Gun Control Doesn't Prevent Crimes

I believe that you are looking at the situation wrong. Let's start this debate out with a non-disputable fact. The United Kingdom, a place much like the US in many ways, has much stricter gun laws than us. Our gun homicide rate is 3 per 100,000, whereas theirs is .07 per 100,000. (1) I believe that you are comparing apples to oranges in your opening argument. The country of Switzerland is not enough like Chicago to make a parallel between them. I will first refute my opponents arguments, and then state my own. First, my opponent does not cite any sources for the fact that Chicago "has the toughest gun control laws state that it has one of the highest crime rates," nor the statistics on homicide, forcible rape, robbery, etc. I would also like to see proof that the rate of ownership of guns in Chicago is less than 50%, as that is the rate of ownership in Switzerland. If my opponent fails to do so, the premise of pro's argument is fundamentally flawed. Second, I'd like to point out that in 2010, Chicago actually LOOSENED its gun laws. Before they were forced to loosen them, (which was based on the unconstitutionality of their laws,) their gun homicide rates were lower. (2) Next, my opponent is asserting that the reason ONLY reason Chicago has such a high murder rate is because they have stricter gun laws. Pro then compares Chicago to Switzerland, saying that the only reason that Switzerland has lower crime rates is their loose gun laws. I contend that the reason that Switzerland has such low crime rates is because it has one of the lowest poverty rates in the world. Its poverty rate is 7.9%. (3) When a country has a lower poverty rate, that means that there is less reason for people to commit crimes. Chicago, on the other hand, has a poverty rate of 27.5% (4). That is almost three and a half times larger than Switzerland. I contend that THIS is the reason that there is more crime in Chicago. You can not say that the only reason that Chicago has more crime is that it has stricter gun laws. There is more reason for a person to commit a crime in Chicago because of the higher poverty rate. Additionally, Chicago is called "The Gang Capital of The United States" (5). As you probably know, as the number of gangs increases in a place, and the place doesn't get larger, it becomes harder for gangs to control as much territory as they want. Incidentally, because they want to control as much area as possible, territory disputes erupt much easier, and as a result, more shootings happen. And, as I'm sure you know, Switzerland is NOT the gang capital of anything. As I proved by showing you that their poverty rate is lower than Chicago, they are richer, and therefore have less gangs. Gangs are one of the primary sources of gun violence, and because Chicago has them and Switzerland barely has any, it is unfair to compare the two. I have refuted my opponent's arguments, so now I will move on to my own. Australia, a country a lot like the US and the UK, recently underwent the complete destruction of all semiautomatic and automatic weapons in their country. After a massacre in 1996 that killed 35 people, they decided to take action. (6) Since 1979, Australia has gone from a gun homicide rate of 4.71 per 100,000 to 0.86 (2011) (7). 0.86 is only a fraction of what it was before, and it is almost completely attributed to the gun control that was done. Without that gun control, there's no saying whether the number of gun deaths would have steadily declined like it did. Additionally, not all the people that commit mass shootings, (Sandy Hook, Aurora, etc.) were lifetime criminals. They were simply mentally ill. By having universal background checks, or requiring gun owners to go in for screenings of their mental health, we could have prevented these things. Universal background checks are a form of gun control, and they can certainly help. Additionally, 9 in 10 Americans support universal background checks. (8) Because it is obvious that Switzerland is not a viable comparison to Chicago, and gun control largely has good effects on the gun homicide rates of other countries, I believe that gun control is a good choice for the United States. Therefore, I urge a vote for con. (1) http://www.theguardian.com... (2) http://www.justfacts.com... (3) https://www.cia.gov... (4) http://www.city-data.com... (5) http://www.cbsnews.com... (6) http://www.nytimes.com... (7) http://www.gunpolicy.org... (8)http://www.washingtonpost.com...