Nine dead and nine injured--all killed by a gun purchased legally. On October 1st 2015, only a few weeks ago, there was a mass shooting at a community college. In the past few years, shootings like this have been a fairly normal occurrence in the United States--approximately 90 people die due to gun violence everyday. While most of the Western world has been moving towards a less gun orientated society, the US has been loosening its gun laws to create a more weapon-friendly environment. The US has a massive problem with gun violence and the best way to reduce this is with gun control laws.
A common misconception among the American public is that they don’t have a problem with gun-violence, and if they did it would stem from mental illness,
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Nearly one-half of the gun owners they surveyed say the main reason they have guns is for safety reasons (Why Own a Gun). That’s a huge misconception because overall guns don’t make a safer environment. According to a recent meta-analysis regarding how accessibility of firearms correlates with fatalities, “Gun ownership doubled the risk of homicide and tripled the risk of suicide” (DeFilippis). Suicides actually make up the majority of gun-related deaths in the US, twice the amount to be exact (Matthews). If a person is suicidal, having access to a firearm just makes the situation more dangerous. Gun control laws would dramatically reduce the rate of suicides, as seen in 1997 when the Australian government instituted a gun buyback program. According to a study done by the Australian Institute for Labor, “that reduced the stock of firearms by around one-fifth (and nearly halved the number of gun-owning households)...We find that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80%” (Leigh). Safety is a primary concern for the American public but the answer to that concern is not guns as guns would actually make the situation worse. Gun control laws, similar to those in Australia, would be effective in preventing gun related deaths in the