The Gun Ban and What the Government Can’t
Do.
Our forefathers left this country with 12 amendments which were put in place to help a nation and its people. One amendment in particular is the 2nd amendment. This amendment states that civilians have the right to
bare arms. Many people support this amendment and would like it to stay in
place but there are a few individuals that would like to see a control on guns. "These people believe that if the government were to ban rapidly firing assault weapons, piercing bullets, and
high-capacity magazines there would be a decrease in the rate of firearm
related homicides and suicides." (Mozaffarian, Hemenway, and Ludwig). If people are determined enough they
will find a way to get around a ban of assault weapons. Even if the government
put a ban on all guns there might be an increase in crime because criminals
will always find ways to get guns while law biding citizens are forced to give
up their firearms. This hinders some peoples abilities to protect themselves
from the people with guns that do not use them in the manner for which they
were created. "Gun
violence arises from sociocultural, educational, behavioral, and product safety
issues that transcend gun ownership alone." (Mozaffarian, Hemenway, and Ludwig) Guns do not kill
people. People with guns that don’t use them properly or in a violent manner kill
people, and even if all the guns were restricted people would still find ways to
commit homicide or suicide.
Law abiding citizens if a gun ban passed.
"In 1990, a series of CDC-funded studies has indicated that easy access to guns and keeping firearms at home increases homicide and suicide rates." (Underwood) President Barack Obama
said that he will work to push new gun control measures in 2013 and called on
Congress to reinstate the expired assault weapons ban. The gunban that was made in 1994, shortly after CDC research, was put in place to outlaw 14 different types of
guns but was not very effective because of the loop holes that were found in
the federal ban. On April 20, 1999, during the 10 years of this ban on assault type weapons, the tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado occurred showing the ban was ineffective. Guns that were banned remained to be sold because dealers
simply changed the names of the guns or small accessories that were sold with
the original gun. After a mass shooting in Australia in 1996, the Australian government bought back 643,726 newly illegal guns for over $400 million dollars. A new ban on guns would be as ineffective as the
original ban unless the government did something similar which would result in billions of dollars needed to be paid to citizens for there currently owned guns. Still, Obama said he would take an approach in addressing the
role of violence in entertainment and focus on ways to improve mental
healthcare. "Obama directed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions and other agencies to study the cause and prevention of gun violence." (Underwood) He hopes that educating people on gun violence will
prevent some violence. Even if education on violence is enacted it would take
years and is often too late to educate people that are older.
On December 14, 2012 a 20-year-old
man created a school massacre in Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown,
Connecticut that killed 20 elementary students and 6 adults. The weapons that
were used in this school shooting were guns such as an AR-15 assault rifle, a
Glock handgun, and a Sig Sauer handgun. Unfortunately, there was another school
massacre in a preschool in China on the same day that wounded 22 children and
an 85-year-old woman. The weapon that this person used was a knife. This shows
how restricting high-powered rifles would not prevent anything because people
will always find ways to commit heinous crimes and people do not need assault
rifles to enact on these crimes. The shooting in Sandy Hook was a terrible
occurrence, but the fact remains that not only did the perpetrator have an
assault rifle but he also two handguns that would not be affected by the gun ban
that Obama is trying to enact. The fact remains that nothing in Obama's bill would have prevented the shooting. In China a person was able to affect as many
people with a knife, as the person in Sandy Hook was able to affect with a gun.
As in China’s school massacre, if a
gun is a not available any weapon such as a shiv or a knife could be used to produce the
same brutality as a gun. According to a homicide census by the government, in
2009, 13,756 murders occurred. 9,203 of those murders were because of
guns and only 352 of the murders committed by guns were because of assault
rifles. Therefore the assault rifle gun ban would not be a large factor in
decreasing the amount of murders in a year. Even if all guns were banned, murders would still occur. 4,552 people were killed by knifes or cutting and other blunt instruments. These statistics show that a gun is not needed to commit
homicide or suicide.
In 2009, a census was released
about how many road fatalities occurred in a year. There were a total of 33,808 people killed on our highways. The number of people killed in a car accident is twice the number of
people that were murdered in 2009. If those census are correct then why is there no
restriction being put on cars? If the government wanted to reduce the amount of
people being killed why is the government not put putting a ban on the size of
a car a person can own or how fast a car can go instead of trying to put a ban
on the size of a magazine that a gun can hold and the speed in which a gun can
fire? The reason behind this is because the government doesn’t want to admit
that there are more important matters that should be tended to instead of banning
assault rifles that are the result of only two percent of all homicides in the
United states in 2009.
The government feels that if a ban
on assault rifles where to be put in place, then the suicide rate would also decrease. In
2007 another census was preformed to show how many people committed suicide and by which means that they preformed this act. In 2007, 34,598 people
committed suicide and of the total number 17,352 people used a gun. That leaves
almost half of the people that killed themselves using other approaches such as
strangulation, poison, or other methods. This shows that people do not need a
gun to commit suicide. The sad fact is that some people will do what ever it
takes to take their own life.
If a gun ban passes, guns will
continue to be produced because people can be very resourceful. Some guns can
be built from some of the simplest parts that are readily available to the
public. In Celle, Germany there is a prison where a shotgun was made by two prisoners
and was used in an escape from the prison after they took a prison guard
hostage. This shotgun, seen below, was made from a bed leg post and was
fired using lead and match heads. The ignition system was a AA battery and a
broken light bulb. The ingenuity in building a firearm out of bed constructing
parts shows how people who are determined enough can create a weapon that would easily avoid a gun ban.
Government
officials feel that a couple of the reasons why the ban of assault rifles
should be necessary is because of the amount of bullets a magazine can hold and the accuracy of some guns at a long range from a target. Both of these reasons seem logical but
in reality both of these ideas can be bypassed. A large magazine can be
substituted for two small magazines and accuracy can be avoided because the
government is trying to ban assault rifles, not hunting rifles. Hunting rifles
can be as, or even more effective than any assault rifle at long range.
On August
1, 1966 Charles Whitman killed 14 people and injured dozens from a sniping position on top of a bell tower. He used multiple guns, many of which were common
hunting rifles such as a 35 caliber Remington Rifle, 6mm Remington Rifle with a
scope, three pistol, a M-1 carbine, and a 12 gauge shot gun. These guns are all
as accurate as any assault rifle if not more accurate and hold much less
ammunition but can still preform the atrocities as the assault rifle.
Recently,
on April 9, 2013 people were stabbed at Lone Star College campus leaving 14
people injured and two in critical condition. The stabbing happened in Cypress,
Texas and appeared to have two suspects, but only one is in custody and the
other still at large. This shows that knifes are used just as often as guns to
murder people.
Work Cited:
Mozaffarian,
Dariush, David Hemenway, and David S. Ludwig. "Curbing Gun
Violence." JAMA 309.6 (2013): 551-552. Print.
339.6118 (2013): 381-382. Print.
