Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE ON GUN CONTROL

The Effects of the Lack of Experience on Gun Control

Logan Schultz

Divine Savior Academy

THE EFFECTS OF THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE ON GUN CONTROL 1

On the starry night of October 1st, 2017, a country concert was taking place on the Las

Vegas Strip in Nevada. The Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, is one of the biggest concerts of

the year, having thousands of people all over the country attending it. A little after 10 PM that

night, a single gunman rained over 1,000 rounds of ammo into the crowd, causing the death of

over 50 people, and the injury of over 850. The man was later found dead in his 32nd floor room

in the hotel, lying in a pool of his own blood. He had committed suicide. This tragic event

would be the greatest single-man mass murder in American history.

The shooter was Stephen Paddock. “He was a 64-year-old former auditor and real estate

businessman who had been living in northeastern Nevada, and was a regular gambler in high

stakes poker” (Branch, Kovaleski, Tavernise, 2017). Steven had never had any problems with

police before the shooting, had nothing on his criminal record, other than a couple of speeding

tickets. “There were 24 firearms, a large quantity of ammunition, and numerous high-capacity

magazines capable of holding up to 100 rounds apiece found in the suite” (KTNV Staff, 2018).

The reactions from around the country took the internet by storm. Hundreds of people

lined up to donate blood to help the victims, even more donated money to help pay for medical

bills and to help the hurting families. A unity prayer walk and ceremony was held in Las Vegas

on October 7 in honor of the dead. Speakers at the ceremony included Vice President Mike

Pence and Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman. On the evening of October 15, thousands

participated in a commemorative 3 mile walk between Circus Circus and Mandalay Bay.

This tragedy also instantly reopened the topic of gun control. Citizens around the country

were furious that a man could stock up on dozens of firearms, thousands of rounds of ammo,
THE EFFECTS OF THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE ON GUN CONTROL 2

explosives, and even bump stocks (a mechanism that uses the recoil to allow an assault rifle to go

from semi-automatic to full automatic), which allow the rifles to fire at a rate of 9 bullets per

second. Trump himself even addressed the issue at a press conference following the mass

shooting, calling Paddock "a very very sick individual", and "a demented man, [with] a lot of

problems". ( as cited in Cook, 2017) He added, "the police department has done such an

incredible job, and we'll be talking about gun laws as time goes by" ( as cited in Gambino, 2017).

Gun control has been a polarizing topic of discussion for quite some time now and seems

to show up much more prominently after tragedies such as the Las Vegas shooting, the Pulse

nightclub shooting, and the Stoneman Douglas high school massacre. The real question is why

is this, does it show up after specific instances of violence because of its relevance at the time, or

is a much needed issue needing to be addressed? ​Although mass shootings have tragic and

traumatic implications for families and communities in America, the surge for gun control

is due to a lack of understanding regarding firearms.

Literature Review

Human Ignorance of Emotions and Logical Thinking

​One specific example of emotions getting the best of people’s rational thinking is the

Parkland shooting. Directly following the tragedy, certain child activists rose from the school,

such as David Hogg, and voiced their opinions on national television and in many rallies.

However, just because one has experienced a horrific event firsthand does not make them an

expert. Jeffrey T. Brown (2018) from the American Thinker states,

“Being a victim and being young do not make one nobler or smarter than he was before he

was attacked. The experience of being attacked certainly makes one vulnerable to
THE EFFECTS OF THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE ON GUN CONTROL 3

exploitation by those who would manipulate the victim, but it does nothing to enlarge the

victim's limited understanding of complex issues that are often polluted by corruption and

disinformation.” (Brown, 2018)

Essentially, Brown is not condoning the teens for making their statements, but the

American people for their failure to see past their anger at this shooting. Over two million

people attended the “March for Our Lives” campaign and protest following the shooting,

showing how much popularity and intrigue it has received. However, when a survey was taken

of the crowd, they found that on average 27 percent of the people attending the march over the

age of 18 had not voted the previous presidential election (Fisher, 2018). That is an interesting

statistic because it shows how so many people responded to this mass shooting, either out of

anger or a sense of making right. As previously mentioned by Jeffrey T. Brown (2018), the

political left use “inflamed emotion” to push their agenda. If anything can bring a dose of

inflamed emotion, having 17 children and teachers die at a school might. Brown would later say

in his article,

“Should we condone seeing children who have been willfully exposed to this danger

manipulated to demand "change" by those who consciously make their schools fertile

ground for shooters? Are the children who were forced into shooting galleries by their

sudden political friends wise enough, or mature enough, to process and understand these

facts?” (Brown, 2018)

While the massacre in Parkland is not acceptable, it is not the first incident in which

students have attacked and murdered other kids on a school campus.

