As an American-born citizen raised by Japanese parents, I have been exposed to both cultures firsthand. What I found interesting about the Japanese culture is that the overall crime rate in the country is very low compared to the crime rate in the U.S. It is not uncommon to hear about mass shootings and other terrifying crimes in the U.S., such as the Sandy Hook shooting and the Virginia Tech shooting, whereas Japan hardly has such news. During my vacation in Japan several years ago, I remember asking my parents why Japan is so much safer than in the U.S. They replied saying that the Japanese people, including the military men, had been forbidden to carry guns after their demilitarization following the aftermath of WWII, and had implemented …show more content…
Constitution—the Second Amendment stating that citizens have the “right to bear arms.” Whenever there is a debate over gun control, anti-gun control groups always bring up the Second Amendment, claiming that gun ownership is a right sanctioned by the Constitution, and therefore must not be restricted. However, these people are forgetting that the amendment was adopted back in 1791, when the general public made up the militia, to which this amendment refers. The Founding Fathers of the Constitution had meant for this amendment to apply only to the military and other state security groups, such as the National Guard. Anti-gun control groups believe that the solution to national security is to arm everyone with a gun for self-defense. However, if everyone possessed a gun, it would make it much easier for people to act on impulse and commit crimes that may have been less harmful without the availability of a gun. Creating strict gun control laws would keep guns away from those who may become dangerous and violent with the possession of a …show more content…
that could have been prevented with stronger gun control laws and background checks. For example, in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, 20 children and 6 adult staff members were mercilessly shot to death by Adam Lanza, a 20 year old man who owned several guns legally. Lanza had suffered from several behavioral problems as a child, including a sensory-integration disorder, Asperger syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a possibility of undiagnosed schizophrenia or psychopathy. In addition, in the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at Virginia Tech, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17. The attack is said to be “the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S. history and one of the deadliest by a single gunman worldwide” (Evon). Similar to the Sandy Hook shooting incident, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech shooting had previously been diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder. Although Cho was declared mentally ill and ordered by a justice to attend treatment, he was not institutionalized; therefore he was still able to purchase guns. Statistics show that “of the more than 70 mass shootings in the United States in the last 30 years, about three-quarters of the guns used were obtained legally by the killers” (Ridder). If there had been more extensive background checks to ensure that people with mental disorders were not allowed to purchase guns, perhaps people like