Gun Control
There are many conflicting opinions on how gun violence should be handled |
Gun control is one of the most hotly debated topics in the United States of America, and has been for a long time. This debate stems from the high amount of gun violence in the United States of America compared to other countries that have stricter gun regulations. The side in opposition to increased regulation of firearms believes that Americans have a right to own them and use them for self protection because of the fact that the second amendment to the Constitution outlines this right for citizens to have. Those in support of increased regulation favor this side because they believe that it will decrease the homicide and suicide rate in the country. The mortality rate caused by firearm violence in the United States of America is severely higher than in any country with stricter gun regulations. In fact, America has the 12th highest amount of firearm related deaths per 100,000 people in the world, with approximately 10.54 deaths per 100,000 people. This has led to this issue being very important in presidential and other elections, in which conservative Republicans tend to favor less gun control, whereas liberal Democrats favor more gun control. This can also be shown with the fact that states that tend to be more liberal, such as California, have stricter laws on gun control, and more conservative states, such as southern states including Texas, tend to have much less regulations on guns.
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The high rate of gun violence in america is an issue that needs to be dealt with |
Regardless of the politics and regulations involved, the high amount of gun violence in the United States of America is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible in order to save as many lives as possible. An example of effective firearm regulation is in Australia. In 1996, there was a mass shooting in Tasmania that resulted in the death of 35 people. In response, the Australian government passed sweeping legislation that made owning semi automatic rifles, automatic rifles, or shotguns illegal. They bought back all of these guns from firearm owners in Australia. Since this law passed, the firearm related homicide rate has fallen 59 percent and the firearm related suicide rate has decreased by 65 percent. There was no subsequent increase in deaths resulting from other methods of homicide or suicide. This evidence shows that strict gun control is extremely effective in reducing deaths. However, the United States of America is not close to passing anything remotely effective because the NRA and other pro-gun organizations lobby so much. Their reason is that because it won’t completely eliminate gun violence it isn’t worth it. Because of this, we may still be a long way off from a solution to this issue.
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