Gun Control

Thank you for accepting. I hope this will be an interesting debate. Opening ========== I believe that having stricter gun control would be beneficial to the U.S. I will supply arguments, evidence, and rebuttals to further reinforce my point. Let us begin. Arguments ============ 1. Suicide Guns are probably one of the most deadly handheld weapons. You don't have to get up close and you can fatally shoot someone with minimal training. [1] Gun suicides are not noticed by the American public as much ms other deaths. In 2006 and 2007 70% of gun deaths were suicides. Why is this relevant to this debate? According to the same source "Among 395 shooting deaths in Seattle during one year, 333 were by suicide, 41 were domestic violence incidents, 12 were accidents, and only nine involved an intruder. Women commit suicide three times as often when firearms are present in a home than in domiciles without them.". As you can see, [2]most of the gun deaths are suicides. People are much more likely to commit suicide with a firearm in possession. You might be saying "So what? Their choice, not our problem." It may not be YOUR problem... For now. [3] Families that have had a family member commit suicide go through an extensive grief period. They may be angry, sad, or depressed. Studies show that families that have had a member commit suicide are at a higher risk of suicide themselves. 2. Aggression Remember Trevor Martin? Remember how he was killed? A gun. The shooter, Zimmerman, thought the boy "Looked suspicious" and proceeded to pull out his gun and shoot him for "self defense". This is a display on how guns can affect our problem solving. Think of what would happen if Zimmerman didn't have a gun? He couldn't have easily killed Trevor. He may have called Trevor's attention or walked away. But with a gun in possession, just because he felt threatened, he pulled it out and shot him. [4] A study conducted by Prof Charles Branas from the University of Pennsylvania Compared 677 cases in which people were injured in a shooting incident with 684 people living in the same area that had not suffered a gun injury. The researchers matched these "controls" for age, race and gender. He found that those with firearms were about 4.5 times more likely to be shot than those who did not carry". He says that people who are in possession of a gun tend to overreact to a problem, rather than trying to work it out. He also says that people who have a gun also tend to go into dangerous areas, where people normally have the common sense not to go. A study conducted by Prof Jessica Witt and Dr James Brockmole shows that people who have a gun are more likely to think that someone else is armed, when they really aren't. They showed this by giving subjects either a replica gun or neutral object. The subjects were to identify what the other person was holding. A lot of the people with the gun identified the neutral object as a firearm. If in a real situation, this could end horribly. Another study conducted by Dr Jennifer Klinesmith and her colleagues shows that people who are exposed to firearms had higher testosterone levels and they engaged in aggressive activity with non-armed people more. All in all, you can see how guns can affect our aggression, and since guns are an easy killing tool, this leads to more deaths by fire-arm and more deaths in general. 3. Deadliness Guns are without a doubt, the deadliest weapon. You don't need to get up close and stab someone, and you can shot once or twice and that can easily be fatal. Compare school stabbings to school shootings, and you can see where my point is. If you look at any school shooting, it's a tragedy. Lots of the students and staff are shot and killed, and many more are injured. If you look at a school stabbings, yes there are fatalities and injuries, but isn't as severe as school shootings. If someone to point a gun at you, what would you do? Sit there and pray that you go to heaven, or run and get shot. You can't do much. If someone with a knife is after you, you can run. They have to be close to stab you, so if you're quick enough, you can run away and call 911. "This is what gun rights is for" you might be saying. Let me replay the scenario if you had a gun. The guy points the gun at you. You reach for your gun, however, since it takes a while to get a gun out and aim, he shoots you first because he's already primed. That is what would happen, the gun wouldn't help. The criminal would just see you trying to pull it out, and he'd shoot you. Conclusion ============= In conclusion, we should have strict gun control or have no guns at the public at all. Guns can lead to more suicides, they make people more aggressive, they are an easy killing tool, and they don't help in self defense. I await your response, Con. Sources =========== [1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [2]: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu... [3]: http://everydaylife.globalpost.com... [4]: http://www.theguardian.com...