Gun Control, the Right Answer?

The second amendment in our highly valued Constitution states that “The right of the

people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”. This is something all U.S citizens hold

to be true along with the remaining ten Bill of Rights, yet these rights are being questioned

due to the widespread shootings that have occurred in the recent times. Many are left

wondering how to stop these horrible events? Complete gun control is not the action to

take. Gun violence and violence in general cannot be stopped with a quick and simple fix

such as to remove them from our society. With statistics backing the current solution as

“ineffective,” one can see how we need a change in the way guns are carried and used, how

they can be acquired, and how to protect our vulnerable school buildings and even homes

to solve our current state of the issue.

In the majority of people’s opinions, the simplest and fastest solution is to just completely

take them away (firearms in this case) and expect all to be well. However, that’s the

problem with fast solutions; they don’t tend to end well in the near future. Great Britain

has found this out the hard way with no account of impressive results. According to

JustFacts.org, a website giving unopinionated facts with a great standard of credibility

and following, the homicide rate in England and Wales has averaged 52% higher since the

outset of the 1968 gun control law and 15% higher since the outset of the 1997 handgun

ban, not including the anomalies that have occurred. This is simply human logic that when

one thing is taken away, people will continue to use a different method especially in crime.

A similar instance can be seen in Chicago where a hand gun ban was put in place and

since then in correlation, the murders using a hand gun have significantly increased by 40

percent. In order to solve the problem, we must look further than the removal of firearms.

Many people still say that “Well I’m only against assault weapons” and feel these guns are

the real problem because they are seen as killing machines in the public eye. According to

AWR Hawkins , these weapons that are being

alienated were only responsible for .012% of the murders here in America in 2011. That

is far less than things we use every day like vehicles or even the deaths that result from

eating unhealthy. The other problem in our society is that people are not very accepting

of concealed carry permits. In some states such as New York, a permit is nearly impossible

for the small food vendor wanting to have some protection for his business, yet the person

who knows someone who knows an important person can acquire it. John Lott from Fox

news posted a story concerning the Aurora shooting at Cinemark’s Century Theater. The

site could have been specifically chosen over other theaters near the shooter’s apartment.

According to the story, this theater was much farther away than others and the shooter

even had to option of going to the largest theater in Colorado the night of the shooting,

yet he chose that theater because, unlike all the others, it didn’t allow persons to carry

concealed weapons with a permit. The shooter was afraid that there could be a chance of

another armed person stopping him. This brings us to the question of why can’t we have

properly trained and armed civilians along with police forces in public areas.

The main concern for the recent gun control acts is due to the mass murders tragedies

that have struck the nation. After almost 250 years with the second amendment being in

place, there is no way to justly take it away from people; however, after further looking

into the situation you can see there is an easier way to prevent this happening. To begin

we must stop looking at the guns themselves as the problem. With the myth that assault

weapons are the killers put to rest, we can focus on the real issues. Concealed carry permits

should be used more widespread. This may seem like a risk; however, people that are

properly trained and examined mentally should be allowed to protect themselves and the

other around them. Properly armed civilians will deter criminal actions if the criminals

know that they are on an equal playing field instead of getting away with mass murders.

To insure the safety of others around them, the government should push these permits

and persuade businesses to allow these. The second act to control these shootings is to

put resource officers in ALL schools. Instead of trying to rid all of the mentally ill which

would be an impractical process, we could have protection in every school. Yes, this would

cost more money; however, this is a much more productive plan then trying to completely

rid all evil people from gun ownership. We’re not fighting violence with violence: we are

becoming prepared and equipped to defeat these criminals and protect our rights.