Gun Control

1. Guns deter criminals. Gun control leads to more crimes because criminals are criminals because they break the law, so citizens won't have protection while criminals will have guns. Yes, maybe a few will be put off from obtaining guns, but do you know what? They break the law, so they won't care if there is a law that says that obtaining guns is illegal. As the old saying goes "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns". And now that your average citizen can't obtain guns, the criminals are no longer scared of robbing someone because they might have a gun. Even if criminals are scared of the law(which would be pretty strange), it is now a criminal with a knife versus an unarmed citizen. If not, which is very probable (because after all, criminals are criminals because they break the law), it is now a criminal with a gun versus a unarmed citizen. 1A. Evidence. 1Aa. Americans using guns for good. Approximately 11,000, or 67% of America's murders are committed with fire arms. However, 162,000 households believed that someone would have been killed if they didn't carry a firearm for protection. Not only that, US civilians use guns to protect themselves from crime about 1,000,000 times a year[1]. Americans use guns to frighten off intruders about 500,000 times a year. 1Aaa. Guns deter criminals. In a survey of felons, 34% had been "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim" and 40% didn't commit a crime because they "knew or believed that the victim was carrying a gun"[1]. This shows that guns prevent more problems than they cause. 1Ab. Crime Comparison between Countries with & without Gun Control. Before I start saying this, I would like to say that comparing countries is not the most accurate method, but it is useful nonetheless. Let's compare crime rates in countries with and without gun control. In America, there is about 4 gun committed homicides per 100,000 people. When you compare that with France's 0.2 gun committed homicides per 100,000 people[2], it points to an obvious conclusion. However, that's before you look deeper into the subject. In London, which has gun control, you are 6 times more likely to mugged than in New York City. By 1995, all crimes except murder and rape were far higher in England than in America. Only 13% of burglaries occur while people are at home in the US, compared with 53% for England. America's murder rate is getting closer and closer to England's, and may converge in the near future[1]. This proves what I have been saying. Yes, criminals commit most crimes with guns in the US because criminals have easy access to guns. However, because citizens may have guns, the crime rate is much lower overall. 1Ac. What happens when you put gun laws into effect. When Washington D.C. put gun control laws into effect, the homicide rate tripled, while the national average rose 12%[6]. 1Ad. When gun ownership is the law. In Kennesaw, Georgia, they had a crime problem. Their population was about 5,000, but they had a crime rate of 4,000/100,000, well above the national average. They passed a law which said every homeowner had to own and maintain a firearm. It then dropped to 2,000/100,000, while their population has quintupled. Not only that, not a single citizen has been killed by a gun[7]. 1Ae. Good gun laws. This does not mean I don't believe in background checks and such for buying guns. Gun control advocates often cite the Tucson shooting, but a simple background check could have stopped Jared Loughner from buying a gun[4]. 2. Cops and crime. Without guns, there isn't much to protect people. After all, if someone suddenly pulls a knife/gun on you, the cops won't be there to stop it. The average police response time is about 8 minutes 30 seconds[5]. If someone pulls a knife on you, and you have no option for self defense, then you are screwed. 2A. Guns, unlike cops, can give you constant protection. Guns will almost always be better at stopping crime than being protected by cops. Conclusion Gun control leads to more crime, and there is a lot of evidence to back it up. Many events like the Tucson shooting could have been stopped by background checks, but those kind of laws should be common sense. Sources [1] http://www.justfacts.com... [2] http://www.gun-control-network.org... [3] http://news.bbc.co.uk... [4] http://www.mtsusidelines.com... [5] http://www.washingtontimes.com...[6] http://www.roanoke.com... [7] http://www.wnd.com...