The United States Should Ban Assault Weapons

Introduction When a government plans a large ban, such as a national ban on guns, it must be under the intentions to create an environment that is safer, more beneficial, and statistically safer/beneficial as a result of the ban. My stance will be to show how a ban on guns is not beneficial for our economy, the people, or the general safety of the American people and the statistics prove it all. I look forward to this debate. Guns bans are counterproductive In order to show that it must not be in the government’s interest to ban guns, one of the most important things that come into mind is, “how effective will be the ban if it is placed in action”? The answer is, the ban would probably be incredibly useless, a waste of time, and a threat to the general public. If a government had intentions to create a gun ban that would overall benefit its people, then it turns out that a gun ban would actually do much more harm than good. This claim is supported by numerous studies and pieces of evidence. Harvard Study, (Volume 30, Number 2 of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, pp. 649-694) “If the mantra “more guns equal more death and fewer guns equal less death” were true, broad cross-national comparisons should show that nations with higher gun ownership per capita consistently have more death. Nations with higher gun ownership rates, however, do not have higher murder or suicide rates than those with lower gun ownership. Indeed many high gun ownership nations have much lower murder rates.”(p. 661) (1) The study also shows that Russia, who tried to completely ban guns, has a 4 times higher than murder rate than the U.S (p.651). This tells us the the high gun ownerships have much lower murder rates and low gun ownerships have much higher murder rates. This is not at all beneficial for the people of the U.S.A (I will do a rebuttal to my opponent’s claims in regards to whether a ban would save lives. My stats clearly show otherwise) 2. What we should learn from other countries s://lh3.googleusercontent.com...; alt="Ireland & Jamaica 2" width="508px;" height="800px;" /> s://lh4.googleusercontent.com...; alt="" width="533px;" height="396px;" /> The only reason why Britain's murder rate went down is because they had a tremendous increase in the police. Which shows why gun bans are a complete waste of time and money, since the U.S government will have to waste more time and money on the police force due to the gun ban. s://lh3.googleusercontent.com...; alt="" width="533px;" height="343px;" /> These graphs clearly show the correlation between Gun bans and homicide/murder have a positive correlation. Which is why, we are expected to see a huge increase in murder rates and the police force. (2) Stupidity with Gun stupidity does not require to ban guns Recall, that this debate is in regards to a ban, not a heavy restriction. This would mean that you will be taking away guns to a lot more moral and “good” people, than you will be with people with immoral intentions. (Crime, murder, etc….) We can have a whole other debate whether if the 2nd amendment really means that regular citizens can have guns, however lets not go there. However, we can certainly conclude that the government will be taking away guns to good people, unfairly. A gallup poll shows that, 60% of the people wish to own guns because of personal safety, while 36% wish to own because of hunting/sports. (3) A person who would give an Uzi to a 9 year old is no reason destroy people’s interest in this hobby or their protection. For an example, this debate is not whether we should increase background checks-This is a full ban. Giving an Uzi to a 9 year old is full blown stupidity. While some people may lack the common sense to handle a gun, these cases are rare and should not strip other people’s guns. Now, this is not a very strong argument nor is backed up by much statistics, but I felt I had to get my point across as a reply to my opponent’s death by guns argument. 2. However, my next point is backed up by facts. “The 31 states that have “shall issue” laws allowing private citizens to carry concealed weapons have, on average, a 24 percent lower violent crime rate, a 19 percent lower murder rate and a 39 percent lower robbery rate than states that forbid concealed weapons.” This is being used as an argument, however I will repeat this statement as a rebuttal to my opponent’s first round. Just to clarify, deaths by gun are at an all time low with only 142 children under 15 years of age died in gun accidents, and the total number of gun-related deaths for this age group was 642. Also, “The 31 states that have “shall issue” laws allowing private citizens to carry concealed weapons have, on average, a 24 percent lower violent crime rate, a 19 percent lower murder rate and a 39 percent lower robbery rate than states that forbid concealed weapons. In fact, the nine states with the lowest violent crime rates are all right-to-carry states.” (4) This basically proves that guns are beneficial for society. There is absolutely no reason for the government to pass a ban on guns. Gun Ban and the dreadful impact on the economy Currently, the gun industry is worth around $31.8 billion(5) with 134,429 jobs(6). This would mean, you are destroying a multi-billion dollar industry with each company making millions to billions, and hundreds of thousands of jobs. This is a huge part of the economy during difficult economic times and high unemployment rates nationally, the gun industry has grown and created over 34,609 new, well-paying jobs over the past two years (6). Banning guns means you are banning an entire industry that makes billions. In the United States the industry and its employees pay $5.8 billion in taxes including property, income, and sales-based levies. The government is basically throwing $5.8 billion down the drain if it chooses to ban this industry. Not to mention the very high chance of increased spending on the police force and increased murder rates. Conclusion If a government has the intentions to pass a ban which create a more beneficial society, a gan ban is not one of those intentions. Multiple studies have shown increased homicide rates with gun bans, and how “more guns more crime” is simply not the case. Not to mention, proof from other countries, clearly show the dangerous risk of increased murder. Statistics from the U.S show that states that do permit guns have one of the lowest crime rates. A couple gun crimes or accidents is no reason to ban guns, like a couple car accidents is no reason to ban cars (or anything else with that logic). Guns are extremely beneficial to the economy and the government, so a ban on gun is just a really bad idea and very impractical. Thanks for reading, and I await for my opponent's reply. (970 characters remaining) Citations: 1.http://www.law.harvard.edu... 2.http://crimepreventionresearchcenter.org... 3.http://www.gallup.com... 4.http://www.cato.org... 5.http://www.adn.com... 6.http://www.nssf.org...