Benjamin S. California

Are We Safer Without Guns?

Do the facts show that people are safer without others having guns? What are some other options than banning guns?

Dear, future President

Throughout history, gun control has never worked because crime goes up and bad guys don’t play buy the rules. When people do not have guns to protect themselves crime goes up because criminals like soft targets, who have nothing to protect themselves with. The amount of guns in the U.S.A is far more than the amount in Brazil. Plus, Brazil has mandatory licensing, registration, and ownership quotas. Even with all this control the homicide rate in Brazil is three times higher than the amount in America. The Swiss make guns a huge part of their lives. “It’s estimated that two to three million guns are in circulation.” (Chastain). Men are even required to keep guns in their homes.This means that Switzerland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world. However, the Swiss have a very low homicide rate. There were only 40 homicides in 2010.While there were 412 in Chicago alone. Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws in America. Between 2006 and 2011 gun sales went up 73% in Virginia. With all of those guns around violence fell by 24%. However, background checks went up from 243,251 to 420,529 in the same years. The facts show that where there are more guns, violence is lower. 

Criminals don’t abide by the rules and get guns even if there is a ban or lots of gun control laws. The ban in Britain of 1997 didn’t work. There has only been one year where Britains homicide rate was lower than the rate before the ban. On the contrary, there was an 89% spike from 1998 to 2009 in gun crime. The Crime Research Prevention Center discovered that 99% of mass shootings came in gun free zones. For example, most schools are gun free zones, the Orlando night club was a gun free zone, and so was the shooting that killed singer Christina Grimmie. The Philippines had a series of laws against guns. Right now 50% of their guns are illegal and gangs are getting rich by selling them.The evidence shows that criminals do not follow rules of countries. 

     Many people skeptical of guns say guns kill people because people die from getting shot. Yet, more people die from hammers and clubs than by rifles annually. For example, in 2011 323 murders were committed with rifles. On the other hand 496 murders were caused by people with hammers and clubs (Hawkins). So is there reason to ban all hammers and clubs? No, but there is more cause than rifles.

The conclusion is easy to understand, when people have guns, less crimes are committed. When politicians raise the answer of more gun control it scares me. Even with all this evidence, there is nothing about Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong who each killed millions of there own people, after banning guns. After all a gun can’t kill by itself. A person has to pull the trigger. So, instead of saying let’s ban all guns, we should help more mentally ill people, we should also express the fact that family is very important in public places. These two things will help with the problems we, as Americans, face today. 

Thanks,Benjamin S.

Bandler, Aaron. “7 facts gun crime show gun control doesn't work.” Daily Wire.Com N.P., Web. 2 Nov. 2016.

Chastian, Mary. “Stats prove Gun Control Doesn't Work." Breitbart.Com. 25 Aug. 2015. Web. 3 Nov.2016

Hawkins, Awr. “More People Killed by Hammers, Cluns Each Year than Rifles” Breitbart.com. 3 Jan. 2016. Web. 3 Nov. 2016

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