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Policy Brief
Marla Darimbang
Western Washington University
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Washington law RCW 9.41.070 describes who can apply for a weapons permit.
Gun control advocates want gun laws to become more strict with the idea that preventing
certain groups of people will lessen the chances of gun-related disasters. I believe that no
matter what weapon is used, it is people that kill people. I also believe, however, that it is
much easier to kill and to kill many with guns, so why is there still a debate over creating
stricter gun control laws? Let’s just do it.
Guns have been used to kill people like Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito
(Sharpe, 2011). These people were killed to save millions of others from dying. Imagine
that there are people like Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito, in your local community,
wanting to kill many with their weapons for whatever reason. The shooting at Sandy
Hook Elementary School is evidence that people who will use guns to murder innocent
people exist. Creating stricter gun control laws will not prevent all people with villainous
motives from obtaining a gun; if we lived in that kind of a perfect world, we wouldn’t
have the issue of pro- versus anti- gun control laws. But saving the lives of many by
preventing even just one gun-related disaster seems better than leaving law RCW
9.41.070 the way it is and hoping history won’t repeat itself. As someone who proudly
and legally owns guns, Kirn (2013) admits that stricter gun control laws will not
eliminate gun-related disasters, but are worth pursuing if they could prevent more gunrelated disasters from happening in the future.
The United States is number one in the world in civilian gun ownership and
fourteenth highest in gun-related deaths (Dupuy, 2012). The Second Amendment gives
us our right to bear arms, but has being permitted to own a gun become the only way of
self-defense? Whether the people of the U.S. want protection from the government or
home intruders, can we not teach other forms of self-defense that are not gun-related?
We have laws that tell us murder is bad, it’s criminal. So, let’s create a gun control laws
that will aid in the prevention of murderous crimes and teach others self-defense methods
that don’t require a loaded, potential murder weapon.
In 1994, there were 200 million legally owned guns in American and 1.3 million
gun-related violent crimes. In 2011, there were 300 million legally owned guns and
about 350,000 gun-related violent crimes in America (Domenech, 2013). Obviously, the
trend shows that the number of legal guns in private hands has gone up while gun-related
crimes went down. If we turn our cheek to the 350,000 gun-related violent crimes just
because the number is less than what it was 17 years ago, we are neglecting the thousands
of lives that could be taken by gun-related disasters in the years to come.
Stricter gun control laws can not only prevent people from harming other people,
but also prevent individuals from harming or killing themselves. Research from Canada
shows that Canada's Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1977, which created stricter gun
control, aided in the decrease of suicides (Leenaars, 2007). By reducing accessibility to
guns, Canada has been able to prevent people from obtaining a gun with the intent of
committing suicide. Research from the U.S. shows that states with the strictest gun
control laws were associated with the states that had the lowest suicide ratings (Leenars,
2007). Why are we fighting not to create more strict gun control laws when we can help
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prevent murder and suicide by encouraging gun control laws?
Because our nation has yet to find the happy medium between pro- and anti-gun
control, one of the methods of lessening gun-related violence is the government allowing
states to choose whether or not the sale and purchase of marijuana is legal (Lindeen,
2010). The intent is that making marijuana legal will prevent gun violence, which is used
to enforce the rules and transactions of the illegal trade. There is no evidence that the
legalization of specific drugs reduce gun violence, so why is this okay? Stricter gun
control laws will help in the prevention of gun violence, not the legalization of marijuana.
Brazilians were originally against the stricter gun control laws, but the study
shows that implementing the new laws has greatly helped Brazil in lowering the gunrelated mortality and hospitalization rates. In three of Brazil’s high-crime states, two of
them showed decreases in gun-related deaths and hospitalizations; overall, Brazil saw a
4.6% decline in hospitalizations because of gun-related injuries (de Souza, Macinko,
Alencar, Malta, & de Morais Neto, 2007). If Brazil has shown that stricter gun control
laws have helped save people, why shouldn’t that be the case in the U.S.?
Maybe we need to find a way to make stricter gun control laws appeal to more
diverse cultures in a way that shows that stricter gun control laws will be helpful and they
are relevant to that specific culture. Braman, Kahan, and Grimmelmann (2005) believe
that policy makers and analysts should focus on creating gun control policies that appeal
to a mass variety of cultural outlooks instead of feeding the nation information about gun
control. Computer simulations were used to show how reactions to gun control policies
would remain the same no matter what kind or how much empirical data was given. The
computer simulation also show, however, that if policy makers and analysts used a
medium that appealed to diverse cultures, taking the time to explain how gun control can
survive in different world views, then the reluctance to listen would lessen and there
would be more of a chance of changing one’s mind about the efficacy of gun control
policies (Braman et al., 2005).
We are much more than computer simulated emotions and the situations human
beings create are reality, not just a picture on a computer screen. However, the people of
the United States do have to figure out how to make stricter gun control laws more
appealing to diverse cultures. Saving the lives of many innocent people should be
relevant in any culture, state, and nation.
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References
Braman, D., Kahan, D., & Grimmelmann, J. (2005). Modeling Facts, Culture, and
Cognition in the Gun Debate. Social Justice Research, 18(3), 283-304.
doi:10.1007/s11211-005-6826-0
de Souza, M., Macinko, J., Alencar, A., Malta, D., & de Morais Neto, O. (2007).
Reductions In Firearm-Related Mortality And Hospitalizations In Brazil After
Gun Control. Health Affairs, 26(2), 575-584. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.26.2.575
Domenech, B. (2013). The Truth About Mass Shootings and Gun Control. Commentary,
135(2), 25.
Dupuy, T. (2012). Trust Me: You Believe in Gun Control. Humanist, 72(4), 10.
Kirn, Walter. (2013). I’ve Owned Six Guns I’ve Drawn Them On Bad Guys I Want To
Be Understood. (2013). New Republic, 244(1), 30-35.
Leenaars, A. A. (2007). Gun-control legislation and the impact on suicide. Crisis: The
Journal Of Crisis Intervention And Suicide Prevention, 28(Suppl 1), 50-57.
doi:10.1027/0227-5910.28.S1.50
Lindeen, L. (2010). Keep Off the Grass!: An Alternative Approach to the Gun Control
Debate. Indiana Law Journal, 85(4), 1659-1697.
Sharpe, M. (2011). Violent Nation. Challenge (05775132), 54(2), 122-130.
doi:10.2753/0577-5132540206