Gun Control | Teen Ink

Gun Control

December 12, 2017
By AlejandroGarcia BRONZE, Malakoff, Texas
AlejandroGarcia BRONZE, Malakoff, Texas
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

There is much debate today about the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment states that the American people have the right to bear arms. This means that almost anyone could buy and keep a gun in their home if they wanted to. This has some drawbacks, obviously. A person that owns a gun could also potentially bring harm to others. If they choose to, they could go into some public venue and danger the lives of others.


It is impossible to get rid of an amendment. What can happen however, is that an amendment can be added to limit the actions of another amendment. There are many people that believe that another amendment should be added to the Constitution, to add restrictions to the right to bear arms. They believe that if there are some restrictions to gun ownership that as a result, there will be less deaths and shootings. This could potentially be true. If the United States had more gun control, then it would be a lot harder for people to buy a weapon and harm other people.


In Texas, the gun control laws are some of the least restrictive in the country. Almost anyone can buy a gun with no waiting period. The only people that can not own a gun in Texas, are convicted felons within five years of release and minors without parental permission. Everyone else is able to buy a gun. The people who are for gun control oppose this. They believe that more restrictions should be put into place. Restrictions such as background checks. This just means that if at some point in your life you have committed a crime involved with a gun, then it should be more difficult for you be able to purchase a gun.


Having more gun control laws would reduce gun deaths tremendously, too. Between 1999 and 2013, there were 464,033 deaths that were gun related. Harsher gun control laws would have prevented a lot of these deaths. Many people can also argue that guns are used for self defense. This is true, but it doesn’t occur as often as you would think. Between 2007 and 2011, there were 29,618,300 gun related attacks. Of these, only 235,700 involved using a gun as self defense. This is a very low number in relation to how many attacks there were. This all means that the benefits of gun control outweigh the drawbacks.


Many gun related accidents happen all the time. There is no denying that. What makes things worse, is that all of these accidents could be prevented by just passing a few laws. Or even simpler, if there were amendments for gun control. Imagine all of the lives that could be saved by doing any of these very simple actions.



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