The Hand Gun Debate
The level of violence in America today is one of the biggest problems the nation faces. It is virtually impossible to pick up the morning paper or turn on the evening news without seeing a story about some act of violence. Now there seems to be no safe-haven from all the madness. Shootings at work, school, and even churches have become commonplace in contemporary American culture.There are over 200 million guns in America today; over 72 million of these are handguns (Blevins 1). Since handguns account for most of the homicides, they deserve a certain amount of investigation. Would we be better off without them? Do they serve a positive purpose? A lot of people say we should get rid of these instruments of violence all together. These people are not without great opposition though, not in this country anyway. The following is an evaluation of this debate: both sides of the argument are represented beginning with the proponents of handgun control.The facts and figures speak loud and clear. "Although handguns make up on only about one-third for all firearms in the U.S., they account for 80% of all murders committed with firearms" (Blevins 2). This statistic is not surprising if you look at
Maryland's Attorney General, Joseph Curran Jr. This country would be in bad shape if only the criminals and the police had handguns; this would leave the majority of America caught up in the crossfire between the two. It is a cop-out that will only lead to more problems. There were no semi-automatic handguns with sixteen round clips capable of killing multiple victims in a matter of seconds when the Second Amendment was put in to the Bill of Rights. However, handguns are too readily accessible and should be efficiently regulated. noted that "Guns beget violence and violence simply begets more guns"(Maryland, 1). Devices such as these have no rational basis for existence, except for police and military functions. It is not just the mothers' and fathers' tears that result from these violent acts. Concessions need to be made by hard liners on both sides of the issue. The possibility that someone is carrying a handgun is one of the greatest deterrents of crime. Curran points out in his call to end handgun ownership that "It is beyond absurd that we impose safety standards on everything from toys to toothpaste, while we allow handguns to be made any old way manufacturers decide is profitable" (Maryland, 3). One round of buckshot fired from a sawed off barrel can result in multiple fatalities. The issue of handgun control has become somewhat polarized, but there are many routes we can go to take on the matter.
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