Introduction
The topic of gun control tends to cause controversy in the country every time someone mentions stricter laws. There is an assumption that the purchase of guns for leisure activities such as hunting continues to be a mainstay part of society today. Unfortunately, guns have gained more notoriety recently as they have become key to committing crimes and causing others harm. Guns are a nuisance to those who own them and those who do not have firearms, and society would be better off with fewer of them in distribution (Moyer, 2017). Despite the fallacious belief that it infringes on the Second Amendment, greater gun control is a good idea because it means less crime plus fewer gun-related injuries, and makes firearms access strict, thus reducing the risk of violence. Furthermore, it supports the eradication of selling high-powered guns.
Discussion
Firstly, the idea of greater gun control emphasizes that guns should never end up in the hands of the wrong people. The argument that more guns in society mean lower crime rates is a common misconception that incompetently justifies owning a gun. Furthermore, research on the clinical forefront shows that states that adopt stricter gun laws manifest fewer gun injuries (Jehan et al., 2018). With stricter gun ownership laws, legally purchased guns would be the only ones in circulation, making it easy to trace perpetrators, thus reducing the crime rate.
Secondly, the data shows that fewer lives are lost in states with stricter gun laws. It leads to the deduction that more stringent gun laws make it harder for altercations to escalate into violence involving a gun. Popular culture today has normalized gun violence for society and the ease with which it can occur (Jamieson & Romer, 2021). Stricter gun control laws aim to reduce gun-related violence by creating a bottleneck in gun ownership and reducing incidences by connecting the issue with access to mental health services (Smith & Spiegler, 2017). The combination of the two approaches facilitates preventing firearms from ending up in the hands of the wrong people, such as temperamental youths.
Lastly, stricter gun laws promise a renewal of the ban on assault weapons and high-powered magazines, which are commonplace in mass shootings. With a spate of shootings in public areas making headlines recently, the 1994 ten-year ban impact has been revisited, and studies show a reduction in annual gun-related deaths (Morford, 2022). Despite those ten years featuring the most prominent mass shooting in history, the numbers were less than after 2004, when the ban expired. Following the law’s expiration, mass shootings ensued with more propensity and continue to fuel the need for stricter gun laws.
Counterargument
Those who stand against stricter gun laws suggest the new decrees infringe on the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment stands for the rights of a “well-regulated militia” to wield arms as a necessity for the security of a free state (Neuman, 2022). The controversy surrounding the clause on bearing arms continues to feature in the argument against gun control laws while, in fact, the Supreme Court debunked this fallacious understanding (Giffords Law Center, 2020). The new interpretation supports the need for lifesaving gun safety laws and refutes that the Second Amendment is a defense for gun ownership in today’s America.
Conclusion
Greater gun control offers numerous benefits compared to the negative impact firearms have had on society. With more guns in circulation, the crime rate has been high, mass shootings have happened more regularly, and accidental gun-related injuries have increased. A stricter legislature on guns in society means that people with and without firearms can live with the guarantee of a safer community that reduces gun access to unwarranted personnel. Although gun education offers more than gun control, fewer guns have proven the most effective approach. In ten years of banning assault weapons sales, gun-related violence rates fell and increased again after 2004. Gun control is a good idea to fulfill the goals of less crime, violence, and fewer accidental injuries.
References
Giffords Law Center. (2020). The Supreme Court & the Second Amendment. Web.
Jamieson, P., & Romer, D. (2021). The association between the rise of gun violence in popular US primetime television dramas and homicides attributable to firearms, 2000–2018.PLOS ONE, 16(3), e0247780. Web.
Morford, S. (2022). Did the assault weapons ban of 1994 bring down mass shootings? Here’s what the data tells us. The Conversation. Web.
Moyer, M. (2017). More guns do not stop more crimes, evidence shows. Scientific American. Web.
Neuman, S. (2022). The ‘Gun dude’ and a Supreme Court case that changed who can own firearms in the U.S. NPR. Web.
Pandit, V., Jain, A., Tai, S., Khan, M., O’Keeffe, T., & Tang, A. et al. (2018). The burden of firearm violence in the united states: stricter laws result in safer states. Journal Of Injury And Violence, 10(1), 11-16. Web.
Smith, J., & Spiegler, J. (2017). Explaining gun deaths: gun control, mental illness, and policymaking in the American states.Policy Studies Journal, 48(1), 235-256. Web.