Today, when the incidence of mass shootings and gun violence is unprecedented, the problem of enhanced gun control seems to be particularly acute. Thus, statistics shows that around 96 Americans are being killed with guns every day and about 13000 gun homicides are annually committed (Gun Violence by the Numbers, 2018). The problem is complicated by the fact that there seems to be no universal solution for how this gun violence should be eliminated. Thus, both the proponents and the opponents of the enhanced gun control offer grounded argumentation what shows that the dilemma of the gun control is an ambiguous one. In this paper, I will try to explain my own vision of the effectivity of such measure as enhanced gun control and describe the associated advantages and disadvantages of this measure. I will also review some statistics to support my position.
In my view, the major advantage of the enhanced gun control is that this measure can help to reduce the incidence of gun shootings and, thus, the number of victims. The mechanisms of this measure seem to be simple. Thus, teenagers and people with psychological disabilities will be no longer able to purchase guns. In this regard, the most distinctive example is the one of Australia that has the lowest statistics of gun violence and that has strict limitations on gun purchase (Kiely, 2017). These statistics allows one to conclude that there is an empirical evidence of the gun laws’ being an effective measure for preventing gun violence.
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Another possible advantage of enhanced gun control is that it will help to stop the propaganda of the gun culture that is actively promoted in many countries including the USA. Whereas the previous advantage is about restricting the physical access to guns, this advantage deals with changing the human mentality so that people stop romanticizing guns and associating them with the symbol of masculinity and toughness (Lopez, 2018). Here, however, it seems to be more problematic to formulate how gun laws should restrict the popularization of the gun culture. One possible solution might be the ban on gun shows and other events that are directly advocating for the gun culture.
In the meantime, I do realize that enhanced gun control can lead to some adverse consequences as well. For example, the primary concern, in this regard, is that the demand for guns that will be restricted by law will result in the growth of the black market gun segment. The worst thing about it is that it will become more difficult to track the criminals once they will begin massively purchasing their weapons from the black market. Besides, the ban on guns will mean that thousands of citizens will be deprived of the legal right to defend themselves from the criminals. In this regard, statistic shows that guns are being used for protection purposes over 2 million times a year so that it is easy to estimate the approximate number of lives that they allow to save (Lapidos, 2013).
Finally, enhanced gun control is only a short-term measure that addresses the form without addressing the content. In other words, most experts agree upon the point that it is people who kill others rather than guns (Lopez, 2018). Therefore, the appalling statistics with dozens of thousands of gun homicides being annually committed and hundreds of people being daily killed with guns signifies that there is some in-depth problem with the people’s worldview that is no more centered on such value as the human life (Gun Violence by the Numbers, 2018). It follows than that the enhanced gun control is only one tool but not a universal remedy.
- Gun Violence by the Numbers. (2018). Retrieved from https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/
- Kiely, E. (2017). Gun Control in Australia, Updated. Retrieved from https://www.factcheck.org/2017/10/gun-control-australia-updated/
- Lapidoz, J. (2013). Defensive Gun Use. Retrieved from https://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/defensive-gun-use/
- Lopez, G. (2018). I’ve covered gun violence for years. The solutions aren’t a big mystery. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-us-statistics-charts
