Gun Control Debate in the U.S

Gun Control Debate in the U.S 

Currently, there is a debate ongoing on whether people should be allowed to bear arms or should not have the freedom to bear arms. The argument started after the second amendment of the constitution and it has sparked extreme conflict all around the world. In my opinion, I believe that it is a basic human right for every U.S citizen to possess a legal firearm.  Every U.S citizen should carry a firearm that can harm others; however, it is our job as the people to make sure those weapons end up in the right hands. 

In relation to Machiavelli's advice to the young prince of not disarming their subjects as it "shows that you distrust them, either for cowardice or for little faith, and both the one and the other of these opinions generates hatred against you," Americans should be allowed to legally own a firearm (Tarcov, 2013). This will reduce violence and increase confidence among the people as they will be able to fight back in case of getting involved in gun violence. A prime example that encourages U.S citizens to own firearms is what happened in the city of Chicago. This city faced a plethora of gun violence issues until 2010 when the sale and purchase of firearms were banned. From the time when sale and purchase of firearms was banned, there has been an increase in gun violence in which 2,988 people were killed in 2015 (Davey, 2015). Although the ban was lifted, there is still some restrictions on gun ownership; however, the ban on gun ownership did not help reduce gun violence, it instead propelled unnecessary death where armless Americans were killed. Therefore U.S citizens should understand that banning guns will do more harm than good in the long run. 

Another prime example and blueprint of what we can do in America is the ban of all automatic and semi-automatic weapons in Australia following a mass shooting in 1996 (Chapman, 2006). Thereafter, the Australian government bought over 660,000 guns in a major government buy-back program which coasted a half a billion tax dollars. This appears to be a lot of money; however, there hasn't been a mass shooting in Australia since this law has saved approximately 200 lives every year. 

In conclusion, I do believe in the right for U.S citizens to have the freedom to own a gun for home defense or hunting. For most Americans, a gun is the only way for one to put food on the table; however, there is no valid reason for someone outside of military or law enforcement to possess semi-automatic and automatic firearms.

References 

Tarcov, N. (2013). Belief and Opinion in Machiavelli's" Prince". The Review of Politics, 573-586.  

Davey, M., & Smith, M. (2015). Murder rates rising sharply in many US cities. The New York Times, 1. 

Chapman, S., Alpers, P., Agho, K., & Jones, M. (2006). Australia’s 1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides, and a decade without mass shootings. Injury Prevention, 12(6), 365-372.