Gun Control in the United States - Research Paper Example

?GUN CONTROL “Gun control is an umbrella term covering everything from laws prohibiting the ownership of defined es of firearms to mandating theinclusion of gun locks with every firearm sold. These measures represent discrete legislative acts passed on different dates by different governing bodies”1. The very idea of gun reflects a sign of danger and a common man feels endangered whenever he confronts a gun. It has been witnessed that the Americans have been in possession of private guns more than any developed economies. At present more than one-third of the American households possess a working firearm. Even the women also bear license for guns and uses them2. Guns maybe either shot-guns or hand guns. Generally people use the hand gun more as it is easy to carry and becomes handier. In recent times the issue of gun control has turned out to be very controversial, especially in US, as a lot of crimes and accidents are taking place due to licenses which are being given away to commoners. Crimes Guns are a potential threat to a person’s life security. Crimes are more likely to take place in the presence of guns. All people who bear license for keeping guns are not potential threats to the society. People who own only handguns typi­cally own the guns for protection against crime. There is a two-step linkage between gun control and crime rates: (1) the impact of gun control on the availability and accessibility of firearms, particularly handguns, and (2) the effect of the prevalence of guns on the commission of crimes. The course of the outcome moves from gun control to crime rates3. In fact, high crime rates generate political support for the implementation of more severe gun controls4. The rates of crime are bound to increase as people are freely permitted to use guns. Sometimes thieves can also burgle the gun from the house or even kill a person. Gun control proponents often point out those countries such as Britain and Canada, which have strong gun control laws have lower rates of violent crimes5. Gun violence has unevenly impacted the African American society. While overall crime rates, including gun-related crime, have come down among the general population during the past decade, gun violence has increased among African Americans. African Americans youths, especially young males, have been particularly affected by gun violence. In addition to higher rates of violent crime, suicide rates among the African American have also increased. This has compelled community leaders to decry the self-destruction of younger generations and call for increased gun control measures6. According to the Department of Justice, nearly 58 percent of gun crimes took place in large cities over the past 30 years, and disproportionately by black males between the ages of 14 and 24. Despite composing only 1 percent of the population, these young African-American males represent 16 percent of homicide victims and 27 percent of all homicide offenders7. But, certainly one cause that so many Americans are concerned about guns is that guns signify and indicate individualism and self-reliance, two characteristics in which Americans outdo the rest of the industrial world8. People sometimes may not be criminals and do not have intentions of killing someone. Those who want to show their vengeance towards someone can show it through other methods also, but it is a natural thing that when a person has better options in front of him, he will definitely make use of it. So gun is always a better option than knife or any other sharp weapon. For instance, “Adam Lanza, an honors student with no criminal record, murdered his mother, stole four of her guns, and—for reasons we may never know—decided to rob the world of the lives of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was a murder of unarmed innocents on a scale with few precedents in American history, the second deadliest school shooting in history, and the worst massacre in an elementary school since the 1927 bombings at the Bath School in Michigan.” 9 Accidents: Accidents can occur randomly when there are children in the house and that can be the most unfortunate part of the story. It is significant to identify that even if some people are at more danger for uninten­tional shootings compared to the rest, accidents can occur to anyone. Possibilities include “(a) accidents, (b) suicides, (c) assaults and homicides, and (d) intimidation”10. The basic idea of gun is to provide safety. But it can turn out to be a very harmful object in case of small and innocent children. Guns augment the peril for all but particularly for young people11. Children in the age group of 5 to 14 years in the United States possess 11 times the possibility of being killed unintentionally with a gun when compared with same aged ones in other developed nations12. Innocent children while playing games can accidentally start