Gun Control - A Persuasive View

Gun Control

A child lies on his parents' bedroom floor with a gunshot wound in his chest. His best friend stands over him, gaping. The nine-year-old boy's eyes dart from the blood oozing from his friend, to his own shaking index finger, still clutched on the trigger of the gun. It was not supposed to happen this way. The gun was not supposed to be loaded. They should not have been snooping in the first place. But this scene has happened before, in countless different settings, with numerous different children. Situations such as this must be stopped, and the best way to do this is with stricter gun control laws. Guns are instruments of death, and there is no pleasant way to put it.

The main reasons that we need to enforce a more strict gun control is because of the number of firearm-related homicides in the US, and the danger that guns propose, as they are easily available to children in homes, teenagers on the streets, convicted criminals, and mentally unstable citizens.

United States

United States

United States

Guns are a factor of danger wherever they are present. For instance, it is three times more likely that someone will be killed in the home if there is a gun present, and it is more likely that the someone killed will be a friend or family member rather than an intruder. It is frightening how many people die yearly from guns. According to justfacts.com, 10,369 people died from gun-related homicides in the United States in 1997. Also during 1997, US citizens committed approximately 7,927,000 violent crimes. The perpetrators used a firearm in roughly 691,000 of these instances. Guns also especially harm young people. In 1999, 1,468 children and teenagers were killed by handguns, and the number of injured is estimated to be about 100 times that.