Gun control research paper

Gun control is a term that refers to restrictions on firearms, including restrictions on the types of firearms that can be sold, as well as the people in the general public that are allowed to use them. Major controversies surrounding gun control have been issues such as background checks, carrying of weapons in public as well as whether to allow members of the general public to own and use assault rifles (Perez-Pena). United States is the country with the highest gun ownership in the world, with its citizens owning an estimated 393 million firearms. It is estimated that between 35 to 42 percent of American households are in possession of at least one gun. The United States also has the highest number of guns per 100 people, which currently stands at 120 guns per every 100 people.

This is because it is a matter that greatly influences the politics of the country, and it is a major voting issue, which could make the difference between one retaining their seat and going home. A famous line that gun rights activists like to use is, “The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun (Perez-Pena). ” While the correctness of this statement can be debated over and over, there is a lot to consider, such as the government’s responsibility to safeguard its citizens and their property, versus how well the government fulfils this responsibility, and whether the citizens should take it upon themselves to protect themselves. One main contributor to this whole debate remains to be the second amendment.

Controversy has risen over this second amendment for years, and the debate is in a never ending spree. Bovey claims that guns in the United States should be completely banned. This is not to be confused with simple restrictions on certain types of guns or assault rifles, or even background checks. In her article, Bovey means business. She advocates for the complete elimination of guns from the hands of the American Citizens (Bovey). Bovey takes this stand as an only solution to the problem of loopholes in the gun regulation policies in the different states in America. He has noted with great concern that major advancements have been made in the world of gun manufacturing, as better and more powerful guns are being designed every day, pushing the meaning in the second amendment further and further into oblivion (LePore).

LePore notes how the modern guns of today have increased killing power, as well as many other innovations in the firearms sector, and how these are not what was meant by the drafters of the second amendment over two centuries ago (LePore). With this, LePore questions the legitimacy of the second amendment today, and whether the government and the people of America should make it obsolete, and craft new laws that will revolutionize gun control. LePore also seems to greatly support the amending of the second amendment, and making changes to the gun control scene in the country. James Hamblin is a senior editor and contributor, who once lost his job after publishing a controversial gun control article. California has been the model that gun control advocates would love the other states to follow, as the state has taken one bold move that other states have failed to emulate or even come close to.

However, a lot of controversy still exists over whether these laws are effective, and whether their existence have any significance in the crimes and gun violence that they seek to prevent or rather, reduce. Gun rights activists criticize this move by California, and argue in the sense that even though there are strict rules, robbers and criminals of all kinds still get their hands on these guns from the black market and use them to perpetuate these crimes. This article, however, argues that these laws may not change the culture of violence that people have, but it sure does make California safer by restricting access to firearms by these violent individuals. It goes ahead to commend California for this bold move and for venturing into these dangerous waters.

This is after several studies have shown that people feel safer when they can defend themselves with their own riffles, than when they have police officers in their midst or in their communities. People have less trust in the police than they have in their riffles, as the police almost always appear after crimes have been committed and people have lost their lives to criminals (Devin Hughes). Even with the heating debate about how we should control new acquisitions of guns and ammunition, a very important questions needs to be asked about the nature of firearms in the United States, and whether this is the main problem. According to James Wilson, the main problem about gun control would be the hundreds of millions of guns that are already in ownership by the American citizens.

Even if the government was to make acquisition harder for people to acquire guns, there are still many people out there who have already acquired these guns, and are actually the immediate threat even before having the threat of new acquisitions. This is a legislation that leaves no room for compromise, and its being in effect would leading to massive loss of firearms by gun owners all over the United States (Hardy). Hardy goes ahead to explain the nature of such reforms and legislation that the anti-gun lobby seeks to put in place, which includes the elimination and banning of specific kinds of weapons. He terms this a slippery-slope nature of bans, as the successful banning of one type of firearm will consequentially lead to other types, and before we know it, all Americans will be stripped off their guns (Hardy).

With this, Hardy fears that the gun control lobby is actually out to completely wipe out individual gun ownership in the United States. While some term this as a good and appropriate move, others see this as a way of leaving Americans defenceless, and at the mercy of the police to defend them, a job that the police scores quite low in performance. Back to the issue of self-defence and how Americans feel safer when armed, an article by Jack Hunter on “How Gun Control Kills” gives a breakdown of this fact. In his article, Hunter shows us how civilians with gun ownership have saved otherwise deadly situations, all thanks to their ownership of firearms (Hunter). Hunter gives us several examples, all detailing how situations were saved and incidents of gun violence were stopped by people carrying guns.

He goes ahead and gives us a picture of what would have happened were these civilians not present, and the sheer loss of lives that would have taken place in these incidents. As it is evident in the above arguments, the debate on gun control and gun rights is not about to end any time soon, with more and more people from both sides standing their ground to support their side of the story. Bovey, P. M. "It’s time to ban guns. Yes, all of them. " 10 Dec 2015. Web. 31 Oct 2018. Hamblin, James. "Why we can’t talk about gun control. " 29 June 2014. Hunter, Jack. "How gun control kills. " 27 Dec 2012. The American Conservative. Web#. "Battleground America. " 23 April 2012. New Yorker - http://www. newyorker.