playing with a real gun and may end up killing someone. Many people maintain that the majority of gun owners are responsible for accidents as they say that the tool (i.e. the gun cannot do any harm or commit crime but it is the person who uses the tool to commit crimes13. Most of accidental shootings of kids occur in-house when a male child without a supervisor or guardian discovers a full handgun while interacting with associates or embers of family. A majority (87 percent) of parents possessing guns are of the opinion that their offsprings would not touch the weapon and hence they were more inclined to keep a loaded gun within their children’s reach14. This can be a complete misnomer as innocent children are the most vulnerable to committing accidents while playing with guns. Following death certificate information ranging from 2003 to 2007, above 680 Americans were killed every year inadvertently with guns or firearms. Despite the fact that suicide trials with guns are occasional, more Americans commit the same with guns than any other weapon. Out of the weapons used in suicide attempts, firearms are the most deadly. From the year 2003 to 2007, around 46 Americans committed suicide using guns on daily basis. This includes 2 teenagers (aged 15-19) and 3.5 young adults (aged 20-24) per day. Keeping a firearm in the domestic setting is a risk aspect which might lead to suicide for anyone in the home—the gun possessor, the gun owner’s other half, and the gun owner’s offsprings15. The Safety and the Benefit of Gun Control: The major benefit of keeping a gun is to have safety and use it in case of self-defense. The major cause people project for possessing a handgun in the residence is safeguard, ideally against stranger aggression. “The main health benefits of guns in the home are that they may be used to (a) deter crime and (b) thwart crimes in progress”16. Disapproval of violence is not the single representative worth of gun control measure. Although there is nearly no proof that gun registration laws necessitating lawful gun owners to provide the government with the serial number and model of every gun they own) are of any realistic advantage, particularly in light of the governmental expenditures and bureaucracy necessary to practice the registration. Gun registration is an eagerly wanted objective of the gun control movement with equally passionate confrontation from the gun rights lobby group17. The United States seem to care for the right to carry guns far more strongly than other countries do. A study of persons arrested for a wide range of crimes showed that a higher percentage of arrestees than regular citizens own firearms. Arrestees are also more likely to be injured or killed by gun violence. Within a community, this culminates in a certain group of “career” offenders18. As we maintain that prevention is better than cure, so it is completely safe to keep guns away from those who have previous criminal records or are generally violent in nature. Before giving license to anyone, their background should be totally thoroughly checked up. Conclusion: The main objective of gun control is to prevent violence, but the purpose of gun use is not necessarily to cause harm. In trying to prevent violence, gun control supporters want to make norms that would disallow people from using guns freely. But the gun control opponents believe that these laws are unfair to those who are good citizens19. The scientific studies also suggest for the present-day Americans that the health risk of a gun in the home is bigger than the benefit20. References 1. Crooker, Constance Emerson, Gun Control And Gun Rights, United States: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003 2. Carter. Greg L, Guns in American Society, Volume 1, United States:ABCR-CLIO, 2002 3. Domenech, Benjamin, The Truth About Mass Shootings and Gun Control, Commentary, 135 (2) 4. Howard, Patricia Kunz, Parents’ Beliefs About Children and Gun Safety, Pediatric Nursing (2005), 31.5, 374-379 5. Hemenway. David, Risks and Benefits of a Gun in the Home, American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, (2011) 5.6, accessed May 11, 2013 from http://www.iansa.org/system/files/Risks%20and%20Benefits%20of%20a%20Gun%20in%20the%20Home%202011.pdf 6. Kopel, David B. The Ideology Of Gun Ownership And Gun Control In The United States, Quarterly Journal of Ideology. 2005, accessed May 9, 2013 from http://www.constitution.org/2ll/2ndschol/60dk-i.pdf 7. Magoon, Kekla. Gun Control, United States : ABDO Publishing, 2008 8. Moorhouse John C. and Brent Wanner, Does Gun Control Reduce Crime Or Does Crime Increase Gun Control? Cato Journal, (2006) 26.1, Accessed May 11, 2013 , http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2001/1/cj26n1-6.pdf. 9. National Institute Of Justice, Who Has Guns and How Are They Acquired?.2008, accessed on May 9, 2013 from: http://www.nij.gov/nij/topics/crime/gun-violence/acquired.htm Read More