the arguments of the opposition also make some sense, controls should be implemented so as to maintain security in the nation.

References

Forster, M., Grigsby, T. J., Unger, J. B., & Sussman, S. (2015). Associations between gun violence exposure, gang associations, and youth aggression: Implications for prevention and intervention programs. Journal of criminology, 2015.

Kleck, G. (2017). Point blank: Guns and violence in America. Routledge.

Spitzer, R. J. (2015). Politics of gun control. Routledge.