Some people are for new gun control laws, but I am one of the many that are
against them. Now, it is impossible to pick up a newspaper or watch the evening
news without being bombarded with the details of another mass shooting, or
another child that was killed while playing with a gun. Unfortunately, there are
many people who take the easy way out when it comes to a solution to this
problem, they choose gun control. There are many facts that support my position
in which I will explain. First of all, numerous studies have proven that there
are many protective uses of firearms, but most are masked by the few larger
negative gun stories in the news. Mark Johnson, a journalist for Media General
News, reports that despite scholarly studies indicating that law-abiding
citizens use firearms from 764,000 to 3.6 million times each year to thwart
crime, most defensive gun use incidents go unreported to the authorities. A
survey done by Florida State University criminologist, Gary Kleck, suggests that
there are 2.2-2.5 million protective uses of guns each year. John R. Lott, a
graduate of University of Chicago Law school, has found with his studies that
allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes and it
appears to produce no increase in accidental deaths. Also, National attention
has been given recently to the notion that foreign countries that harshly
restrict gun ownership have crime rates much lower than that of the U.S. . In
fact the lowest gun crime rates in Japan, Great Britain, and in Canada were when
there was virtually no gun crime laws. The Second Amendment to the Constitution
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,". The definition of gun control is; government regulation of
possession and use of firearms by private citizens.These laws do nothing to stop
criminals from buying illegal guns, who are unlikely to obey the law and
register their guns. With these laws, gun rights groups say the legislation is
infringing mostly on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens that are
just trying to protect themselves. Our Founding Fathers gave the citizens of the
United States the right to bear arms, and our current government is slowly
trying to take it away. The Columbine high school shootings victims are blaming
weak gun control laws for this incident. In reality it should be the parent's
responsibility to control their children and lock guns away. Also, just because
of one isolated incident, I don't believe people should try to take guns away
from responsible people. It is much harder to buy guns with these laws and it
takes more money and time to get them. That is why I believe the citizens of
Columbine are wrong for blaming this incident and the few others on the concept
of gun control laws. Many believe that gun control only takes guns away from
law-abiding citizens and it does nothing to stop criminals from buying illegal
guns, who are unlikely to obey the law and register their guns. I feel that the
term gun control is improperly used. The government is using it as a way to take
our right to bear arms and other than a bodyguard or a law enforcement officer
at one's side twenty-four hours a day, the most effective deterrent to criminal
attack is the criminal's fear that the victim is armed and prepared to defend
him or her self. It is for these reasons that I am against these and also
because America should be able to protect themselves from criminals that do
abuse firearms.