Foradori 1

Brady Foradori
4/7/2016
Ms. Augenbaugh
Rough Draft

Gun Control Hurts Law Abiding Citizens

Gun control has become a very controversial topic in the past few years. With the
increase in mass shootings many people have deemed any type of firearm an assault weapon,
instead of blaming the shooter most people blame the guns. The vast majority of gun owners are
normal law abiding citizens who would never consider shooting innocent people. Gun control, if
enacted like other countries, would only hurt the innocent gun owners, while criminals would
carry out their crimes with whatever weapons they have available. More gun control results in
more gun crime, since the law abiding citizens cannot protect themselves.
Hundreds of shootings have been stopped by citizens in the past few years. A survey
conducted by sampling of 4,978 households in every state except Alaska, reveals that American
civilians use their firearms as often as 2.5 million times a year against a criminal (Kleck, Gary).
Over half of these would be crimes are believed to have been possibly fatal to the innocent
civilian had it not been for their legal use of a firearm. 328 murders occurred in New York City
in 2014, a number which seemed impossible just a few years ago (New York Times). New York
was able to achieve these record breaking low numbers because in the previous year the
governor, Andrew Cuomo and other politicians, lifted the ban on concealed carry. With more

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citizens being armed, they were able to defend themselves, and others by the use of counter
attacks on criminals. Despite these statistics, crimes involving guns still outweigh the number of
prevented cases. This is because other large cities unlike New York City, refuse to lift their ban
on concealed weapons which will only result in more innocent civilians being subjected to being
victims of assault, rape, and murder cases.
Most anti-gun supporters compare the United States to other countries that have enacted
some form of gun control, such as the U.K., Australia, and Germany. But in 1997 the United
Kingdom experienced one if its worst mass shootings in history, the Dunblane Massacre. In
reaction to this tragic event, the United Kingdom government enacted a ban on almost all
modern handguns, including the sale, manufacture, purchase, or possession of handguns and all
semi-automatic firearms. As a result of this the rate of intentional murder, rape, and muggings
nearly doubled in the following year to 2.1 per 100,000 residents . It has since declined to a
steady 1.43 per 100,000 residents in 1998 and 1.23 in 2010. Although in the few years after the
massacre, crime increased, but in recent years the rate of homicide via firearms has fallen
substantially. Despite this, the rate of murder with weapons other than guns has increased
drastically. Banning handguns and semi-automatic weapons may have gotten rid of the majority
of mass shootings for the United Kingdom, but there were 765 homicides in 2005 committed
with knives, bare hands and blunt objects. Even the most stubborn person can see that if the
citizens of countries that have enacted gun control had access to firearms to protect themselves
the murder rates would be much lower as opposed to being disarmed. Opposite to the United
States, some Australian residents have suggested legalizing the ability to carry handguns for
protection since the crime rates in and around some Australian cities is very high. In Germany
gun control has also proven to be more or less of a fantasy. In 2010 a 17 year old stole a handgun

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from his father and proceeded to shoot his mother and then go on a rampage which would end in
the death of 15, and the shooter. Had civilians affected by this shooting been armed at the time,
the shooter might have only killed one or two people or even none.
The majority of Americans support some form of gun control, to at least keep guns out of
the hands of the mentally insane or criminals. The form of control commonly suggested is
background checks. Although background checks are already federally mandated, they are not
quite strict enough to restrict the access to firearms for people that are unfit to own them. Three
states, California, New York, and Illinois have already made extensive background checks the
common law when purchasing a gun. This has proven to diminish crime at least minimally since
these laws were made official. However this has not eliminated mass shootings in these states,
since criminals can obtain a gun from flea markets, gun shows, gun auctions, or private dealers.
The NRA (National Rifle Association) has even prompted the idea of regulating the private sale
of firearms in the U.S..
Many cities and small towns across America have introduced gun free zones, in an effort
to deter the possibility of a shooting. Though this has proven effective in some cases, all that this
is protecting is the shooters safety. In places where criminals know that there will be unarmed
victims, is where they will commit the crime. Since there are no armed citizens to retaliate, the
gunman has no worry of being stopped until eventually the police arrive, which in some cases
can take up to an hour. If there were an exception for licensed citizens to be armed in this gun
free zone, the possibility of a shooting drops incredibly.
A common mistake that pro-gun control advocates endorse is, that if gun control were to
be enacted that every person would surrender their firearms, and then the streets would be
completely rid of gun violence. But they often overlook the fact that if a criminal wants to obtain

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a gun, they rarely ever purchase the gun legally.((((INSERT QUOTATION)))).In fact only
around 3% of all gun related crimes committed in 2015 were done with legally purchased
firearms. The rest are obtained illegally from gun trafficking or private dealers. The problem is
that the government has no way of recording where these black market guns are, or who owns
them and their intentions. The only way to counteract the inevitability of a shooting is to arm the
citizens, so that wherever law enforcement cannot reach in time, at the very least there are good
samaritans that can counteract the gunman with equally deadly force and bring an end to the
violence. If a gunman knew that wherever his target was, and there was a good chance that at
least a few of the people in the crowd were armed to some degree, he might rethink his choice
which could prevent, yet another mass shooting and the careless taking of countless innocent
lives. In a study conducted in a Chicago prison, 100 inmates that were convicted of firearm
assisted homicide, 54 inmates said they wouldve most likely abandoned the idea if they knew
the victim could be armed.((((INSERT QUOTATION)))). Chicago being one of the most famous
gun free zones has the highest murder rate in the country based on population.
In 1922, the U.S. declared war on gang violence in large cities like New York and
Chicago. In response to gang violence involving guns, due to prohibition, the police urged
citizens to arm themselves for when the police were not available. The police did this because
they knew that they could not always be there when a shooting broke out. The police understood
the importance of the population having the need to arm themselves to save their own lives, even
back where telephones werent as common as they are today and the police werent always
readily available. Since the gangsters knew that the citizens might be armed the number of
shootings on civilians was cut almost in half. But the rate of shootings in between gangs
increased quite substantially.

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In conclusion more gun control results in more gun crime, since law abiding citizens
cannot protect themselves. In distant and recent history, when the public is armed, crime is
reduced and the rate of homicide and rape is also reduced. Disarming the public will only result
in more incidents where possible lives that could have been saved by wielding a gun, results in
the death of even more innocent civilians and bystanders. When the public is disarmed and the
criminals know it, they will be even more likely to commit the crime, than if the public were
armed. When the government pushes the enforcement of gun control, they are supporting the
murder of innocent civilians.

Gun Facts | Gun Control and Crime." Gun Facts. N.p., 17 Sept. 2013.
Web. 15 Apr. 2016.
Schulman, Neil. "Private Guns Stop Crime 2.5M Times A Year In US." Private Guns Stop Crime
2.5M Times A Year In US. N.p., 20 Apr. 2007. Web. 15 Apr. 2016

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