"There are presently in excess of two hundred million guns in the United States, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms" (Gottfried 13). Each year this number grows by four to five million. There are sixty to sixty-five million legal owners of one or more guns, and half of these legal owners have their guns kept at home (Gottfried 13). Most people keep guns for protection. Others keep guns for hunting, target shooting, collecting, and similar pursuits.
In recant years nearly 35,000 people have been killed annually by guns in the United States (Gottfried 13). These deaths have included 15,000 murders, 18,000 suicides, and 1,500 accidents.
Young people, children, and young adults are members of families that own guns. Young people are victims of guns. Obviously, the question of just what restrictions, if any, should be placed on these firearms is as much a matter of concern to them as to their elders.
Seal of the old Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Fi...
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive...
English: Badge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, ...Still, it is to their elders, the leaders among them at least, that they must look for guidance if not perhaps for answers.
Gun violence claims over 40,000 American lives a year. Among all consumer products, only motor vehicles outpace guns as a cause of fatal injury, and guns will pass them by 2003 (Violence Policy Center).
Their are many different methods in reducing gun violence, such as federal gun control laws, increasing penalties for gun-related crimes, banning handguns, reducing gun violence on the television, and different types of gun safety practices.
Today there are 20,000 different types of gun control laws in existence, (Bender 197) ranging from those enacted by municipalities and states, to those enacted by the federal government. Some individuals opposed to gun control point to this fact, and assert that gun control is a failure. Yes, the truth is that,