Gun Control Essay, Research Paper
: The failure of Gun Control Laws
Americans are faced with an ever-growing problem of violence. Our streets have become
a battleground where the elderly are beaten for their social security checks, where
terrified women are viciously attacked and raped, where teenage gangster shoot it out for
a patch of turf to sell their illegal drugs, and where innocent children are caught daily in
the crossfire of drive-by shootings. We cannot ignore the damage that these criminals are
doing to our society, and we must take actions to stop these horrors. However, the efforts
by some misguided individuals to eliminate the legal ownership of firearms does not
address the real problem at hand, and simply disarms the innocent law abiding citizens
who are most in need of a form of self-defense. To fully understand the reasons behind
the gun control efforts, we must look at the history of our country, and the role firearms
have played in it. The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States makes
firearm ownership legal in this country. There were good reasons for this freedom,
reasons which persist today. Firearms in the new world were used initially for hunting,
and occasionally for self-defense. However, when the colonist felt that the burden of
British oppression was too much for them to bear, they picked up their personal firearms
and went to war. Standing against the British armies, these rebels found themselves
opposed by the greatest military force in the world at that time. The 18th century
witnessed the height of the British Empire, but the rough band of colonial freedom
fighters discovered the power on the Minuteman, the average American gun owner.
These Minuteman, so named because they would pick up their personal guns and jump to
the defense of their country on a minute?s notice, served a major part in winning the
American Revolution. The founding fathers of the country understood that an armed
populace was instrumental in fighting off oppression, and they made the right to keep and
bear arms a constitutionally guaranteed right(The Gunin American 14-25)Over the years,
some of the reasons for owning firearms have changed. As our country grow into a strong
nation, we expanded westward, exploring the wilderness, and building new towns on the
frontier. Typically, these new towns were far away from the centers of civilization, and
the only law they had was dispensed by townsfolk through the barrel of a gun. Crime
existed, but could be minimized when the townspeople fought back against the criminals.
Eventually, these organized townspeople developed police forces as their towns grew in
size. Fewer people carried their firearms on the street, but the firearms were always there,
ready to be used in self-defense(27-39) It was after the Civil War that the first
gun-control advocates came into existence. These southern leaders who were
afraid that the newly freed black slaves would assert their newfound political rights, and
these leaders wanted to make it easier to oppress the free blacks(41) This oppression was
accomplished by passing laws making it illegal in many places or black people to own
firearms. With that effort, they assured themselves that the black population would be
subject to their control, and world not have the ability to fight back. At the same time, the
people who were most intent on denying black people their basic rights walked around
with their firearms, making it impossible to resist their efforts. An unarmed man stands
little chance against and armed one, and these armed men saw their plans work
completely. It was a full century before the civil rights activists of the 1960?s were able
to restore the constitutional freedoms that blacks in this country were granted in the
1860?s(46). Today?s gun control activists are a slightly different breed. They claim that
gun violence in this country has gotten to a point where something must be done to stop
it. They would like to see criminals disarmed, and they want the random violence to
stop(Edel 77). I agree with their sentiments. However, they are going about it in the
wrong way. While claiming that they want to take guns out of the hands of criminals,
they work to pass legislation that world take the guns out of the hands of law abiding
citizens instead. For this reason the efforts at gun control do not address the real problem
of crime. The simple definition of a criminal is someone who does not obey the law. The
simple definition of a law abiding citizen is someone who does obey the law. Therefore,
if we pass laws restricting ownership of firearms, which category of people does it
affect? The simple answer is that gun control laws affect law abiding citizens only. By
their very nature, the criminals will continue to violate these new laws, they will continue
to carry their firearms, and they will find their efforts at crime much easier when they
know that their victims will be unarmed
blacks a century ago. Innocent people are turned into victims when new laws make it
impossible for them to fight back. Am unarmed man stands little chance against an
armed one. An interesting recent development has been the backlash against the gun
control advocates. In many states, including Florida and Texas, citizens have stated that
they want to preserve their right to carry forearms for self-defense (Furnish 23). Since the
late 1980?s, Florida has been issuing concealed weapons permits to law abiding citizens,
and these citizens have been carrying their firearms to defend themselves from rampant
crime(25). The result is that the incidence of violent crime has actually dropped in
contrast to the national average. Previously, Florida had been leading the nation in this
category, and the citizens of that state have welcomed the change. Gun control advocates
tried to claim that there would be bloodshed in the streets when these citizens were given
the right to carry. They tried to claim that the cities of Florida world become like Dodge
City with shoot-outs on every street corner, and duels over simple disagreements. These
gun control advocates were wrong. over 200,000 concealed carry permits have been
issued so far, with only 36 of these permits revoked for improper use of a firearm(31).
This statistic is easy to understand. It is the law abiding citizens who are going through
the process of getting concealed carry permits so that they may legally carry a firearm.
The people who go through this legal process do not want to break the law, and they do
not intend to break the law. The people who do intend to break the law will carry their
guns whether or not the law allows them to do so. Criminals will always find ways to get
guns. In this country we have criminalized the use, possession, sale, and transportation of
many kinds of narcotics, however, it is still easy for someone to take a ride and purchase
the drugs of their choice at street corner vendors. Firearms and ammunition would be just
as easy for these black market entrepreneurs to deliver to their customers. Today,
criminals often carry illegal weapons, including sawed-off shotguns, machine guns, and
homemade zip-guns, clearly showing their disregard for the current laws which make
these items illegal(Gottlies 112). And when they are caught, the courts regularly dismiss
these lesser weapons charges when prosecuting for the more serious charges that are
being committed with the weapons(113). The gun control advocates have argued their
case by demonizing the gun itself, rather than addressing the people who commit violent
crimes(Davidson 82). This is the main fallacy in their argument. They slyly attempt to
claim that possession of a gun turns average citizens into bloodthirsty lunatics. This
theory falls apart under close scrutiny. If legal possession of a firearm caused this sort of
attitude, then why are crime rates highest in areas such as Washington, D.C. and New
York City which have strict gun control laws? And why are crime rates dropping in
sates such as Florida where private ownership of firearms is encourage? Simply stated,
legal ownership of a gun does not cause crime(86). The most recent efforts of the gun
control lobby has been to claim that certain types of guns and ammunition are inherently
evil. They assign emotional catch phrases such as ?assault weapons? and ?cop killer
bullets? to broad categories of firearms and ammunition in the hopes that people will
believe that some guns have an evil nature(122-123). Most people who are unfamiliar
with firearms do not fully understand what these phrases mean, and they accept the terms
being used without question. What people do not often understand is that the term
?assault weapon? has been defined to include all semiautomatic rifles, and ?cop killer?
has been defined to include any bullet that can penetrate type two Body armor(125). It
comes as a surprise to most people that a large number of simple hunting rifles can do
both. Does ownership of one of these weapons cause people to become mass murderers?
It does not, and we must not fall into the trap of blaming the sword for the hand the wie!
lds it. So I?ve shown that the act of making it illegal to own firearms does little to prevent
criminals from getting guns. These laws only restrict people who respect the law itself,
the people who world only use firearms for legal purposes anyway. And when we give
people the right to defend themselves, we find that criminals start looking for other
victims out of fear that they will become the victims themselves. We must work to
reduce crime in America, but we should look at the problem realistically, and develop
plans that would be effective. Its is obvious that gun control laws are neither realistic, nor
effective in reducing crime. Therefore, we must direct our efforts toward controlling
crime, not controlling legal ownership of firearms.