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One of the biggest controversies that face this country today is over the second amendment to the Constitution. This issue is gun control. Gun control is
any infringement on a civilian to buy or own any type of firearm. The second amendment states, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security
of the free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed". People see two different meanings in the second amendment.
Some people see the amendment as saying that people should be allowed to bear arms and in no way be infringed. Were other people who believe in
gun control say that since we have a military and national guard we do not need civilians to own guns. These anti-gun people believe that if you disarm the
civilian people, excluding the police officers or guards at jails, it will lessen the crime rate. So the question is: will gun control help the attack on crime?
This issue will be looked at in three diffrent ways: by looking at gun control that has already been created, alternatives to gun control that have been proven
to work, and what the criminals and police officers think.
There are over 20,000 gun control ordinances in affect today. They range from prohibiting the discharge of a firearm in urban areas to a total ban of all
handguns in some metropolitian areas. Most of the gun control laws that have been passed are in the metropolitian areas (Nisbet 11,12). New York was
said to have "the toughest handgun law in the country". Under this law, anyone caught carrying a loaded or unlicensed handgun can be charged with
"armed" felony, with a mandatory penalty of a year in prison, and the illegal sale of handguns has been changed from a misdeamenor to a felony (Draper
119,120). Only 35 minutes after this law was passed a man was shot with an illegal gun. There was 12 shootings with illegal guns that weekend and the
crime rate has actually gone up rather than gone down.
Washington D.C. enforced a similar Gun Control Act to New Yorks. Except they stressed more of a back ground check and a waiting period. They also
banned certain weapons in some of the urban districts. After the laws were enacted there was no change in crimes committed with guns. Thats why
D.C. Police Chief Maurice Turner said, "What had the gun control law done to keep criminals from getting guns? Absolutely nothing...[city residents]
ought to have the opportunity to have handguns" (Long 95).
These are just a few of the gun control laws that are in affect in today's big cities. Some places in California it is illegal to own handguns and a huge
variety of assault rifles. But there is still no change in there crime rate, before the law was enacted and after it was enforced. One example of a community
ban of guns was in Morton Grove, Illinois. This complete ban of all gun in no way reduced crime (Draper 181). Not one gun control law that has been
studied has in no way shown a reduction in crimes committed with guns.
Pro-gun supporters in there attack against gun control have come up with an idea to help fight crime committed with guns by not using actual gun control.
There plan is to make the punishment of a crime committed with a firearm more severe than a crime committed without. They figure that a criminal will
decide not to use a gun since he would be faced with a harsher penalty if he did. This idea has already been implemented in some areas. It has already
been proven to work. In Virginia after 11 years of being in affect the murded rate dropped 38% and the robbery rate dropped 24%. Some other examples
are: South Carolina a drop of 41% in there murder rate in 11 years, Arkansas's murder rate dropped 28% in 11 years, and the state with highest murder
rate drop was montana with 42% in 10 years (Long 97). These rates are only crimes committed with gun. These were just a few of the examples that have
been proven to work. With this law you can help the fight on crime and not in anyway infringe the law-abiding citizen from acquiring a firearm if he/she
wishes.
In a recent study to see if gun control did help to prevent crime, a group asked 1,874 criminals that were in jail for a crime committed with a gun some
questions. After they had studied the answers they came to find that 82% said most nearly that, "gun law affects only the law-abiding citizen; criminals
will always be able to get guns". 88% of the criminals also said," a criminal who wants a handgun is going to get one, no matter how much it cost." They
said even if the prices on the guns were raised so high as them not being able to afford one, they would still have no problem since they could steal one
or get it through the black market.
One gun control law that was meant to help prevent crime was the waiting period. The idea was to make the customer have to wait a certain number of
days after the purchase of the gun to get it. The majority of the criminals said this had no effect since they could acquire the gun faster than the waiting
period; by either stealing it or going thru the black market. The only effect was on the normal citizen. Another part of the questions was about the criminals
being worried if there victim had a gun. They found that the criminal would look for someone that they knew did not have a gun. They were not likely to rob
a house that they knew had guns (Long 8). A little over 60% of the criminals said they were more worried about an armed victim rather than the police.
That is 3 out of 5 criminals (Long 8). In the same study 2 out of 3 of the criminals were scared off by an armed victim (Long 8). This study alone proves
that gun control would not help the fight on crime, but possibly help the criminal since there favorite victim is the unarmed one. Out of all the criminals in
this study only 1/6 of them got there gun through a retail dealer/licensed firearm dealer.
In a different study a list of questions was sent to every police chief, every sheriff, and all federal and state police heads in the nation. The study showed
that the police did not believe that gun control would help the fight against crime. They found that 99% of them agreed that law-abiding should have the
right to guns. 97% said that gun control will not reduce crime. 91% was against community banning of guns and licensing and registration. The only gun
control that the police really did support was the ban on cop killer bullets or armor piercing bullets. These bullets threatened police officers in to great
of a fashion.
In this time when gun control is a major controversy we must decide why some people want gun control. If it is to help in the fight against crime like they
say it is, they must first figure out if it will work. In this paper we have come to see that all the gun control laws that we covered are in no way helping to
prevent or even slow down the crime rate. Gun control is not hurting the criminal it is just hurting the normal citizen. There have been other methods rather
than gun control that has been proven to work. But these anti-gun supporters do not want to help support these methods. They believe the only way to stop
crime is to stop everyone from owning a gun. Or make it so expensive or difficult nobody will want to or have the ability to get a gun.
Even the criminals who committe these crimes say that gun control will in no way affect them. Criminals have to many illegal ways to obtain a weapon.
These criminals would like to see people without guns since it would make it easier for them to rob them. Even the police department is not a supporter
of gun control since they do not believe that it will help in anyway. In a survey of just normal civilians it was found that they believe that the way to stop crime was to fight
the drug problem. Only one percent believed it could be through gun control. With all these facts why is there so much support for gun control since it has
been shown that it will not help in the fight against crime.
The second amendment should not be changed, people should have the right to bear arms and it should in no way be infringed.
