The Pros And Cons Of Gun Control

Advocates of each side of the gun control debate have been around ever since the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791. In recent years the debate has gained more followers and has gotten much more heated. Each side has valid points and ideas that they would like to see incorporated into a new form of gun control or lack thereof. The Second Amendment to the US Constitution is necessary because people should have the right to keep and bear arms to protect themselves. However necessary the Second amendment is, to protect American citizens from gun violence, gun control needs to be improved. The Second Amendment gives Americans the right to have firearms which is a liberty that every American citizen should rightfully have unfortunately, this liberty can result in a violation of another citizen’s liberties, as a gun

If it were possible to foresee who would commit a crime, such as the Pre-Crime System depicted in the movie Minority Report, it would be easy to prevent the crime. Unfortunately, this is impractical, because we cannot predict the future, but at least we can figure out which group of people is more likely to commit crimes. In the United States, 53% of arrested males and 39% of arrested females are re-incarcerated (Visher, 2003). Meaning that this 53% and 39% respectively should not be able to purchase or obtain guns legally. Another group to look at would be the mentally ill. Psychosis “was significantly associated with a 49%–68% increase in the odds of violence” (Douglas, Guy, Hart 2009). To combat guns falling into wrong hands all 50 states should build a database that contains extensive reports of mental illnesses and criminal records. When an individual attempts to purchase a gun, the database should check for registered criminals and the mentally ill. Of course, information security of such a database would be important, as unauthorized access to the data could result in abuse and inappropriate