Why American Guns Should Be Banned

Civilian firearms are for recreational activities such as hunting or shooting sports and self-defense (Cicconet, “Semi-automatic weapons unnecessary, unsafe in civilian hands”). The question on what to do about America’s gun control becomes the limelight of the stage every time national tragedy involving gun violence happens. According to Fred A. Roff Jr., president of the Colt Patent Fire Arms Co., he said, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” (E8). This is irrelevant in many ways. Many gun advocates question how banning the use of guns for the civilians in U.S. would help protect the civilians when there are so many other forms of weapons that can replace guns (Adcock, “Harvard study reveals gun control counterproductive). In reality,

The Miller 2007 study published by Dr. Miller and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health explored the “association between changes in the household firearm ownership and rates of suicide in the United States” during the years between 1981 and 2002. It was revealed that the firearm suicides as well as the total suicides dropped by 2.5 percent and 4.2 percent respectively for every 10 percent decline in the household firearm ownership rate (Dr. Miller et. al). The decrease in suicide rates was most the noticeable for adolescents and there was no statistic data to show that there was a indicative increase in the portion of suicide cases committed using other weapons” (DeFilippis, “Debunking the “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” myth”). Harvard School of Public Health has found that in states where more houses own more firearms, suicide cases among children, women and men belonging to any age are greater (Khazan, “Guns More Likely to Be Used in Suicide Than in Killing Bad Guys.”). Civilian firearms have led to more suicide cases than lives saved. According to CDC, “19,392 people committed suicide with a gun in 2010…” (qtd. in The Atlantic). In the very same year, only 230 justifiable homicides, whereby a civilian shot dead an intruder, were recorded (Khazan, “Guns More Likely to Be Used in Suicide Than in

Guns are too lethal. Civilians do not need to go to the extent of killing someone to defend him or herself. According to terminal ballistics, bullets can damage body tissues in three ways. Bullets moving at lower velocity can lacerate or crush body tissue or bone. Bullets produced by the forward movement of air or tissue are able to rupture the wound more. High velocity bullets cause the air at the fronts and sides to undergo compression. When this compression is released, it results in a shockwave of high pressure. Its magnitude of damage can cause fluid-filled organs to burst due to its high pressure (“Ballistics”). There are very small numbers of armed civilians who attempt to stop shooting incidents, and it is rarer to find those who are successful in their attempts in doing so (Follman, “More Guns, More Mass Shootings—Coincidence?”). During the Tyler courthouse shooting in Texas, an armed civilian named Mark Wilson, who was a firearms instructor, tried to intervene. He fired his licensed handgun at the assailant. Unfortunately, he was shot dead by the gunman, David Hernandez Arroyo (Follman, “More Guns, More Mass Shootings—Coincidence?”). In the year 1982, a gunman started firing at a welding shop in Miami. He killed eight people and injured another three more before escaping by a bicycle. An armed civilian working in the vicinity pursued the perpetrator in car and managed to