Why Gun Control Won’t Work

Society sees guns as a source of violence and evil. Consequently, society believes that there needs to be strict regulations on firearms. However, many fail to realize that enforcing strict gun control is not the solution to the problem. People are very ignorant on guns, and they just speak with the masses. Gun control is such a controversial topic because it isn't stated in the constitution if the regulation and control of guns is constitutional or not. Most people on the left support gun control laws they are trying to pass because they believe it will decrease mass shootings, and overall homicides, but it hasn't worked anywhere in America.

Gun control would never, ever work in the United States of America.

Gun violence will never be completely eradicated just by using gun control as a solution. Washington D.C has some of the strictest laws in the country surrounding guns, but the homicide rate is still very high. It is deemed the 5th most dangerous place in the U.S (Bandler). The gun laws consist of things like if you do not seem sound of mind you can be denied to purchasing the firearm, you cannot openly or conceal carry a weapon, transporting any loaded gun in a vehicle is illegal, etc. (Phillip). This shows that even strict gun control doesn't mean it is a safer place. But Washington D.C isnt the only place in the world with the strict gun laws, Australia even did a mandatory gun buyback system. Crime Research Prevention Center president John Lott said, Prior to 1996, there was already a clear downward [trend] in firearm homicides, and this pattern continued after the [Australian] buyback, (Bandler). This suggests that the downward trend is mostly due to other factors, and the buyback may have had little to no effect, especially since the same study showed that non-firearm homicides decreased even more than the homicides with firearms.

People pushing gun control legislation are praising Australia's gun buyback, when they really shouldn't be, because it hasn't done anything to help with crimes, other factors had bigger roles most likely. The other place they like to praise for gun control is Britain. But, after they banned handguns in 1997, there was a severe increase in the homicide rates (Bandler). Gun control legislation doesn't even work in other countries, why would it work here? From the time period of 2007 to 2016, in America, eighteen to twenty-nine year olds had an upward trend of wanting to protect gun rights (BBC). People during that upward trend were most likely realizing that we were about to lose our rights as citizens to own a firearm. America has a gun culture so huge that gun control would most likely displease more people than those who would support it, especially since there is no supporting evidence that it would do much.

Bad people will always find a way to obtain firearms, no matter what. Illegal gun trades are real, especially where there is super strict gun control laws. Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but the firearm recovery rate in crimes is seven times the amount in New York City. Many guns are put into the hands of criminals through straw purchasing, a process in which gun traffickers or criminals hire a legal gun buyer to buy guns for them (Office of the Mayor of Chicago). These facts indicate that people will find a way to get a gun if their intent is to do harm, regardless of law. Do you think that they have a care for the law of purchasing a firearm if their intent is to break the law? If they had a care for the law, they would follow gun free zones, but they obviously don't because a whopping 98% of mass shootings have occured in gun free zones since 1950 (Lotte). Gun control and safety measures that are put in place do not work, it is a people problem, not a gun problem. When people say that the AR-15 needs to be banned but they are okay with handguns, the two weapon types do the same thing, the only difference for the most part is the caliber. Fully-automatic firearms are already outlawed, basically every gun people can own is a semi-automatic weapon.

A good guy with a gun, can stop a bad guy with a gun. The violent crime, not homicide, rate is about 300,000 times a year. The annual defensive uses of a firearm is at 500,000-3,000,000 times in the year of 2013 (Hsieh). But the homicides in 2013 are below 20,000. This is intriguing because you would never believe in the outrage culture we live in now, that we would have more defensive uses of a firearm than offensive. Those people that own firearms that are good people can also stop mass shootings from taking more lives. Take Stephen Willeford for example, who had stopped the mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. He came out of his home and ran across the street and fired at the gunman with his AR-15, who now doesn't have his attention on the innocent. Then Willeford followed the gunman in his car when he was trying to flee, until the gunman crashed, and decided to commit suicide (Thiessen). Willeford is also an instructor for the N.R.A. He wouldn't have been able to stop the killer with a pistol, the chances of him stopping it would've gone down drastically and the casualties would've risen.

Other factors could be blamed for why mass shootings are not controlled well. Like at Parkland, the fact that Nikolas Cruz, the shooter, had posted in a YouTube comment section, I'm going to be a professional school shooter, and the FBI didn't do anything about it (Halbrook). Also the fact that the officer at the school fled the scene at the sound of rifle rounds going off. The failure on many different levels of protecting all people from this man, and many others like him, is irresponsible. The AR-15 was not the problem, the failure of law enforcement to comply to what would help prevent deaths was.

All in all, the gun control agenda is largely flawed. They do not realize what they are pushing for is an authoritarian regime in which only the military, the police, and criminals possess firearms. We as Americans deserve to have our second amendment enforced, and all the legislation pushing gun control should be unconstitutional. The biggest problem with gun control is that if we cannot protect ourselves, we have to rely on only the government, and that is a scary thought. The second amendment was created to protect citizens from a tyrannical government, so if they take away our guns, we wouldn't ever be able to push back. Gun control wouldn't do anything in America, we would turn into the next Britain or Australia by being the newest addition to the list of countries to disarm their citizens.

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