More gun laws will not save lives

January 24, 2013 • Amber Santoro, Staff Writer  
Filed under Viewpoints

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy that took place in mid-December, many people are urging for gun control laws to be strengthened, although this is possibly the most ridiculous choice an American could make.

In spite of the mass murders such as Sandy Hook in Connecticut and more recently at Taft Union High School in California, many Americans are practically begging for increased gun control, or possibly abolish the right to bear arms as a whole. This controversy has begun an up-roar among U.S citizens and has evolved into a debate between anti-gun control and pro-gun control.

The fear of being shot by a gun worries many individuals (if not all), which is likely the leading cause of U.S citizens becoming pro-gun control followers in order to protect themselves and others. Many people are led on by the incorrect statement that robberies and mass murders will dramatically decrease after guns are outlawed or if gun laws become stricter.

On the contrary to this common opinion, even if guns are outlawed by the government, robberies, muggings, and mass murders will still take place in spite of the new laws. Citizens of the U.S need to wake up and recognize the fact that guns are not the only powerful weapon that can be placed into the wrong hands.

While guns may have the image of being terrifying and deadly, any person can easily be killed by other weapons such as a bombs or knives. Laws controlling weapons may only be taken so far before it becomes completely ridiculous.

Like guns, many other tools that can be used as a weapon do in fact exist. Does that mean that your average kitchen knife will be banned as well because they have the potential to murder?

Or will cars be outlawed because they can kill also? Even if the government were to stick laws onto every tool in the world that one could be killed with, the murders would still continue.

If guns were banned, the only thing that would change is the fact that there would be increased difficulty when it comes to obtaining a gun, but not impossible. If a criminal has never abided by the laws beforehand, why would they abruptly choose to now?

Guns would still be available for illegal purchase, and criminals would find a way to obtain them if they truly desired to. Whether it will be manufacturing the guns themselves, illegally buying one, or just finding a new weapon to use instead of a gun, murders will never be stopped.

Guns do not have a mind of their own so they cannot decide when they choose to fire. It’s not the gun who is killing; it’s the people who are killing.

It takes a person’s finger to pull the trigger on a gun. It is often ignored who is holding the gun; and instead people focus on the gun itself.

If someone is in danger and no one else is around to help, this is where the role of self-defense comes in. Without guns, we would have an increased difficulty of simply defending ourselves and our family against criminals and other people who have the sole desire to maim us.

Robbers, murderers, and other criminals are not your average people. Usually, they have been pushed to the limit to where they cannot handle it much longer, or have serious mental health issues and should not have been holding a gun in their hands in the first place, and even if there were laws preventing them from handling guns they would still have some way to obtain and use these firearms.

If someone were to go back into the history of school massacres and mass murders, they will find that the in the worst school shooting in the U.S, guns were not used. The tragic event that took place at the Bath Consolidated School in 1927 (often referred to as the Bath School Incident) relied on an entire school planted with bombs, originally meant to leave the entire school in ruins.

This just goes to show that mass murders on school campuses and other areas possess the potential to continue even if gun laws were to take place. Guns are not needed to cause a mass murder, because other weapons may be just as easily used in that situation.

Aside from that, guns are often used for purely recreational purposes. Some people thoroughly enjoy target shooting, hunting, collecting, and possibly just to own one.

Another major reason why people choose own guns is for self-defense. If having a gun in a safe place just in case it is needed one day makes the individual and their family feel safer and more secure, owning one should be viewed as more than okay.

The American people need to open their eyes on serious and important topics since it seems as if they have been closed for a very long time. Guns should not have tighter laws preventing them from being used, possibly just an increase on who holds the guns; and not the American people as a whole.

Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Although some may go against the popular slogan used by many anti-gun control followers, stating that a gun is needed to put a bullet into someone, they could easily use a knife or any other tool that possesses the ability to murder them instead.

Self-defense should be a basic human right. If you do not like guns, then do not use one, and do not take away the rights of others.

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