To fully understand gun crime in our country why not look at the statistics. Even as gun ownership and the production of guns has risen over the past decade, gun crimes have fallen. While the mass shootings that captivate the media are tragic and very disheartening for sure, they are also a rarity, and since nearly half of these killers obtain their guns illegally, gun control wouldn't solve this problem. Furthermore, the perpetrators most often suffer from serious mental illness which might speak more towards poor mental health treatment in the United States, than a need for gun control. Of the nearly 32,000 gun deaths each year, about 60% are attributed to suicides. That means 19,200 of the 32,000 gun deaths each year are from suicide. Again, Id suggest that this speaks more towards poor mental health treatment in America than a need for gun control. If someone really wants to kill themselves, couldn't they turn to a bottle of pills or other means, if guns were unavailable? Another 3% of gun deaths are attributed to accidents leaving only 34% of guns deaths, or around 11,000 deaths each year to actual gun crime. Of these 11,000 deaths each year nearly 80% of deaths are part of gang violence in large metropolitan areas with high poverty. Gun control wouldn't help here either because these guns are being obtained illegally. What probably would help is if we invested in America and brought manufacturing jobs back to some of the large metropolitan cities that suffer from gang violence like Detroit and Chicago. Jobs would be a hell of a lot more effective in curbing gun violence then gun control would be. This leaves about 2,200 gun deaths each year that aren't related to gang violence. 2,200 deaths from guns in a country of 314,000,000 people! In a country where there are approximately 250,000,000 firearms! (Check out the stats Here) It can also be reasonably be considered that out of these 2,200 homicides, a considerable portion of killers would have used other means had guns been unavailable.
This means that 1 in every 142,727 people was killed by non gang related gun violence in America. If you take gangs out of the consideration gun crime really isn't the huge issue that the pundits make it out to be. I think we as a country should take a harder look at the mental health services and inner city poverty to combat the gun crime numbers in America rather then looking towards legislation to solve our problems. While I don't usually agree with the pundits to the right or left, I think the gun lobby hit the nail on the head when speaking on gun control "criminals don't follow laws".
New Hampshire is a great illustration of why guns aren't the problem. New Hampshire is a state where gun ownership is well above the national average, yet gun crime is well below the national average. In fact New Hampshire, a state with some of the least restrictive gun laws in the nation and one of the highest rates of gun ownership has the second lowest gun crime rate in the country, second only to Hawaii.
A war on guns would only serve to take guns away from citizens who a majority of are law abiding citizens, however if we were to have a "war" on mental illness or a "war" on poverty and joblessness to decrease gang violence, I think we might be able to get closer to solving the gun violence problems America suffers from. Much like many of the platform issues in this country gun control is an issue propagated by the media that only serves to distract us from the real issues that America faces.
2 comments:
As a strong supporter of the second amendment and a gun rights supporter I tend to agree with many of your points. Some of this reminds me of the story that a gentleman put in his paper about how he put his shotgun on his front porch with a wheelchair and it never shot anyone. I think this sort of thing is put out there in mockery of the gun control advocates. I believe guns are engrained in American culture. I remember receiving my red ryder daisy when I was a boy and consequently remember me pointing where I shouldn't have, having it taken away and being reprimanded. Ever since a young age I have been a responsible gun owner. It's important to have better education surrounding guns. I have taken multiple gun safety courses and it has directly impacted my knowledge on how to properly store firearms and make sure they are respected. I don't believe in gun control to most levels because I truly think it is a personal liberty that shall not be infringed. We could go into the constitutional issues on either side but for the sake of my argument I do believe there are limitations but in general I think you know my point. I think it is not as a "black and white" issue as some make it out to be. For now we will let Wayne LaPierre and Dianne Feinstein figure this out.
To whom it may concern,
I agree that guns require an operator for effective use. I also see that the means to kill is a subsidiary of all species.
To consider the legality of gun use, sale, and manufacturing, is to identify and select a reason for death caused from guns, violence, and property.
Let us consider all products. The user might be limited by their knowledge of the product's use. The retailer keeps record of the sale for product and might be liable for misuse. The manufacturer maintains the product's engineering, its assembly, its knowledge of proper use, and their chosen trusted retailers.
Thank you for your insight of the 2nd Amendment,
DB
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