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On April 20, 1999, two teenage students went into the Columbine High School in

Littleton, Colorado and killed thirteen people. While not necessarily the first shooting at a

school in American, the Columbine shooting was, at the time, the worst high school shooting in

U.S. history. Not only that, but it prompted a national debate on gun control and school safety.

An article published by McGill University (2007) finishes the summary of what happened in this

quote,

“The shooting also resulted in calls for more gun control measures. In 2000, federal and

state legislations were introduced that would require safety locks on firearms as well as

ban the importation of high-capacity ammunition magazines. Though laws were passed

that made it a crime to buy guns for criminals and children, there was considerable

controversy over legislation pertaining to background checks at gun shows.” (McGill,

2007)

The country was stunned by this tragedy. As this was the most devastating school

shooting to date, both citizens and legislation alike were confronted with what action to take

regarding gun control. As previously quoted, several laws were passed in 2000 regarding

firearms. While these laws were and still are important, it is necessary to examine the impact

and statistics before making conclusions and assumptions when it comes to guns in America.

Ignorance of the Facts

​Because having citizens register their guns is illegal due to the 2nd Amendment, there is

no exact number but, ​“​A June 2018 report from the Small Arms Survey estimates that American

civilians own 393 million guns. That is up from 270 million civilian-owned guns the last time

the Swiss organization released an estimate” (Yablon, 2018). This statistic means there are more
THE EFFECTS OF THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE ON GUN CONTROL 5

registered guns in the United States than people. While that seems crazy at first, it really is not.

Most media outlets would have people believe differently just to help their cause. And saying

how there are so many guns owned by American citizens, a person might assume that more mass

shootings would take place, which is not the case. A recent topic studied by the Pew Research

Center (2018) showed this,

“Violent crime in the U.S. has fallen sharply over the past quarter century. The two most

commonly cited sources of crime statistics in the U.S. both show a substantial decline in

the violent crime rate since it peaked in the early 1990s. One is an annual report by the

FBI of serious crimes reported to police in approximately 18,000 jurisdictions around the

country.” (as cited in Gramlich, 2018)

Even more intriguing, “In a survey in late 2016, 57% of registered voters said crime in

the U.S. had gotten worse since 2008, even though BJS and FBI data show that violent and

property crime rates declined by double-digit percentages during that span” (Gramlich, 2018).

Both of these statistics show that not only has crime gone down significantly, but also people’s

perception of the amount of crime taking place has gone up. This is partly due to media outlets

such as CNN and NBC focus on crimes so often, the violence feels never ending, which is

simply not the case.

While violence has gone down in the United States, attempts have not necessarily followed

the same patterns. A crime that is in motion but thwarted by a legally armed citizen usually ends

up with the suspect fleeing the scene, and a great deal of the time, they are not reported. If there

had not been an armed American citizen to stop the crime, the person or people involved may

have been hurt or even worse.

THE EFFECTS OF THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE ON GUN CONTROL 6

“In other words, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) dug into the question of how

often Americans defend themselves using firearms. And they did an impressive job of it,

in Kleck’s opinion. The only problem with their findings was that they confirmed Kleck’s

results. Why is that a bad thing? Because based on his research, Kleck found that the

number of defensive gun uses in the US was somewhere between 2.1 and 2.5 million per

year, a huge multiple over the number of crimes involving firearms.“ (Zimmerman, 2018)

Gary Kleck (2015), the man who was partly responsible for the research explored with the

help of the CDC, defends his statistics listed,

“To summarize, notwithstanding DeFilippis and Hughes’ one-sided cherry-picking of

the research evidence, surveys do not overestimate the

number of DGUs (or anything else crime-related), and at

least 18 national surveys have consistently confirmed that

DGUs are very common, probably more common than

criminal uses of guns.” (Kleck, 2015)

These statistics address the issue of gun control very

specifically. Not only do they show that legally armed citizens

are beneficial, but also that the overwhelming display of violence

on television and other news outlets is misleading. However, not

everyone feels the same way.

