Does Limiting Access to Guns Reduce Gun Violence

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Does Limiting Access to Guns Reduce Gun Violence

Background

The United States is a country where millions of people own guns, and they can purchase these guns from several gun dealers spread around the country. While many laws guide the country’s acquisition of firearms, these laws vary from one state to another. These laws are more stringent in some states, while in other states, it is more lenient, and this gives people room to purchase guns without proper background checks to ascertain if they are fit to own guns. In many cases reported on the misuse of firearms in the country, it is clear that many people are taking advantage of the lacuna that exists in the laws set by some states on the acquisition of guns. They purchase the firearms and misuse them in other states that have more stringent laws. Although federal laws regulate gun ownership and gun use in the United States, the second amendment allows citizens to own guns. The federal government has given the states the autonomy to make their laws to regulate the ownership of firearms in their respective states. This is one of the law’s weaknesses that most people exploit and acquire guns in the country. There is also a significant percentage of private gun dealers in the country who sell guns online citizens, and this exhibits the weakness in the system where most people who purchase guns are not subjected to background checks. Most of them end up acquiring guns without following the due process.

Suicide and Homicide

A few decades ago, the records available in the United States Department of Justice indicated that the cases of suicides in the United States related to the use of a gun were reasonably average compared to other countries. Although most of them may have committed suicide using their guns, many observers intimate that most of these people used the gun because it was available and the easiest weapon to use. It is critical to note that in the same period, other countries that do not have many guns in civilians’ hands had the same suicide rates or slightly more than the United States. Many researchers who researched gun control in the early 1990s intimate that the cases of suicide in the United States have little or no relationship with the country’s gun policy. Many of them believe that the reason why many people in the country commit suicide is most likely the same reasons people in other countries commit suicide and not because of the availability of guns. However, the figures available in the United States Department of Justice in the last ten years seem to contradict the researchers’ views in the early 1990s. For example, in 2010, there were close to around twenty thousand suicides related to the use of firearms. Seven years later, the figures available in the Justice Department indicate that the suicide-related with the help of firearms were close to thirty thousand in 2017. These figures show a close relationship between gun ownership and the rising cases of suicide in the country. There have also been rising cases of homicide in the last few years. Although other factors may contribute to the increasing cases of homicides and suicides, like the mental health problem, it is clear that guns’ availability in civilians’ hands needs to be controlled (Riddell et al. 2018).

Mass Killings

Mass killing is not a new phenomenon in the United States. For example, in 1993, there was a massacre of innocent people in the Long Island Railroad, and this occurred again in 1999 in Columbine school. In both instances, many people lost their lives. Although some have a contrary opinion on why guns should be controlled in the country, it is clear that having guns in the hands of the wrong people is one of the most significant enablers that makes it possible for bad people to commit such crimes. In 2012, a man broke into a school and started shooting students, randomly killing twenty school children and six adults. In the same year, another mass shooting occurred in Colorado theatre, leaving many people dead. This instance could have been prevented if there were proper laws that guide how people in the country are issued with guns. Most of the people who commit such crimes are not mentally stable. The background check is one of the requirements that gun dealers must undertake before they can issue guns to civilians in the country.

However, the loose-ends in the laws that regulate the ownership and the use of firearms in the country has given most people the autonomy to acquire guns even when they are not fit to own guns. As noted earlier, mass shootings are not new in the United States, but the recent statistics indicate that there have been many reported cases of mass shootings in the country. These reports demonstrate that the country needs to look at the laws that regulate the acquisition of firearms in the country. Most of the mass shootings in the country have been due to people owning guns that have high capacity magazines. Therefore, these laws must be re-looked. The necessary adjustment should be made to ensure that the lives of innocent people in the country are protected and their safety is guaranteed. The increasing cases of homicide, suicide, and the mass shooting in the country indicate a broken link in the law that regulates the ownership and the use of guns in the country (Paradice , 2017).

References

Riddell, C. A., Harper, S., Cerdá, M., & Kaufman, J. S. (2018). Comparison of rates of firearm and nonfirearm homicide and suicide in black and white non-Hispanic men, by US state. Annals of Internal Medicine, 168(10), 712-720.

Paradice, D. (2017). An analysis of US school shooting data (1840–2015). Education, 138(2), 135-144.