In Parkland, Florida, an armed individual entered a school and began shooting at students and teachers; this incident resulted in 17 dead and reignites a heated debate on gun policy. While many individuals believe gun laws will prevent further killings; the reality is most modern gun laws target assault weapons which are rarely used. The United States needs more gun control laws that target handguns and emphasize restricting access to those deemed unworthy.
The general consensus among the public is that assault weapons should be banned as they are common among murderers yet, those individuals fail to recognize that handguns fatally wound more people per year than assault weapons. For example, “It turns out that big, scary military rifles don't kill the vast majority of the 11,000 Americans murdered with guns each year. Little handguns do.” (Beckett) this quote dismantles the arguments of assault weapons being favored by those willing to do harm as handguns inevitably cause more irreversible trauma. Finally, gun law must be tailored to the situation at hand therefore, gun laws should be about handguns and not assault weapons.
…show more content…
For instance, “Handguns were used in more than 80 percent of gun murders each year… they were associated by the public with self-defense” (Beckett) this is important as lawmakers are facing heavy resistance by gun fanatics after attempting to restrict the selling of assault weapons thus, attempting to restrict handguns may be a poor choice for politicians. This insight contributes to the main claim as you cannot have gun laws and expect change; you must have refined gun laws that initiate change by targeting weapons most commonly used in fatal