Troy Berry

CJ 1010
Julia Ellis
05/04/15
Gun Control Laws
I will be discussing gun control laws. Gun control is a very prevalent topic in today's
society and has been for some time now . It is something that everyone has an opinion on. For
some, they think that if we had more restrictive laws on guns there would be less gun crime and
less gun related deaths. Others say that criminals dont abide by the laws so it would have little to
no effect on the problem and only hurt law abiding citizens.
To start I will show the viewpoints of the side that is pro gun control. Some of the ideas
they believe is that stronger gun laws will save lives, it would reduce gang activity, and the more
people that have guns doesnt make this a safer country.
Foremost is their thesis that making stronger gun laws will save lives. Supporters remark
that there are loopholes to the current laws that make it easy to obtain a weapon. The "private
sale loophole(Stronger para. 7) and another loophole makes it possible to obtain the weapon if
the background check isnt concluded in three days time. Those are just two examples of
loopholes that have been found. The way the laws stand right now makes it possible to go to a
gunshow and buy a gun from a private seller with no background check and walk away with a
gun in hand. This means that with this loophole open, a criminal could get what they want with
ease. The other loopholes allow the purchaser to have default proceeds, which would suggest that
for whatever reason the seller does not get a response in three days, they are free to sell the
weapon.

It is also true that, the rate of firearm violence in America far exceeds that of other
industrialized nations (Stronger para. 3). Even though we have more firearms to protect
ourselves with, we still have more firearm violence. If it was true that having more guns makes
us safer, why does the facts stand against us?
That brings me to supporters next stance; more guns in civilians hands will not reduce
crime. It is a staggering amount that we have, over 300 million,(Seitz-Wald para. 7) firearms
and yet, we still need more. Most people that are against stricter gun control laws say that if we
had more guns we could protect ourselves. Is it really fair though to say that a civilian would be
able to stop a shooter? As I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte
[store] move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them, he explained (Seitz-Wald para.
43). As that quote shows, even if there was a civilian in the area with a gun, often times they
cannot help. Whether that be because of fear of hurting an innocent bystander or lacking the
training to handle the situation effectively, the situation could get messy.
For the last point that I will cover on the pro gun control side will be how supporters
believe that it would reduce gang violence. This point isnt so much about the current laws, but
more about how people take care of their guns ineffectively. Most people that own guns are
responsible. They keep the weapon in a safe place. The problem here is that some people who
own guns do not. About 240,000 [guns] each year, (Willis para. 8) are stolen from peoples
homes. This is one way gangs get access to guns. Another way can be the aforementioned gun
show loophole. If we had better gun control laws that regulated how we store our guns, maybe
they wouldnt be stolen as often. Also, if we had a law that made private sellers give a
background check to each potential buyer, gang members would not be able to get guns as easily.
Of course there is the possibility that some could backlash saying they dont want to buy an

expensive gun case, but it would be more effective than not. That is a reasonable concern,
however, the least they would be asking is to have it in a locked area.
Now, for those against gun control laws, they stand by the stance and here is why. They
believe that banning guns will increase gang activities, banning assault weapons doesnt reduce
crime, and more gun control wont save more lives.
Lets start at the most prevalent point; more gun control wont save more lives. One of the
more frequent beliefs about guns is when accidental shootings occur. The defense against this is,
Guns don't go off unless someone pulls the trigger (Stephen para. 19). I think we can all admit
that most causes of accidental shootings is improperly handling a gun. In practice, having
stronger laws against gun ownership wouldnt save lives. It would, instead, take better education
of gun safety to reduce the accidental shootings around the country.
Another case that is brought up is that criminals steal the guns from the owner to commit
murder. This is not true as they say. If a person is going to commit murder, it is generally planned
out. If someone is planning a robbery or burglary and plan on using a gun, they arent going to
rely on taking someones firearm first because they probably already have one. In these ways
they believe that stronger gun laws would actually not save more lives.
Those in favor of gun laws would have you believe that concealed weapons are
dangerous to society. The common complaint would be that if there is access to a weapon, there
is a greater chance that a argument will escalate. In most cases, people who are angry are not
angry enough to commit murder.
A main point that could be used for the latter is how gun control laws would have no
effect on gangs. It is believed that it would only hurt the citizens. The train of thought for this
belief is that criminals dont follow the law. After all, you have to break the law to become a

