According to The Washington Post, on Christmas, Veronica Rutledge’s husband gave her a purse with a secret compartment in it for a concealed gun or weapon. The day after Christmas Veronica, her husband, and her two year old son drove up north to where her husband’s father lived. Once they arrived Veronica showed him her new gift and explained what the compartment would be used for. Then on Tuesday morning around 10:00 a.m. in Hayden, Idaho Veronica and her family went to a nearby Walmart. In Walmart the purse was left unattended for a short period of time. During the period of time her son opened the purse, unzipped the pocket, took the gun out, and shot his mother in the head instantly killing her. This isn’t the only occasion where someone has died by a handgun where it could have been prevented. The Brady Campaign states that every day an average of 289 people are shot in the US. Thirty of these people are murdered, fifty-three of them commit suicide, two of them die accidentally, and one is shot during a police intervention. This is why people shouldn’t be allowed to carry concealed handguns. But many will argue that they are entitled to their second amendment right. This argument is legitimate but the second amendment states “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.” This statement doesn’t mention anything about handguns. Handguns create many issues today. Some include interfering with public safety, preventable deaths, and increased crime rate. These reasons are just some of many to show that the US should ban all handguns and/or weapons in comparison to Japan and the United Kingdom.

One main issue involving handguns is that they boost the crime rate. The article Concealed Guns on ProCon.org expresses that just two years ago in 2013 all fifty states authorized handguns to be legal in the US with Illinois being the last of the states to approve it. Out of the fifty states those who had passed the law between the years of 1977 and 2010 had murder rates heightened by two or more percent. Also declared in the National Bureau of Economic Research crime rates of rape, robbery, assault, auto theft, larceny, and burglary have all gone up by nine percent due to the handgun law being passed.

Out of all these increases in the crime rates the most shocking cases involve children. Written on the Gun Safety and Public Health page one of the most recent cases was the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. On December 14, 2012 a man with health conditions walked into the school with a weapon and killed twenty-six people. Out of the twenty-six, twenty of them were children. This school shooting along with many others has made people understand that gun control in getting way out of control. Just recorded in 2010 showed that firearms were the third leading cause of death nationwide right behind poisoning and vehicle accidents. It also showed that eighty-nine percent of accidental deaths of children involving guns occur in the home. Most of the deaths happen when the child is playing around with a loaded gun when the parent isn’t home.
        

Public safety is another concern with handguns. Public safety should be left to trained police officers it shouldn’t be left in the hands of people that have meager to no experience with handguns. ProCon.org reported that in Georgia and Maryland no training or experience is required before its citizens are able to carry a handgun with a permit. But in states like Alaska and Vermont no permit is necessary to be allowed to handle a handgun. This makes more and more people that don’t carry handguns feel unsafe. A poll of registered voters all over of the US showed that fifty-seven percent of people felt unsafe after hearing about the law of enabling people to handle handguns in public areas.
        

This outbreak of handguns as caused many issues today which is why the US should ban guns altogether similar to Japan and the United Kingdom. In Japan the gun policy is very strict. Japanese citizens aren’t allowed to own any kind of gun or weapon. They aren’t even permitted to own swords. The only way a Japanese citizen would be able to own a handgun or weapon is with a license. Without a license, a Japanese citizen isn’t authorized to even touch a handgun or weapon. If a Japanese citizen is found illegally with a gun or weapon or touches one, they can be charged with up to ten years in prison. In the United Kingdom gun laws are also getting to be stricter. But in the UK pepper spray, machine guns, pump-action, and semi-automatic guns that are less than thirty centimeters in length are accepted. The only legal firearm in the UK is the shotgun. A citizen is sanctioned to have a shotgun if they are over the age of fourteen, have qualified training, and have a good explanation for why they want to own a firearm. The citizen also has to state all if any past criminal convictions. If the citizen did have a criminal offense they aren’t allowed to use a handgun for five years and if they were charged three or more years in prison they aren’t granted permission to use a handgun ever.

Since these new laws have been passed in the United Kingdom and Japan each of their crime rates have gone down drastically. For the reason the United States should follow in their footsteps and ban all guns because how many more murders and accidental shootings do we need to prove that handguns are responsible for a multitude of untimely and unnecessary deaths.