The United States should ban all guns

I affirm; The United States should ban all guns. I offer the following definitions: Should is defined as used to express obligation, or as ought. A ban is defined as a prohibition of the use, performance, or distribution of something. A ban can be full or partial. All is defined as the whole, entire, total amount, quantity, or extent of. Gun is defined as a portable firearm. (All definitions from Merriam-Webster). Because of the word "should" in the topic, this debate will be evaluated based on ability to uphold morality. The best way to uphold morality is to protect life. Every society is structured to protect life, so there is agreement that it is a good goal. Protecting life is a prerequisite to any other moral standard because one can't be moral if they are not alive. Thus, the role of the voters is to vote for the debater that better upholds life. Protecting liberty or other standards is irrelevant. First, I contend that guns are inherently dangerous. According to Oxford Journals, over 60% of all homicides and suicides in the United States occur using guns. According to studies from the NIH, for every 1% increase in gun ownership there is a 1.1% increase in gun homicide and 0.7% increase in homicide in general. After banning firearms in 1975, Virginia's murder rate dropped 23% and robbery 11% in 15 years. South Carolina recorded a 24% murder rate decline between 1975 and 1990 with a similar law. (People. Duke. edu) Easy access to firearms doubles the risk of homicide to any one person. 21,175 people die from firearm suicide each year. People will not turn to other means to commit suicide if guns are not readily available: 90% of people who commit suicide do it within one day of deciding to, which does not give them time to get means that are not already there. One in four do in less than five minutes! Guns in houses are easy to access, and 85% of gun suicides are lethal. Guns are not useful for self-defense. For every one "justifiable" gun homicide in self-defense, there are 34 criminal gun homicides, 78 gun suicides, and two accidental gun deaths (Washington Post). Second, I contend that banning guns eliminates them. Some might say that criminals would choose to disobey a ban and get guns anyway. However, that is not true. According to Jay Watchell, a crime gun patterns expert from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the most common way criminals get guns in through straw purchases, which is where one person gets a gun legally on a criminal"s behalf. Second-most-commonly are street purchases, when someone gets a gun legally and sells it illegally to a criminal. The final way criminals get guns is on the black market, in which someone gets a gun either through straw purchases or street purchases and sells it again. Vietnam has banned guns and now has 1/4 the homicide rate of the USA. Australia has a partial ban in place and has a very low homicide rate. Third, I contend that guns harm mental health. When people in society, especially children and adolescents, are exposed to gun violence, they are very likely to suffer numerous negative effects. Test scores are greatly reduced, and high levels of anger, withdrawal, and depression were noted among teens who were exposed to violence as opposed to teens who were not exposed to violence. Children may also suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after seeing gun-related violence occur. This can lead to all sorts of horrible effects such as flashbacks and inability to move past the incident, leading, again, to depression, anger, and withdrawal. In the world of the con, we live in a world of death, violence, murder, and crime. In the world of the pro, we eliminate all of that and live in a society with less violence, less crime, and happier youth.