Gun control in the United States has been a
never-ending battle of ideals, freedoms, and virtues. The dilemma of gun safety
has somewhat divided this great country in half. Some have claimed it their liberty
and right to own and administer a registered firearm for recreational or
self-defense purposes, while others believe guns to be a dangerous and potentially
life threatening weapon (and should by no means be tolerated for public
purchase or use).
According to The Injury Control Research Center at The Harvard School of Public Health, many more Americans use firearms to “intimidate rather than for self-defence purposes.” The term ‘self-defence’, according to HSPH’s 2015 study on gun threats, is invalid by the sheer inconsistency of hard facts (meaning any fool could shoot a gun and say it was because he felt threatened or scared).
Furthermore, let’s imagine a world where public safety officials were the only authorities allowed to possess and use firearms, while psychopathic criminals made do instead with butcher knives in attempts to massacre 40 school children and their teachers. Deaths by firearms would more or less diminish over-night, if this were the case.
Let’s also imagine that in this perfectly safe world,
as soon as the psychopath enters the school building and stabs a child, 10
teachers will more than likely tackle him to the ground, grab his knife, and
perhaps become badly injured, but there is still a chance of survival.
If, however, the psychopath is given the access and freedom under the constitution to wake up one morning and enter a school building with a Remington 870, the number of lives he decides to take will depend upon how many rounds he brought with him that day.
The big question is however, what is the nation’s priority? Yes, the truth is hundreds of thousands of Americans will be affected if this great country ever bans guns from public use.
In hindsight though, concern for the one stabbed child and the injured teacher in hospital would be a softer burden to bear than having to know that 10, 20, or perhaps 30 lives were stolen from a shooting (similar to the Sandy Hook Elementary School nightmare that occurred back in December, 2012, where 20 children and six adults were fatally killed, according to CNN).
All we need is a chance, and the chance gets ripped from our grasps when guns are permitted, in spite of one’s intent. Humanity does not need a reason to inflict more pain upon one another and mask it behind the label of “self-defense.”
The real problem at hand that should be highlighted
most of all, is the sheer loss of lives by way of firearms in the last decade
alone.
According to the Smartgunlaws.org, there are at least nine lives under the age of 21 taken by a firearm every day in the U.S.
Furthermore, in 2013, over 3,000 people under the age of 21 died from gunshot wounds; over 2,300 of those cases being homicide, and around 150 being unintentional shootings. With these horrific statistics in mind, can it be safe to presume that ridding the country of recreational firearms, and seriously limiting the public’s freedom to easily purchase a lethal weapon, would be the safer route to travel towards America’s growing future? A safe future?
The Taylor family is just one out of the many exasperated examples as to why guns should be prohibited. A tragedy that occurred on January 13, 2017, when according to WBIR news, a mother shot and killed her husband and two daughters in their Whitley County, Kentucky home. The woman, Courtney Taylor, then proceeded to shoot at the police before being wounded in the arm and shoulder area with four bullets to take her down.
“When I heard I was devastated,” said Haley Mahan, “I
couldn’t wrap my head around why it happened.”Mahan was a friend of Jollie Taylor, the late
18-year-old who was a victim of her mother’s heinous crimes, and still
remembers her friend’s smile.
“We were so surprised; we always knew Courtney as a loving mother to her kids.”According to Marketplace.org, getting your hands on a firearm is as easy as answering a four-page, yes-no questionnaire and flashing a gun license. There really is almost no barrier between America’s ability to revert back to the days of the infamous American Outlaw Curly Bill Brocius, when the thin line between Industrialised America and the Wild West is a person’s justified views on violence and their decision to act upon it.Take away guns, and take away an evil person’s ability to commit a sinful act from afar.
 |
| Credits: New York Daily News |
Unfortunately for the gun-control predicament, recreational
hunting is a deeply rooted tradition in America’s history.
Those who oppose guns
typically do not hunt game in this country. But regions well-known for their
pride in the hunting culture, states like Georgia, South Carolina, Texas,
Kentucky, and Kansas according to WideOpenSpaces.com, have predominantly
favored this sport. Recreational hunting truly is a pastime that a significant
number of Americans have come to live by and identify with. In many ways,
traditional America has turned the practice into a self-justified means to keeping guns. But
perhaps limiting firearms to only public safety officials purely for protection
purposes, and stripping hunting families of their right to shoot, would prove equivalent
to snatching a pacifier out of a baby’s mouth.The most concerning question is whether or not the
public should be given the opportunity to buy, load, and fire guns in the first
place. Many agree that possessing firearms, or at least having the ability to
purchase one if need be, is a form of self-defense, an act of freedom
untouchable by the Second Amendment Rights. Could the term “self-defence” be
perhaps loosely used, though?
 |
| Credits: www.history.com |
According to The Injury Control Research Center at The Harvard School of Public Health, many more Americans use firearms to “intimidate rather than for self-defence purposes.” The term ‘self-defence’, according to HSPH’s 2015 study on gun threats, is invalid by the sheer inconsistency of hard facts (meaning any fool could shoot a gun and say it was because he felt threatened or scared).
Furthermore, let’s imagine a world where public safety officials were the only authorities allowed to possess and use firearms, while psychopathic criminals made do instead with butcher knives in attempts to massacre 40 school children and their teachers. Deaths by firearms would more or less diminish over-night, if this were the case.
 |
| Photo from Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, December 2012 - credits: ABC7 News. |
If, however, the psychopath is given the access and freedom under the constitution to wake up one morning and enter a school building with a Remington 870, the number of lives he decides to take will depend upon how many rounds he brought with him that day.
The big question is however, what is the nation’s priority? Yes, the truth is hundreds of thousands of Americans will be affected if this great country ever bans guns from public use.
In hindsight though, concern for the one stabbed child and the injured teacher in hospital would be a softer burden to bear than having to know that 10, 20, or perhaps 30 lives were stolen from a shooting (similar to the Sandy Hook Elementary School nightmare that occurred back in December, 2012, where 20 children and six adults were fatally killed, according to CNN).
All we need is a chance, and the chance gets ripped from our grasps when guns are permitted, in spite of one’s intent. Humanity does not need a reason to inflict more pain upon one another and mask it behind the label of “self-defense.”
 |
| Credits: www.guns.com |
According to the Smartgunlaws.org, there are at least nine lives under the age of 21 taken by a firearm every day in the U.S.
Furthermore, in 2013, over 3,000 people under the age of 21 died from gunshot wounds; over 2,300 of those cases being homicide, and around 150 being unintentional shootings. With these horrific statistics in mind, can it be safe to presume that ridding the country of recreational firearms, and seriously limiting the public’s freedom to easily purchase a lethal weapon, would be the safer route to travel towards America’s growing future? A safe future?
The Taylor family is just one out of the many exasperated examples as to why guns should be prohibited. A tragedy that occurred on January 13, 2017, when according to WBIR news, a mother shot and killed her husband and two daughters in their Whitley County, Kentucky home. The woman, Courtney Taylor, then proceeded to shoot at the police before being wounded in the arm and shoulder area with four bullets to take her down.
 |
| Credits: CBS News |
“We were so surprised; we always knew Courtney as a loving mother to her kids.”According to Marketplace.org, getting your hands on a firearm is as easy as answering a four-page, yes-no questionnaire and flashing a gun license. There really is almost no barrier between America’s ability to revert back to the days of the infamous American Outlaw Curly Bill Brocius, when the thin line between Industrialised America and the Wild West is a person’s justified views on violence and their decision to act upon it.Take away guns, and take away an evil person’s ability to commit a sinful act from afar.
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