March Beginners Tournament : The United States should place a ban on all semi-automatic weapons"

The term fighting ‘fire with fire’ has been seen as the best method for one’s self defense, of course in the US most victims of gun crime would love to be able to shoot bullets in the other direction and it’s quite obvious that a total gun ban would not resolve the violence that has plagued the US, but the choice of guns is a different story. Of course, the Founding Fathers would have never expected when they wrote the constitution in 1787 how guns would have evolved to what they are today, from single-shot flintlocks to pump-action shotguns to chamber fed revolvers. But evolution got far more dangerous with the birth of semi-automatic weaponry for civilian use, semi-automatics have been the reason for increasing homicide rates, gun modification and has paved way for the Black Market to flourish to a point where it almost cannot be stopped. Before I go into my argument I’ll clear anyone’s doubts that this proposed policy is not without its own loopholes, but if it is to improve the chaotic situation in the United States, then so be it. Framework My argument will focus on Deontological Ethics, which is basically defined as the belief that the morality of one’s actions is determined whether the action itself is right or wrong based on the rules that are put in place, for instance, if this resolution is affirmed and semi-automatics are ruled outright then it would be immoral for one to use semi-automatic weapons for any purpose as a civilian weapon despite the action that has taken place, as it is clear that any actions should be used by low powered firearms such as revolvers to fulfill any intentions the individual had, this framework is effective as the ‘rules’ are determined by the weight of the arguments brought forward and what is moral is deemed by if the pros of the resolution outweigh the cons. Contention 1 – Homicide Increase Let’s be quite frank, homicide was always a terrible thing in the US. Over 30,000 people die from gun-related deaths each year, mostly because of the fact that there are over 300 million firearms in the United States, 1% of that gun count comes from AR-15s, a semi-automatic rifle that has over 3 million copies around the States that are privately owned and despite them only numbering up to 1% they manage to kill nearly 500 people each year from homicides. The availability of higher powered weapons has given lunatics a better reason to commit murder and very few of these weapons are used in self-defense because of Right-to-carry gun laws which have been the reason for homicide increase in public places. [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] Contention 2 – Illegal weapon modification Semi-automatics have earned their place above other weapon types because of its ability to be modified by the owner which increases firepower, accuracy and magazine capacity usually through illegal means, the justification most owners give when they are caught making such modifications are that it makes it easier ‘to kill people’. But as a significant proportion of gun crime in domestic households ends badly for the victim, in the sources mentioned above, the weapons themselves without the modifications have failed to reduce crime and the guns with modifications pose a significant threat to society. [F] Contention 3 - The outdated Second Amendment ‘The right to keep and bear arms’ was always a popular slogan in the United States to address the opposition to gun ownership, numerous acts have been presented addressing what was the best way forward for the US in terms of safety, and since it’s not got anything to do with total gun bans, it has a lot to do with semi-automatic weapons. But public opinions have changed since then, in fact, many believe, up to over 80% believe that semi-automatic rifles, dubbed ‘assault rifles’ should be restricted despite the right to keep and bear arms. (Source C) But if so, what was the failure? Such as the failure in the acts of the Federal Assault Weapons ban of 1994? It’s because such bans were only put in place to restrict some semi-automatic weapons, not all. Semi-automatic handguns became a great factor in crime after the ban was enforced for a period of 10 years because of criminals falling through alternative means of weaponry. It’s almost as if we were arming the criminals themselves by allowing them to purchase such weapons legally, if a complete weapons ban on semi-automatic weapons that require trigger press after each shot was put into place, the removal of these guns would take place with every owner that purchased the weapons legally, which would include records on criminals that also purchased such guns legally, which would allow us to easily see which citizens are law-abiding and those that are not if certain people are dissatisfied if they felt that their Second Amendment rights were violated. Of course, there is the possibility of guns acquired through the black market, but I will touch on that later. Up till now, in short, the Federal Assault Weapons ban would have been far more effective if it had been regarding all semi-automatic guns, as most criminals turned to those weapons after the ban took place, but even then the ban did do a significant role in reducing gun crime in the US despite the Second Amendment being in place. Contention 4 – Self Defense Everyone wants protection, but what exactly does semi-automatics do in ensuring that? If protection was something that only the minority was benefiting from then perhaps self-defense was good with semi-automatics, but that is not the case. The infamous Columbine High School massacre is an example of this, the use of semi-automatics such as the TEC-9 during the massacre accounted to over a hundred bullets fired in comparison to the shotguns they were carrying, which only counted up to a little less than 50 bullets fired. Because of the reload time required for a shotgun, it gave people valuable time to escape the two mass murderers, who were firing bullets in every direction with semi-automatics that serve perfectly in doing the exact opposite for self-defense. [G] In a house, the use of a shotgun against a lone attacker or a couple of attackers serves its purpose as it would’ve been all that’s required of a person with decent accuracy to defend himself, then again some might question about the scenario where a person’s accuracy isn’t that good with a pump-action shotgun or a single-shot pistol, it is quite clear that with effective training, at least to a moderate extent, the use of additional ammo or weaponry would be averted. [A] - http://heedinggodscall.org... [B] - http://www.gunviolencearchive.org... [C] - http://www.slate.com... [D] – http://hotair.com... [E] - http://news.stanford.edu... [F] - https://www.armedcitizensnetwork.org... [G] - http://www.acolumbinesite.com...