Gun Control

With the passage of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, citizens have had the right to bear arms for lawful purposes such as self-defense. Then why have countless children and faculty members been shot and killed by those in possession of guns? Why have so many innocent people been gunned down for no apparent reason? While citizens should have the right and means to defend themselves, interpretation of the Second Amendment has become dangerously loose, resulting in dire consequences, and this is an indication that something must be done to tighten gun control and clarify what exactly the Second Amendment means.

Currently, Americans own millions of guns. In fact, 41% of American households have firearms, and this high percentage makes it no surprise that the death rate due to guns is among the highest in the world. In 2010 alone, there were 31,513 deaths from guns, 19,308 of which guns were used in suicide, 11,015 used in homicide, and 600 in gun accidents (Gun Control Issues), making guns one of the leading causes of death in America. Stronger gun control would decrease the number of gun-related deaths by keeping guns out of the hands of unqualified persons in the first place. It would also discourage suicide attempts, most of which involve guns, and eliminate the cause of gun accidents in the home.

Guns have a significant psychological impact on the user and on those around the user. One study compared the perspectives of those who were holding toy guns to those who were not. Undergraduates at Notre Dame and Purdue were divided into two groups, with one group given toy guns to hold. When all the individuals from both groups glimpsed scenes of people holding various objects and had to decide whether or not the figure in the scene was holding a gun, the study found that those holding toy guns were more likely to believe that the figure was holding a gun too, even if the figure actually wasn’t holding one (Ritter). The results of this study suggest that even just holding a gun can change one’s perspective of those around him/her, and this change in perspective may not be positive; other studies have well established that a majority of people feel less safe in the presence of guns (Foster). This uneasiness near guns is justified in that those with guns on hand are more likely to settle an issue violently, as opposed to talking a problem out. With a gun at ready, the use of a gun as a resolution becomes a possibility, and this increases the probability that it will be used impulsively when a nonviolent solution could be used instead.

But then there’s the popular saying: “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” The truth is, guns make it so much easier to kill. When a criminal shoots someone with a gun, he/she can conceal DNA evidence more effectively, and kill multiple people quickly. And perhaps most frighteningly, he/she can kill from a distance, both physically and emotionally; the shooter can’t feel the bullet go into the body of the victim, while a criminal who stabs can feel the blade enter the body. Thus, it sounds reasonable that the shooting criminal would find it easier to kill than the stabbing criminal.

And there’s also the argument that gun control is ineffective because criminals steal guns or obtain them from the black market anyways. However, this argument appears to be made with unfound assumptions; out all of the mass shootings in the US from 1982 to 2012, more than three-fourths were committed using guns that were obtained legally, not stolen or from the black market. And from the rest of them that were obtained illegally by the criminal, in nearly 9 out of 10 cases the guns were originally legally owned by people with clean records, who later sold them to criminals through the black market. In the end, a majority of the guns involved in tragic incidents had been originally owned legally, indicating that the current gun control laws are too weak in even regulating people with clean records.

So how can this problem be solved? In my ideal modern world, people wouldn’t even know what a gun is. But in this world that we live in, there may not be any completely foolproof solution—it would be ridiculous and impossible to ban the countless number of guns, and attempting to do so would be a violation of the Second Amendment. As long as there are those who believe that guns are a necessity, the best choice of action is to effectively strengthen and regulate gun control laws so that tragic gun incidents are minimized. The Second Amendment says that citizens have the right to bear arms for self-defense and lawful purposes, but we can’t rely on just this statement; we must pass detailed laws to enforce this amendment, whether it be to rigorously monitor prospective gun owners, increase taxes on weapons, or make consequences for breaking gun control laws more severe. Guns were first created with the intent to destroy, kill, maim; gun control is not an infringement upon the Second Amendment, but a potent method to reduce violence in society.