Grant H. California

Gun Control, To be continued...

Why is gun control such a big issue? How important are guns? Here is how to think about firearms and their regulation.

      Dear Madam President,

It is in my interest to inform you and many others of the issues and paradigms constantly present surrounding gun control. I would first like to establish the absurdity of regulating guns due to their relative crime rates, In addition I will share a feasible solution with you.

     Expressing first the visible problems with media’s portrayal of gun violence and its influence on the American people's understanding of firearm danger. It is extremely unclear in news reports the statistics of race related gun biases. In this way the media has failed to inform; due to this shortcoming however, an unnecessary quarrel has ensued amongst Americans across the nation. First think of the empowerment movements such as black lives matter that has gained due to controversial shootings from police officers and the subliminal messages that gun violence represents. To many one is solely responsible for their actions in a gun altercation where as in instances such as a police chase which ends in a officer killing a minority possibly due to race(unclear), the officer would not be held accountable for his actions because it would be considered an accident, This cultural construct of morality in the officer's killing of a minority, in both a shooting and a case of vehicular manslaughter. The response of society as a whole is approached completely differently. 

     In recent months the killing of a minority using a firearm always assumes the subtext that the police officer is not only responsible but also guilty of both unwarranted murder and some form of bigotry. However in any other situation that results in a police officer killing a person of color by any means except that previously stated, the subtext changes. The police officer is now assumed not guilty. This approach is mainly due to the social movements based on gun related violence that target minorities. In short, guns have been given a bad wrap from social movements and the media as a whole. Guns are not however the problem with police officers, it is, if any moral shortcoming, their predisposition to citizens or people of color. In any school shooting, it is not the fault of the gun that it was misused but rather a mentally convoluted child who would have inflicted pain through any other means. The solution to both scenarios is to treat the person or cause and not the guns or effect. To conclude the reasons for bringing guns into conversations where they have no place is misrepresentation and has distorted many people's opinions of how guns should be viewed. Guns should be more difficult to obtain but not outlawed. Making guns illegal in the US would be virtually impossible due to the sheer quantity.

     To begin a dialogue about gun control is important but postponing it I believe is more important. First of all that spending anytime on it is a waste in comparison with other problems. In addition, I believe that we understand so little of how to regulate guns and make a correlation with crime rates that many of the arguments for regulating guns are currently nullified with the statistics we have at our disposal. With you being President however I understand that you know what these statistics look like. More people die in pool accidents than gun related violence each year; Chicago has the tightest gun control in America yet it also has the most gun violence of any city in the country(Causes Unclear). These two facts are arguments for throwing out gun regulation. To be clear I am not against gun regulations, that is I don’t take a side. Instead I believe that the entire conversation should be postponed until statistics and social effects are better understood. To many false statements and statistics are being manipulated for other purposes regarding vaguely related social issues. Gun control appears to be an archetype for solving violence in a community yet all of our data is converse. This is why this topic must be pushed aside until the issues shrouding guns can be unveiled and reveal the truth about this issue.

     My reasons for leaving guns as they are is due to the fact that more people die in accidents from esoteric things each year than do from gun violence. What's more is these things do not have the reputation or publicity that guns do, This signifies to me that if arms were not so paradoxical in their societies false depiction of effects and relative danger that an educated conversation could occur, This is why I believe that gun control is not only over rated but also a discussion that is not as important as argued by both the far left and right. Many more people die in car accidents each year, in fact 23,009 people die from car accidents in a week and 11,583 people die by gun murder each year yet we don’t have the drive to argue about regulating car safety requirements more scrupulously. This is why I happen to find gun regulation a waste of congress people's time.

     I have had experience with family members being killed from cars and drunk drivers, My uncle was killed when I was much younger by a drunk driver. Many people know someone personally killed in an accident yet I can seldom find someone who was acquainted with someone killed by the hands of a gunman. People need not look far for other accident related deaths that could have been easily prevented by legislation. Stop wasting time swaying people's votes by manipulating their hobbies and fix more impeding issues. Gun control is a means of taking people's hobbies and making a vehement argument to engage voters. This appeal to emotion is transparent and must stop. Visceral arguments on this topic must end and people need to work together to serve more pressing issues. I ask that we put off this debate until a later time and demand the attention of congressmen to fix more dangerous issues before attending to this one.

    Sincerely, 

          Grant H.

Work Cited

http://www.bradycampaign.org/sites/default/files/GunDeathandInjuryStatSheet3YearAverageFINAL.pdf

https://asirt.org/initiatives/informing-road-users/road-safety-facts/road-crash-statistics

https://asirt.org/initiatives/informing-road-users/road-safety-facts/road-crash-statistics

Santa Clara High School

Flowers ERWC Period 6

This group is for seniors in Ms. Flowers 6th period ERWC class.

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