Pros and Cons of Gun Control

The subject of gun control has always generated a social and political debate concerning the availability and restriction of firearms within the United States. In American politics, gun control has been an intractable and one of the most controversial issues. Repeated surveys and opinion polls have found that a majority of Americans believe the constitutional right to own a gun, simultaneously a majority also endorses stricter enforcement of prevalent gun control laws.

Understanding Gun Control

Amongst the arguments and counter arguments of gun politics, let us try to understand what is gun control. The law that is used to decide the owning of gun is termed as gun control law. This law determines whether ordinary citizens can own a gun or not. A control or restriction is required to ensure that guns are owned by people to who are helpless against crime, or are victims and not by criminal minded people. Yet this same gun control law can prohibit the ownership of personal defense weapons, for people who become targets of criminals. The dilemma of the law is that it can be used both ways. It can render victims helpless and make criminals out of ordinary harmless individuals.

A popular argument often raises the question as to why guns are used to protect the Congress members, the President, bank guards, whereas the law prohibits commoners from protecting themselves against criminals. Some critics even term gun control as a form of people-control wherein you surrender everything you possess when a criminal act happens to you. According to the National Rifle Association (NRA), 25 states have adopted "your home is your castle" laws that give homeowners liberty to shoot people on their property without fear of prosecution, and only 10 states severely restrict or prohibit the carrying of firearms in public.

Around the same time last year, the shooting spree in Tucson which left six dead brought this issue into focus once again, but now after a year scant attention is paid to the issues that incident raised.
According to FBI's crime statistics, in 2010, there were 12,996 murders in the US. Of those, 8,775 were caused by firearms (comparatively only 600 in the U.K). Though the FBI says this data is incomplete, it is still a fair indicator of the level of violence and deaths caused due to possession and use of firearms.

Pros of Gun Control

• The bottom line is that a gun is a lethal weapon and its only function is to kill, the fewer people have them the better it is. If firearms were less prevalent in society, criminals would have greater difficulty in laying hands on them. Thus a lesser possibility of firearms falling in the hands of teenagers or children, preventing a tragedy like the Columbine High School massacre.
• Sport shooting, or hunting, or a gun culture that glamorizes and legitimizes unnecessary gun ownership can desensitize ordinary people to the fatal effects of guns and firearms in general. retail firearms traders or individual gun owners can be given compensation if a ban is implemented.
• There will be a stringent check on the ownership of all firearms and the number of manufactured firearms. The immediate result would be virtually no violent crime. There will indeed be incidences of shop lifting or house theft, but no guns would be involved, thereby no deaths from the incidences.

Cons of Gun Control

• Owning or possessing guns is an intrinsic aspect of American culture and banning guns or prohibition would not make them disappear, or make them any less dangerous. In order to protect themselves, their family, and their property, it is a legitimate right of citizens to own weapons.
• Society will not become safer by restricting gun ownership as guns don't kill people, people kill people. Also in the majority of cases involving guns or firearms, the weapon used in not legally bought or registered it is either smuggled or stolen from registered owners.
• While a segment of the law guarantees individuals the right to own guns, another amendment makes owning a handgun difficult and many people feel that their constitutional rights are being denied. It is also observed that if the law-abiding citizens have guns, they are better equipped to handle situations where they might find themselves fact to face with criminals, thus bringing the crime rate down.

The Role of Law Enforcers

The federal law establishes strict registration requirements for procuring a gun, in addition to a transfer tax on machine guns and short-barreled long guns. The mail-order sales and the interstate sales of firearms have been also addressed and prohibited. The government has banned the transfer of arms to minors and thus, limits access to assault weapons. There are penalties in place and stringent licensing requirements for manufacturers and dealers that are maintained to check on illegal transfers. It cannot be denied that if more people are allowed to own and carry guns, deaths and injuries from the weapons will also subsequently increase. The effective gun control measures are a boon to law-abiding citizens and reinforce the constitutional rights. Even there are many advocates of the thought that widespread gun ownership is the way to keep crime at bay, it is essential to understand that it is not the gun that is being questioned, it is the hand that pulls the trigger.

The debate of gun control has made no headway at the Federal level despite nation-wide attention and coverage of recent incidences of mass killings like those at Tucson, Virginia Tech, and Columbine. President Obama too has carefully avoided the topic and has even signed two laws that included provisions expanding gun access. The harsh reality is that it's not a rosy pretty world out there and being utterly defenseless in a criminal situation is never a good idea. Criminals would still find a way to gain illegal possession of guns or firearms as they do not respect the law. The solution lies with effectively upholding the law and helping the law makers to curb illegal procurement of arms. It is the responsibility of every citizen to determine for himself or herself whether or not the procurement of arms is good for society at large. It is natural to not agree entirely with the pros or the cons, but a constant update on statistics should be reviewed and analyzed.