Gun Control example essay topic

Dan Nenninger: Essay # 1 Gun Control According to the Coalition for Gun Control, last year a total of 291 people were killed by handguns in Australia, Sweden, Great Britain, Japan, and Switzerland. In the United States more than 24,000 people will be killed by the end of this year. So what is the big difference between the U.S. and these other countries? In these other countries it nearly impossible to buy any kind of gun. In these countries there are no gun shows. In these countries you can't buy a gun at a pawnshop or your local Wal-Mart.

These countries have strict gun laws and are all about gun control. In this paper I will discus the correct interpretation of the Second Amendment, why guns are such a problem in the U.S., and why guns are more likely to kill a friend instead of a foe. My first argument is the correct interpretation of the Second Amendment. The second amendment to the bill of rights states that " A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed". Some critics of gun control believe that the second amendment should be absolute, and any and all arms should be legal. First, it is important to note that no right is absolute.

For example, even though the first amendment guarantees me the right to free speech, the right is limited. I cannot publish a newspaper article, which I claim that Mr. Merc andante is a child molester, if that fact is known to me to be completely untrue. Second, the United States court of Appeals indicated that the clause about "a well regulated militia" does not mean that the average citizen is part of that militia. (Stevens vs. U.S., U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 1971) Many people who oppose gun control believe that the second amendment is the Constitution's way of making sure that our government never becomes tyrannical, and ensures that if it does, we will be able to overthrow it.

First and most important, the Constitution was a document intended to create a government that could be changed by the people through peaceful means. One counter-argument to this is that if the government disarms the populace, the populace is ripe for dictatorial takeover, and cannot fight back. My response to this is simple: America has over 270,000,000 citizens at last count. No dictator could "take over" without popular support of these citizens. My second point is why guns are such a problem in the United States.

The problem with guns is fairly straightforward: they make it easy to kill or injure a person. In Dr. Jeffrey A. Roth's Firearms and Violence Brief he points out that approximately 60% of all murder victims in the U.S. were killed by firearms. In 1985 (the latest year for which data is available) the cost of shootings was estimated to be more than $14 billion nationwide for medical care, long-term disability, and premature death. Arthur L. Kellerman found that residents of homes where a gun is present are 5 times more likely to experience a suicide than residents of homes without guns.

My third point is why guns are more likely to kill a friend instead of a foe. Donald Read, who has had his research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, has shown that a gun kept in the home is 43 times more likely to kill a member of the household, or a friend, than an intruder. Another argument the pro-gunners present is the collective self-defense argument where if many Americans own guns, it is better for the general welfare of the country in case we are invaded by a foreign power. This statement has no validity because of the strength of the U.S. military. We can also see the dangerous effects of collective self-defense by looking at amateur militias in America.

Although I would personally like to see as many civilian-owned guns eliminated from mainstream society as possible, I realize that this is not a politically realistic goal. So I present these five plans for gun control that I would consider a valid compromise: A national system for registering guns and ammunition, Instant background checks, Stiffer sentences for gun crimes, Gun education, and Gun locks on all Guns. In this paper I have proven the correct interpretation of the Second Amendment, why guns are such a problem in the U.S., and why guns are more likely to kill a friend instead of a foe. So I stand resolved that gun control should be tougher and enforced better.