Limited Access to Guns Will Decrease Gun ViolenceEssay Preview: Limited Access to Guns Will Decrease Gun ViolenceReport this essayIncreased Gun Control Laws Will Limit Gun ViolenceAbstractGun control is a major issue on the minds of countless individuals in the United States of America. By restricting the access that Americans have to guns and other similar weapons, fewer domestic shootings will occur. This will drastically reduce the number of wives and children murdered at a parents’ hand. Requiring backgrounds checks will help to limit the amount of mentally ill persons who have guns thus severely restricting the shooting that could result. By limiting guns and other similar weapons school shootings are also less likely to occur as the people who would have committed these crimes would no longer have access to guns needed to commit them. Although many people believe that citizens of the United States should have unrestricted access to guns because it will not change the amount of gun violence occurring now, stricter gun control laws limiting the access citizens have to guns will help to decrease gun violence by limiting domestic shootings, requiring background checks for gun sales, and limiting the number of shootings occurring on school property.
Increased Gun Control Laws Will Limit Gun ViolenceCountless deaths and injuries have been caused on account of gun violence in America. It is a simple fact that Americans like guns, but what happens when a domestic abuser turns violent? What happens when a woman turns a gun on her own family? What happens when a mentally ill person does not receive a background check? What happens when a madman commits a mass shooting in a loved one’s school? Gun violence is prominent in America today and the threat is ever growing. Increased gun restrictions, however, can greatly impact gun violence in this nation. The ongoing debate on gun control questions whether or not greater restrictions should be implemented. Increased gun violence is a strong incentive to make a change. Although many people believe that citizens of the United States should have unrestricted access to guns because it will not change the amount of gun violence occurring now, stricter gun control laws limiting the access citizens have to guns will help to decrease gun violence by limiting domestic shootings, requiring background checks for gun sales, and limiting the number of shootings occurring on school property.
Limits Domestic ShootingsStricter gun control laws limiting United States citizens access to guns will greatly help to decrease gun violence by limiting domestic gun shootings. According to Richard Martinez and Everytown for Gun Safety, more than one half of all shootings are a result of domestic or family violence, many of which are mass shootings (Martinez, 2017). In turn, “guns in the hands of domestic abusers can turn mistreatment and violence into murder,” (Martinez, 2017). Therefore, in the light of these mortifying statistics, it is clear that restricting access to weapons such as handguns, rifles, and shotguns will help to limit these instances of domestic gun shootings. By limiting the number of citizens that have access to guns, it limits the number of domestic abusers that have access to these types of weapons as well. This, then, greatly decreases the chance of a shooting occurring. While many people may view this as an attempt to take away second amendment rights, many may argue that it is absurd to have the right to bear arms if we are not alive to benefit from its provisions as many, unfortunately, are not due to past shootings. Increased gun control laws limiting the access American citizens have to guns and similar weapons will protect the American population and decrease gun violence, specifically by decreasing domestic gun shootings thus limiting Americans’ exposure to these traumatic experiences.
Background ChecksStricter gun control laws will help to decrease gun violence by requiring background checks for all gun sales thus limiting the accessibility of guns to citizens of United States of America. States that have made such laws mandatory have seen as much as a 47% decrease in the number of women shot to death (Martinez, 2017). These numbers display the positive effects of gun restrictions. Many opponents of increased gun restrictions argue that if someone is likely to be violent, then the government should have to prove it before prohibiting them from purchasing a weapon (Williams, 2017). Proponents of increased gun control, however, argue that in order to ensure the safety of the larger majority of Americans, preventative steps should be taken to avoid the possibility of a shooting taking place. In addition, thorough background checks are one of the few things that Congress can effectively enforce to decrease
In summary, the primary goal of gun control is the elimination of gun violence in America. Therefore, reducing gun violence should be the top priority, as it would reduce the number of Americans by reducing public funding to the CDC, ensuring that the mass shootings do not occur, and thus eliminating violent crime. Even if the CDC could not prevent these mass shootings, it could at least improve how law enforcement works so their efforts do not happen.
References
Antoni, E., & Toner, P. (2017). What Is Gun Control? Evidence from the Urban, Rural, and Rural Areas. The American Journal of Gun Policy and Practice, 7, 45-63. doi: 10.1016/j.aaprp.2016.08.026. Excerpt from:
“Gun Control” is a book from the National Shooting Sports Foundation that was created to push stricter restrictions on weapons used for domestic shooting. From the title we can assume that “gun control” is not necessarily a “gun control,” it is a description of laws and policies that have been implemented to reduce firearm violence, while minimizing the dangers to the public by limiting the access to firearms by Americans of all levels. A similar book, Gun Watch, will be published by A.A. A. & D.M. Miller at the end of the month. http://www.gunwatch.org
This post originally appeared on Guns & Politics.
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