Shannon Houst
English 12
2/26/10
Gun Control
A small number of people deem stricter gun control laws will tackle the origin of
school aggression. But promoters for gun control have been much less verbal in the
repercussion of current school shootings. They now recognize that school shootings are
tremendously uncommon, and stricter gun control laws will not thwart shooters from
acquiring guns. They have actually found that increased gun control actually increases
crimes involving guns. The committee declared that presented research studies and
statistics include a wealth of explanatory information on murder, suicide, and guns, but
due to the restrictions of accessible data and methods, do not plausibly display a relaxed
affiliation between the possession of weapons and the reason or deterrence of criminal
hostility or suicide. All large reports involving gun control show that crimes stopped midcrime by gun owners is more elevated than the amount of gun crimes in the United
States. The Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws, reported guns are used more often to avert
crimes than they are used to assist crimes. Thus, laws that limit an ordinary citizens right
to self defense with a gun tends to cause a large increase in crime. The mathematical
disagreement is clear, more guns, less crime. Nearly two million more crimes are stopped
with guns than are ‘caused’ by guns, the anti-gun agenda ignores this argument, believing
that if there were less guns, there would be a smaller number of crimes, but the research
shows that guns prevent more crimes than they cause. They also try to say that a gun
crime would never have been committed had the gun been outlawed, which has been
proven false in the United Kingdom.
One of the worst school shootings that occurred was the Columbine Shooting that
occurred in 1999. Children and teachers were both murdered and wounded during the
shooting, and a torrent of calls came in for new gun-control legislation. A pro-gun rally
lead right after the shooting made it so no new laws were to be passed, that children
would not be affected by increased gun-control laws, they, if they wanted, like any other
person, would find a way to obtain a gun if they really wanted to. Congress and the whit
house were under Republican control, and they are not eager to put restrictions on
firearms. Any imaginable gun-control laws are not likely to have much of any affect on
crime in America. Most school shootings that occur, have a student that is wielding the
gun. They are not old enough to buy guns legally in most states, they steel guns from
either family members, friends, anyone they can, then they use them, there is not really a
way to stop an underage person from obtaining a gun, if no one knows they have one
until after the shooting starts.
I believe that increased gun control will have little, if any, affect on school
shootings, due to the fact that most of the shooters are students and in turn are too young
to purchase guns legally. Therefore if you put a gun restriction on firearms, there would
be no affect on them. They would do what they were originally going to do to procure a
gun in the first place. However, I am in the middle of the road on increased gun control in
general. It is true that guns are used to stop more crimes, than they are used to commit
crimes, but why does it need to be a gun? Does that mean that the intruder is also
carrying a gun, and that is why the only weapon that actually makes a dent in preventing
crimes is a gun? Because, the way I see it, if your intruder, or what ever they may be,
does not have a gun, could you not, say have a knife instead and hold them off? True,
knifes are not very accurate, unless you are good with them, but same can be said for a
gun. However, if you are using a gun to defend your home and family, why is it that you
need to buy, or own more than one gun? I believe a limit should be put on how many
guns can be purchased by a person, or even a family. One gun is all you really need, if
you must have one, guns do not run out, it’s bullets you need, one gun, and multiple
bullets, but even then, unless you are a hunter, you should not need to obtain much
ammunition. A point to be made, for both school shootings and gun-crimes in general is
this, people, not all, but some, purchase a large amount of firearms, and sell them to
underage teens and people that cannot for some reason buy themselves a weapon. That is
why I believe a limit should be placed on the amount of firearms one person or family
can buy. Another point to be made is, even if restrictions were placed on guns in any
way, there are still guns out in people’s hands now, a whole hell of a lot of them too.
People will still be able to get a hold of a weapon if they really want to, so you minds
well have them be purchasing them legally so we know who actually has guns, and we
can track them if they show up in a crime.
Source Citation:

Connell, Shaun. "Gun Control Laws Will Increase Crime." Current
Controversies: Guns and Violence. Ed. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven
Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. SCOTIA GLENVILLE
SR HIGH SCHOOL. 25 Feb. 2010
<http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve
&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010049277&source=gale&srcprod=O
VRC&userGroupName=nysl_ca_scot&version=1.0>.

Chapman, Steve. "Gun Control Laws Will Not Stop School Shootings." School
Shootings. Ed. Susan Hunnicutt. At Issue Series. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006.
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. SCOTIA GLENVILLE SR HIGH
SCHOOL. 25 Feb. 2010
<http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve
&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010190226&source=gale&srcprod=O
VRC&userGroupName=nysl_ca_scot&version=1.0>.

Bowling for Columbine, movie.