Res: The United States should institute a ban on automatic and semi-automatic firearms.

Hello and thank you for taking the time to provide sources and share your opinion as to why you think a semi-automatic and automatic fire arms will help this nation. I will establish my case in a reasonable manner and show why I think a ban will ultimately accomplish nothing. The first thing we must take a look at is how many guns are already in private ownership. Through multiple surveys and studies we can see that there are around 270-300 million guns in private ownership. With your proposal you have stated that a gun buy back program is the solution to solving this problem. When we look at how it affected Australia while it is arguable that it decreased the homicide rate, the one thing that is for sure is that it only decreased the guns in private ownership minimally. Lets first take a look at how many citizens in Australia own guns. It is estimated between 3 million to 3.5 million guns are circulating in private ownership. That is almost exactly a 90 percent less guns than we have in private ownership. The Gun buy back program reduced this number from 3.8 to 3.5 which was very marginal. If we applied and assumed the same figured would occur in america that would reduce our rate from 300 million to around 272,00,00 if we go by the same percentage. I rounded the number off with basic math, it would actually be repeating but that is a verily accurate rough estimate. As we could see that would virtually do nothing for reducing the gun count in private ownership. With federal regulation and laws in place, there is also no way the government could go take back the guns that are in private ownership, it would virtually be impossible. Even if they were to try, it would result in our nation going into a rebellion like we have never seen. So saying people would voluntary give up their guns for a reward is a long shot at best, and even it were to have the same results it virtually would accomplish nothing. Now when we also look at these numbers. The automatic guns in private owner ship make up around 1 percent of the total guns, actually it comes in under one percent. With all gun related deaths assault rifles themselves make up 1 percent of gun related deaths, with very few cases. If there is a case where someone used an assault rifle it would be few and far between. So to say an assault rifle ban is necessary would be irrelevant in some ways due to the fact, that they make up under 1 percent of gun related deaths.So lets take a look at semi auto weapons, such as some pistols. Now a viable argument would be a way to limit pistols, seeing as how they rank in around 90 percent of all gun related deaths. As you can some from my previous paragraph , banning them or recalling them would not work, so the next solution would be to stop production. The issue with this is that one, you are denying citizens the right to defend themselves in a reasonable manner, and also are overlooking all the guns that are still in private ownership. Again to try and ban pistols would be illogical. My solution which i believe is a viable alternative to this issue is to slowly cut production of high capacity magazines and limit magazine sizes that civilians can purchase. This would take away that sense of invincibility that you were speaking of. Most of the mass shooting happen because someone walks in with a pistol and can fire off countless rounds before anything can happen, imagine trying to do that with a 6 round magazine or a old school revolver, it would put back in a sense of fear in criminals and would result in less crime by itself. Also another point would be the one that most people present, a ban on fire arms is stepping on the constitution. We are guaranteed the right to bear arms, this is not negotiable. How you can define arms is quite subjective in some cases, but we are afforded the right to defend ourselves with reasonable means. Instead of initiating a ban, i think a better alternative would be increase and promote more strict regulations of purchases, and maybe even initiate a mental health mandate to accompany gun regulation and purchasing. The last point I will make is the one you probably were expecting and the one most ignorant people make. Guns to not kill people, people kill people. I will tread very carefully as i defend this point. While i am fully aware, Guns are catalyst are the cause of death, there has to be someone operating it for that death to occur. It could happen with a knife, a car, or any other thing that could be used a tool. You take away someones motive to kill, you solve the problem. A gun will never fire itself. As you have stated and I agree, guns give people a means by which to carry out their misdeeds but that is because of the sense of power that you spoke of. As i have mentioned as well, limited magazine sizes is one solution to this and help take away that feeling. In conclusion, i will sum up what i have stated. I believe a ban or even a buy back will ultimately accomplish nothing and be a waste of time. If it were to happen it would have a minimal effect due to the large number of firearms that we have in private ownership. Also due to these large numbers, it is impossible and not a viable option to ban them all together. Mixed in with our rights that are withing the constitution and the promises within it, i think we have the right to bear arms to defend ourselves from foreign and domestic affairs. I in turn propose we try to add a mental health mandate to purchasing guns, and also install a way to check up on people who purchase them. Run random background checks to see if their condition has changed. Mixed in with limiting magazine sizes of pistols and ar15s and other type of guns, i believe this is the best of both worlds and a far more viable option than proposing a full ban. Now i turn this back to my opponent. A few sources: I will not list them all because i am sure no one will take the time to go through them all. I could just over 20 but i will stay with just 2 for now. There are multiple sites giving the number of guns in ownership, i went with the ones with highest percentage, granted some site may very slightly. http://www.gunpolicy.org... http://www.justfacts.com...