An ever so rising problem in the U.S.A: gun violence. Every day you will see news headlines stating “Mass Shooting” or something of the sort. The solution proposed by many is just to bring in more guns! Where will this help? We’ve all heard the expression fight fire with fire but at some point the blaze will just be out of control. Take for example the rising terror problem in the middle east, when the U.S.S.R went to Afghanistan to create a new Communist state the U.S tried to combat this by arming militant groups opposed to the Russian rule. The end result? A: endless wars and terror throughout the Middle East ever since, and B: the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. My solution and that of many other’s as well? Just take away almost all of the guns; it’s that simple.
“Give us more guns so if someone attacks, we can defend ourselves!” This argument is almost automatic for most gun supporters, but why don’t we see everyday on the headlines “Hero stops shooting!” or similar? That’s because of multiple reasons. When a shooting starts the local law enforcement will always be sent to check it out, but they don’t know who or what the shooter looks like. The police only know its a person with a gun and a bunch of people hiding from them, and nobody wants to be mistaken for the shooter. Secondly, not everyone carries their guns around! If something happened at a school for example, nobody will have a gun. What's the point of giving everyone guns including potential criminals if the targeted market sometimes can’t even use it for protection!
Taking away people's guns is proven to work! After a gruesome shooting many years back at the Port Arthur massacre, the Australian government finally clamped down aggressively on gun rights. Hundreds of thousands of weapons were destroyed, and the outcome? The first decade saw an almost 60% drop of gun deaths whilst non-gun related deaths stayed the same. Most of the time deaths and murders aren’t pre-meditated but caused by emotions in the moment and simply taking away the quickest way of death brought down the numbers drastically. The number of mass shootings in Australia went from 11 between 1986-1996 to none from 1997-present day.
Finally, I’m not completely opposed to ownership of guns but some gun owner positions are way too extreme. The main reason for weapons in the first place (i.e the 2nd amendment) was the right for militia to bear arms in case of an unsteady or corrupt government. Back in the colonial days no state had any trust in each other or in a collective government therefore if anything went haywire, the people would have means to defend themselves. Today there's almost no way for the government to go haywire or against the people. I believe if it makes people feel safer knowing that they have perhaps a semi-automatic 6 round pistol or rifle to protect themselves or their family, then they should have a right to own it. If someone wanted to purchase a hunting rifle and go hunting with their father for a father-son moment that doesn’t affect me. What I don’t believe in is people owning 50 round, automatic rifles or machine guns. As Stephen King said, “If you can’t kill an intruder with 10 rounds, you need to go back to the shooting range.”
The amount of guns in the U.S is outrageously higher than any other country in the world, countries like the Congo, Russia, Iraq etc.. Compared to the rest of the world the U.S has more gun violence than most countries added up together and it has become a major problem concerning the safety of their children, their people, and their future.
