Alayna Johnston

Mr. Weaver

HIS 1101-503

13 December 2020

Does Gun Control Work?

The Second Amendment states that, “ A well regulated militia, being necessary to the

security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”. The

founding fathers agreed that there needed to be legislation in place to provide more power to

state militias, which is now the National Guard. There is a widespread debate on the topic of gun

control and it is one of the most heated political arguments in the United States. Many people say

that Congress needs to take a look at the Second Amendment and change it based on modern

times. I believe that the right to bear arms is the second most important right for U.S. citizens

and that guns protect citizens more than hurt them.

It is statistically proven that guns save so many lives each year and provides citizens with

the protection and self defense that they are promised in the Constitution. The first statistic states

that 2.5 million crimes a year are stopped by armed citizens. Of these encounters, less than 8% of

the time, a citizen would kill or wound their attacker.

Gun-free zones lead to more shootings because citizens don’t have any chance to protect

themselves. This is shown in the comparison of shootings in gun-free zones compared to places

where guns are permitted. Between January 1998 and December 2015 96.2 percent of all mass

shootings occured in gun-free zones. It is no coincidence that criminals choose to attack gun-free

zones because they know people will struggle with fighting back. If the United States had less

gun-free zones, statistics point toward less mass shootings.

 In many instances, having a firearm in citizens' households keeps the residents safer. For

example the city of Kennesaw, Georgia. In 1982, the suburb of Atlanta passed legislation that

required the heads of households to keep at least one firearm in their home. The burglary rate

dropped 88% and ten years later in 1992, the rate was still down more than 70%.

Throughout this essay, these statistics proved the benefits of guns in society and how they

save so many people each year. For example the 2.5 million crimes stopped per year prove that

guns protect citizens more than hurt them.

Morales, Carlos. “Think About Now.” Think About Now, 30 June 2016,

thinkaboutnow.com/2016/06/study-guns-stop-crime-2-5-million-times-each-year/. Accessed 9

Dec. 2020.

Kleck, Gary, and Marc Gertz. “Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-

Defense with a Gun.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), vol. 86, no. 1,

1995, p. 150, scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

referer=&httpsredir=1&article=6853&context=jclc, 10.2307/1144004.

‌“Fact Sheet: Guns Save Lives | Gun Owners of America.” Gunowners.org, 2019,

gunowners.org/sk0802htm/.

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