Arguments Against Gun Control

The gun control controversy initiated in the 2010's after the amount of mass shootings in the United States began to rise exponentially. The shocking amount of gun related incident sparked a desire for more control. Two arguments are based on what restrictions should be active when buying a gun. These restrictions are formally known as gun control. According to New York Times, gun control is defined as: "a broad term that covers any sort of restriction on what kinds of firearms can be sold and bought, who can possess or sell them, where and how they can be stored or carried, what duties a seller has to vet a buyer, and what obligations both the buyer and the seller have to report transactions to the government." Recently, the debate has no

Gun control opposers believe guns are an individual right.This is where the law comes in. The second amendment of the United States states "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The supreme law of the land directly declares that it is legal to own a gun. Therefore, guns cannot be banned unless the Supreme Court repeals the amendment (which is highly unlikely). In fact, handgun restrictions are occasionally revoked by the Supreme Court. Gun rights advocates have numerous statistics to back their statements as well. For example, the Federal Assault Weapons ban (1994), a ban on assault rifles in the hopes of lowering crime rates, was a total failure and expired after 10 years. This failed due to the fact that only 2% of all violent shootings involved an assault rifle. Not only do bans not stop crime, but studies have shown that the amount of homicides decrease when more people legally carry guns. A study by the Bureau of Justice showed that gun homicides are down by 49% and guns per person have increased by 54% since 1993. Lastly, opposers of gun control use practicality as support. They argue that owning a gun can make society safer by means of self defense; they agree that an armed citizen can stop an attacker or shooter. Most opposers can also agree that higher gun control will increase crime rates since criminals will be more willing to assault knowing

Therefore the responsibility of deciding the strictness of gun control is left for the state government. Each state has its distinct restrictions which result in distinct crime rates. In this composition, I have evaluated 3 states with little to no gun control and 3 states with exceedingly high gun control. Louisiana is the first of the six states. In a recent ranking by Deseret News, Louisiana was named the state with the least restrictive gun control laws. Gun laws in this state do not require background checks, require a license, force citizens to register their firearms, or allow local government to intervene with the right to gun ownership. It is not surprising that this state has the second highest amount of deaths by gun (19.3 deaths by firearm per capita, or population of 100,000). The next state is Mississippi. Mississippi was ranked the state with the second least restrictive gun control. It follows the same rules as Louisiana with the exception that concealed weapons may be forbidden in certain cases. This state currently has the second highest gun violence rate with 17.8 deaths per capita. Lastly, Alaska has the highest gun deaths per capita (19.8) and the fifth most lenient gun control laws. Alaska has an astonishingly high suicide rate, with 80% of all firearm