No matter what someone’s stance on the gun control debate is, everyone can agree that it has become one of the most controversial topics in America today. The problem with these differences in opinion is that pro-gun rights activists are responsible, law-abiding citizens who don’t understand why they should have to give up a basic freedom such as their second amendment right, while anti-gun supporters seem to have a lack of knowledge of firearms and live in fear as the media tells them to. Guns should be legal as they are not the root of any violent act or cause of bad things that happen in the world, they have merely just become a scapegoat in a politically driven extortion thrived by the media.
The majority of people who are for gun control tend to not own or use guns themselves and therefore have a lack of knowledge/understanding of them (such as California State Senator, Kevin de Leon). They say that they are unsafe, used for evil, and otherwise pointless but anyone who has had experience with guns can tell you that this is untrue. The majority of people who own guns take care of them (including keeping them safe) and have perfectly valid uses for them such as hunting, protection, or sport. People with a lack of knowledge on the subject tend to fear them due to stories in the news and a minority of people pointing their finger at something they don’t care about instead of looking at the real problem. Nowadays information is so accessible, that people allow the media to run their lives instead of thinking for themselves or taking into account large and diverse our country really is.
More and more we hear about alleged shootings of innocents in public places these days basically glorifying the actions of the culprits. The media portrays these viciously evil acts in a limelight making names such as Adam Lanza, Seung-Hui Cho, or James Holmes ring in our ears constantly giving these people what they may have been looking for to begin with, fame. In the midst of these blown up tragedies our government representatives use the events as an opportunity for publicity pointing their fingers at the topic of guns. Guns didn’t wake up one morning deciding to kill a bunch of innocent people, but due to so many of our citizens’ lack of knowledge and densely urban populations, guns are blamed for the event. Nobody in this country wants to stop playing their growingly violent and realistic video games, tell their kids they can’t see a violent movie with their friends, or discipline too harshly but they have no problem blaming society for their children’s actions and unfortunately in these particular cases, firearms are what they choose to blame. Blaming guns for a shooting is the same as blaming alcohol for a drunk driver. People in the media trying to use a tragedy to get a political view across by instilling fear of your family and loved ones is terrorism and gun regulations are just a pawn in a corrupt political gain.
Guns are used for protection which is why our constitution explicitly gives America’s citizens the rights to them. If someone were to break into your home to do you and your family harm, it is your right to defend yourself and a gun may come in very handy, especially if the invader(s) has a weapon of their own. Americans owning guns also deters invaders of the nation as a whole as well. It is not revolutionary times anymore but strategically if our country were to be invaded, then it would give us a much greater tactical advantage to defend ourselves during war. As Americans we don’t like to face cold hard truths that the world can be a very dangerous place but even a police forum from officers of Ferguson, Missouri warns the public to arm themselves due to fear of extremist aggression and rioting stemming from the Darren Wilson verdict being made public.
The dangers of firearms with children are only in the eye of the beholder. Any responsible parent should be able to deter their children from accessing their guns as they should any other equally accident-prone possession such as power tools, vehicles, or sharp objects. A gun can be unloaded, locked up, and taken apart so if a parent has trouble keeping their kids from having an accident in that sense, then they should be just as worried about them driving their car into a lake or cutting an artery with a chainsaw. Furthermore it’s better for children to be introduced to guns and taught gun safety at an early age to deter them from the curiosity or untrained usage of them as explained by the 10 year old, Women’s Ruger Rimfire Challenge 2nd place champion’s father, Dan Roberts explains.
Murder in general is a fairly low statistic in human death in our country as it is and not even all murders include firearms. In fact only about 9,000 deaths per year according to the FBI from 2008-2012 while motor vehicle deaths average over 40,000 per year between 1990 and 2009 according to the census bureau. Given these statistics, it would make much more sense to outlaw motor vehicles before guns. The missing statistic in this matter is how many murders have been prevented due to a victim’s possession of a firearm, deterring potential attackers which is hard to measure but is still safe to say that an easier target is more likely to be attacked.
The legality of guns is also biased towards law-abiding citizens. Someone who follows the law is not going to break it to get a gun for a legitimate, harmless purpose if guns were illegal but a criminal surely would have no problem getting one to commit what would most likely be a more heinous crime anyway. Los Angeles and Chicago are known to have the highest rate of gun murders and California and New Jersey in general have the highest murder rates in many of their cities in America and all three of these states have the strictest gun control laws in the country.
Making guns illegal (especially on a national level) is just feeding the criminal industry as well. Black market products fuel capitol of organized crime so banning firearms will in turn fund criminals and criminal activity. Just looking at the legalization of marijuana and cartel income in just Colorado and Washington alone shows that black market products influence criminal activity in a major way. According to the Washington Post, just the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington should reduce the income of the Mexican cartels by about $1.4 billion each. This loss in revenue over just marijuana should bring revenues of these Mexican cartels down about 30%. If guns were to be banned in the U.S. there is no telling what kind of growth of illegal organizations would occur from black market sales.
Overall it is absurd to think that gun control is a good idea. The pros of gun control are mislead and the cons are detrimental to our country as a society and our rights as Americans. Guns should not be blamed for the actions of people or linked to any misleading statistics to be tangled into political debate.
American Studies Media Culture Program (ASMCP) 