The US should adopt a ban on all semiautomatic firearms

= Advocacy =Semi-automatic firearms, portable guns which reload immediately after firing, will be the focus of this debate. Guns that employ lever, bolt, pump, breech, or muzzle types of action are not semi-auto. Air guns are not included in the conventional use of “firearm”.I propose a ban on all semi-automatic firearms in the U.S. in which 1) their manufacturing is prohibited, 2) their import is prohibited, and 3) a buyback is implemented that would require owners to turn in their guns for their full value. For an example of such a buyback, see Australia’s [1]. The military and law enforcement would be exempt from this ban. Hunting and recreation would still be permitted, albeit all involved weapons would be single-action.My case is built around the premise that the quantity of firearms and tightness of gun regulations are determiners of gun-related fatalities. Because semi-automatic guns can fire one or two projectiles per second, and could be used to swiftly strike dozens people within just seconds, I deem a ban as patently preferable to their current under-regulated availability.(1) Reduction of homicides With more firearms available comes the greater ability to use them in crimes. In 2013, a study by Boston-based researches found that a 1 percent increase in gun ownership correlated with a 0.9 percent in firearm homicides at the state level [2]. The U.S. has a far higher gun ownership rate than any country in the world at 88 guns per 100 people [3], and also has the highest firearm homicide rate among developed nations [4]. An absence of guns means less deaths due to them; Denmark’s, for instance, has just a dozen guns per 100 people and a gun murder rate 18 times smaller than America’s [3,4]. A more armed populace also means means more policemen are at risk of being shot and killed on the job. It was found that states with the highest amounts of gun ownership had three times as many law enforcement homicides as did states with less guns [5]. Consequently, cops in these states may anticipate encountering guns more often and therefore are more likely to use deadly force on the civilians they meet.In 1996, the year of sweeping gun reform laws in Australia there were 311 homicides, 96 of which involved guns. In 2014, 238 homicides occured, 35 by guns. That’s a 72% drop in the likelihood of being a murder victim [6]. Japan, with its incredibly low gun ownership of 0.6 per 100 people [3], saw just 12 gun deaths in 2013 [7]. Laws work, and the trends are consistent. With my proposal in place, the gun crime rate would plunge, as we’ve seen many examples of.(2) Mass shootingsIf we define a mass shooting as incident in which four or more people are shot, the U.S. experiences one almost every day. In the last 1,870 days, there have been 1,624 [8]. Despite having 5% of the world’s population, we have 31% of its mass shootings [9].Gun advocates allege that mass shootings are a mental health problem and have nothing to do with more lax gun laws. But Americans don’t appear have more mental health problems than other developed nations [10], and only a minority of mass shooters could be considered seriously mentally ill anyways [11]. That factor simply isn’t large enough to be considered a major cause of such tragedies.I’ve yet to be made aware of a mass shooting that was carried out by a single-action firearm. Extrapolating from Australia’s and Britain’s situations in which mass shootings were either near or completely eliminated following massive gun reforms, it isn’t implausible to assume that my proposal would also bring the total number of annual mass shootings from being in the hundreds to near zero. (3) SuicidesThe majority of firearm deaths (62%) are suicides [12]. When a firearm is used, the chances of success are greater [13], so a decrease in firearm suicides would also mean a decrease in the overall rate of success, since guns are an extremely lethal method.When comparing firearm suicides to other nations such as Canada, New Zealand, Finland, Australia, UK, and Japan, the U.S. once again tops the group at a rate of 7.2 per 100,000 people [14]. Finland is the second-highest at 5.8.Harvard research indicates a strong, positive relationship between gun prevalence and suicide rate. “The nine states that rank lowest in terms of gun prevalence are the very same nine that rank lowest for suicide rates. Similarly, the three states top-ranked for gun prevalence can be found among the four states ranking highest for suicide rates” [15]. While not every suicide involves a firearm, a large enough portion of them do to influence the overall rate [16]. Also, people with lesser access to firearms will probably be less incentivized to do it, which can influence the overall rate too.We can see this trend on a smaller scale too: In 2006, the Israel Defense Forces stopped letting troops take their guns home on the weekends. What followed was a 40% drop in firearm suicides [17]. While single-action and semi-automatic guns probably aren’t too different as far as lethality in suicide goes, banning the latter would significantly reduce the guns in circulation that could be used for such attempts, and therefore would save thousands of lives.SummaryIn 2010, a total of 31,076 Americans perished from gun-related homicides, suicides, and accidents [18]. Assuming semi-automatic guns constitute the vast majority of these fatalities, it’s reasonable to infer that roughly 30,000 lives could be saved annually from my proposal. Additionally, mass shootings would be rare if this policy was implemented.The impact of this would be astronomical. It would not only save lives, but would inhibit the emotional trauma that friends/relatives of victims would experience. In order for Con to negate, he needs to outweigh the impact of 30,000 saved lives, as well as hundreds of mass shootings being prevented.= Sources =1. https://tinyurl.com...2. https://tinyurl.com...3. https://tinyurl.com...4. https://tinyurl.com...5. https://tinyurl.com...6. https://tinyurl.com...7. https://tinyurl.com...8. https://tinyurl.com...9. https://tinyurl.com...10. https://tinyurl.com...11. https://tinyurl.com...12. https://tinyurl.com...13. https://tinyurl.com...14. https://tinyurl.com...15. https://tinyurl.com...16. https://tinyurl.com...17. https://tinyurl.com...18. https://tinyurl.com...