Gun Control Persuasive Essay

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Do guns kill people or do the people pulling the trigger of the gun kill people? This has been a long debated question in the United States, and people still cannot agree on the same answer. Gun Control is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians (Merriam-Webster). The debate on gun control has been going on for decades, but today it is at its highest point. The gun control debate was calm until a few weeks ago, when teenager Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Gun control is a major ongoing debate in the United States of America, but due to recent events the debate has been narrowed down to whether or not assault guns should be legal to own.
Guns are very popular in the United States. In fact, the United States is the world’s number one gun owning country, with about 89 guns per 100 people (America’s Gun Culture in 10 Charts). According to a recent study, about 42% of the people in the United States say they live in a household with a gun (Americans’ Views on Guns). About 67% of that 42% claim they own guns for protection reasons (Americans’ Views on Guns).
Many people in the United States argue that the control regulations already in place need to become …show more content…

In September of 1994, President Clinton passed a ban on all assault style weapons until 2004. As a result, the gun murder rate dropped from 6.6 homicides per 100,000 people in 1993 to 3.8 in 2005 (Impact of 1994 Assault Weapons Ban). Gun control activists also point to the fact that assault weapons are the number one weapon used in mass shootings in the United States (America’s Gun Culture in 10 Charts) and nearly all of those weapons used in mass shootings were purchased legally (10 Advantages and Disadvantages of Gun