The Gun Control Debate In recent years, there’s not many topics on the political spectrum that aren’t absolutely polarizing. This essay will attempt to show each side’s generalized opinions, and find flaws in each of their arguments, as every ethical argument has flaws. Analyzing each side will help anyone understand their own opinions better, because without the demonization of the opposite party, ethics get much more difficult. Gun control is everywhere in the news right now, as three months into the year, the country has had12 school shootings in 2018. Exploring the ethics of gun control can get messy and emotional, but it’s important to understand all sides of a subject.There are two major sides to the gun control debate, and like everything …show more content…
This is the most simple way to put it, but of course, politics are not simple. No matter how much conviction your favorite politician uses in their speech on gun control, they are just as biased as the rest of us. Fear mongering and other scare tactics keep the public from understanding what gun law bans/lifts would trulymean, whatever your opinion may be. Delving into the liberal side of the argument, there are many reasons why they justify calling for stricter gun control. The most echoed opinion recently is a full ban on “assault” style weapons. The definition of an assault rifle is muddy, as avid gun owners tend to disagree with the term as it’s used. Most say that assault rifles should only be defined as fully automatic military-style rifles (Goode), but for ease of understanding, let’s assume that they are what most of the public refers to them as- semi/fully automatic weapons. From the years 1982-2012, 99 of the weapons used in mass shootings were semi automatic handguns or rifles (Follman). In the Las Vegas shooting, where one man killed 58 and injured over 800, local police found 18 assault weapons in his hotel room (Alsup). This, coupled with America’s history of mass shootings, is a justifiable reason to at least bring up a