Application
THE EFFECTS OF THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE ON GUN CONTROL 7

​Too add to this point, a recent random selection survey conducted by myself involving

over eighty students and faculty at Divine Savior Academy shows just where people stand, and

the knowledge they possess.

As you can see, the number of people supporting gun control in Figure 1 (the first graph)

is over 47% of the population, with a varied amount having mixed feelings to add to that. Even

more interesting is the percent of people who have no experience with guns. In the second

figure, 52% of all people surveyed expressed that they have had no experience wielding or using

a gun of any kind for any activity.

Gun Violence Is a Problem (Other Perspective)

Many socialist-leaning universities have delved into their own studies in support of gun

control, in hope of showing gun violence. Harvard is one such university. Here are just one of a

few statistics showing the use of guns in America,

“We analyzed data from a telephone survey of 5,800 California adolescents aged 12-17

years, which asked questions about gun threats against and self-defense gun use by these

young people. We found that these young people were far more likely to be threatened

with a gun than to use a gun in self-defense, and most of the reported self-defense gun

uses were hostile interactions between armed adolescents” (Hemenway, 2004).

This survey displays how teenagers either use firearms to threaten their peers, or are

threatened by their elders. This is alarming because the majority of these threats are not

reported, making it difficult to have the perpetrator arrested or stopped. Another finding by

Harvard shows the lack of effectiveness in stopping such threats or bodily harm.
THE EFFECTS OF THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE ON GUN CONTROL 8

“Victims use guns in less than 1% of contact crimes, and women never use guns to

protect themselves against sexual assault (in more than 300 cases). Victims using a gun

were no less likely to be injured after taking protective action than victims using other

forms of protective action” (Hemenway, 2007-2011).

What do both of these statistics have in common? They do not address the real problem.

Yes, threats made to children at gunpoint is not a preferred experience by any means, but neither

is a woman being sexually assaulted without anything to protect herself against the violence.

With proper training and awareness, people should feel comfortable and confident knowing that

they have a means to defend themselves against threats.

Conclusion

Chicago is notorious for its criminality and violence over the years. During the

Prohibition era in the Roaring Twenties, Al “Scarface” Capone ran the mob in Chicago with an

iron fist, killing at will and doing whatever he saw fit. Chicago continues to be a dangerous and

violent city in all to this day. Shootings, stabbings, and abuse run rampant with no end in

obvious sight. Frank Zimring is Assistant Professor of Law, The University of Chicago, and

Research Associate, Center for Studies in Criminal Justice, and in a study researched by the

University, that ties to this whole dilemma of gun control.

“Still, the number of knife attacks was substantially greater than the number of firearm

attacks. There were 34 deaths attributable to firearms during this police period and eight

deaths attributable to stabbings. The rate of knife deaths per 100 reported knife assaults

was less than one-sixth of the rate of gun deaths per 100 reported gun assaults during this

police period” (Zimring, 1967).

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Are guns really the problem, or is it the shock of losing a loved one that causes one to

make irrational decisions? The statistics have shown that gun violence is not the problem, but

the lack of experience and knowledge is.

References

Branch, J. Kovaleski, S. Tavernise, S. (2017). Stephen Paddock Chased Gambling Payouts

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Brown, Jeffrey T. (2018). Don’t Mistake Victims of Gun Violence for Experts on Gun

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Control. ​American Thinker, R
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Goes By'”. ​The Guardian. ​Retrieved from

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cuss-las-vegas.

Gramlich, J. (2018). 5 Facts About Crime in the U.S. ​Pew Research Center

​Retrieved from

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/30/5-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/.

Hemenway, D. (2004-2007). Gun Threats and Self-Defense Gun Use. ​Harvard Injury

Control Research Center.

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https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-threats-and-self-defens

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Paddock's Hotel Room. ​ABC15.​ Retrieved from

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-vegas-shooter-stephen-paddock.

Yablon, A. (2018). Just How Many Guns Do Americans Own? (And Why Do Estimates

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