criminal in the first place. Some of the scenarios that have been brought up is how they would
start selling guns more on the black market. This is in contrast to the prohibition of alcohol.
When people couldnt get what they wanted legally, they used illegal methods, through violent
gangs(Geer para. 14). It is hard to believe that such a thing could happen, but the possibility is
there.
Some would like to ban what they call assault weapons and large capacity magazines.
Those who are against more gun laws have some reasons to dispute the ban. A big reason against
a ban as such is that assault weapons are not more powerful than other types of firearms. A
firearm's power is determined by the caliber or gauge of its ammunition(A Ban para. 6). Using
this is a way to determine power. There are rifles used for hunting that are more powerful than
some assault weapons. Also, there are shotguns and rifles not listed as assault weapons that use
the same ammunition as some on the list.
There are good reasons not to get rid of large capacity magazines. For one, getting rid of
them would be ineffective to stop mass shootings. It doesnt matter if the capacity of one
magazine is ten and another is fifteen. They would still be able to cause a great deal of harm to
others. Usually in mass shootings, they bring multiple magazines or guns. If they ran out of
ammo in a normal magazine, they would just be able to take a small amount of time and reload.
Also, if they had multiple guns, they would just change to the next one and continue.
One thing people usually get confused about what they call assault weapons is that they
are fully automatic. This is not true most of the time. Generally, those types of weapons are
classified under machine guns. If you look at the guns that are said to be assault weapons they
would be semi automatic, meaning that the person shooting would have to pull the trigger each
time to fire, not just hold it down.

As you can see this is a very complicated topic for most people. They have good points
on both sides. My personal beliefs is that there should be better laws on how you need to take
care of your guns. It is not the people who have guns legally and are responsible that are the
problem. It is the ones that get them illegally or dont take the proper precautions to keep them
safe.
I believe that there are more accidental shootings than there should be. I think that
because of that, there should be stricter laws not on who can obtain a gun per say, but on how
they should store the guns. There have been multiple stories in the news about children killing
themselves or siblings or shooting something because they got ahold of a gun. Locally, there was
a story about a child who shot themselves with a gun they found wrapped up in a blanket on the
bed. I do not think that is acceptable and I feel that people should be better educated on how and
where to store firearms.
All in all, there are a lot of good points to both sides of this argument. Whether you believe that
stricter gun laws will help our country or hurt it, we are all on the same side. We all want the
country to be safer for our children and our childrens children and so on. I think that working
together to achieve this goal is the only way to succeed.

Works Cited
"A Ban on Assault Weapons Would Not Reduce Crime." Guns and Crime. Ed. Nol Merino.
Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2015. At Issue. Rpt. from "Ten Reasons Why
States Should Reject 'Assault Weapon' and 'Large' Magazine Bans." (June 2014).
Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 May 2015.
Geer, Michael. "Banning Guns Will Increase Gang-Related Violence." Organized Crime. Ed.
David Haugen, Susan Musser, and Michael Chaney. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven
Press, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Gang Violence and Gun Control."
American Thinker. 2013.Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 May 2015.
Seitz-Wald, Alex. "Increased Civilian Gun Ownership Will Not Reduce Crime." Guns and
Crime. Ed. Nol Merino. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2015. At Issue. Rpt.
from "The Answer Is Not More Guns." Salon. 2012. Opposing Viewpoints in Context.
Web. 4 May 2015.
"Stronger Gun Control Laws Will Save Lives." Guns and Crime. Ed. Christine Watkins. Detroit:
Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Ten Myths About Gun Violence in
America."LCAV.org. 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 May 2015.
Willis, Tiffany. "Better Gun Control Would Reduce Gang-Related Violence." Organized Crime.
Ed. David Haugen, Susan Musser, and Michael Chaney. Farmington Hills, MI:
Greenhaven Press, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Who Arms America's
Gangs?: Responsible Gun Owners."LiberalAmerica.org. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in
Context. Web. 4 May 2015.
Wright, Stephen E. "Gun Control Laws Will Not Save Lives." Guns and Crime. Ed. Christine

Watkins. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Anti-Gun Group
Common Sense Gun Laws and Real Common Sense." StephenEWright.com. 2010.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 May 2015.