Resolved: In the United States, private ownership of handguns ought to be banned.

First, I will use my opponents' definitions.Definitions: Private ownership: tangible and intangible objects owned by individuals which their owners have exclusive and absolute legal rights, and can only be transferred with the owner's consent.Handgun: â€œA handgun refers to a firearm designed to be operated with one or both hands, but otherwise unsupported.â€"For today's debate, I will value protecting lives and safetyA1:I'd like to assert that banning firearms would hurt the people of the United States of America.Let's go and start with our first pointP1:Countries with the strictest gun control laws tend to have the highest homicide rate.This may not make sense to the average person at first, but let's look at some statistics. As you can clearly see in the graph above, some of the countries with the strictest gun control laws have the highest homicide rates. Why, you may ask. Why does countries with some of the strictest laws in place for gun control have such alarming homicide rates? I believe I have the answer to this question. Guns can be illegally bought and sold. It can smuggled inside America. Some sites on the so called "deep and dark web" have sites where shoppers can buy handguns and assault rifles. Countries with the strictest gun control laws tend to have the highest homicide rate. (1) Even in countries with barely any homicides due to guns, violent crime rate is more than two times higher than America. (2) This sustains the idea that banning guns are not good for protecting lives and safety.Britain is often known as our sister nation. Let's take a look at what happened when they decided to imposed gun control and the banning of guns. This brings me to my next point:P2:As observed in Britain:When Britain imposed its gun control laws, crimes involving guns skyrocketed! By 2008, Britain had a crime rate nearly five times higher than the USA population in 2008. (3) Crimes that soared in 2001 following the ban:Rape was up by 14%Murders were up by 4%Street Robberies were up by 28%Violent Crime was up by 11%(4)This would only add a 10% increase in street crime, 8% increase in muggings, and a 22% increase in robberies by the time this alarming rise of crime rate was slowed down in 2004.In fact, a survey conducted after the ban took place in 2007 noted that 66% of 2,156 residents didn't feel safe due to the alarming raise in the crime rate in gun related crimes. (5) In America, a gun crime is recorded as a gun crime. In Britain, a crime is only recorded when there is a final disposition (a conviction). All unsolved gun crimes in Britain are not reported as gun crimes, grossly undercounting the amount of gun crime there. (6) To make matters worse, British law enforcement has been exposed for falsifying criminal reports to create falsely lower crime figures, in part to preserve tourism. (7)An ongoing parliamentary inquiry in Britain into the growing number of black market weapons has concluded that there are more than three million illegally held firearms in circulation – double the number believed to have been held 10 years ago – and that criminals are more willing than ever to use them. One in three criminals under the age of 25 possesses or has access to a firearm. (8) Handgun homicides in England and Wales reached an all-time high in 2000, years after a virtual ban on private handgun ownership. More than 3,000 crimes involving handguns were recorded in 1999-2000, including 42 homicides, 310 cases of attempted murder, 2,561 robberies and 204 burglaries. (9) Handguns were used in 3,685 British offenses in 2000 compared with 2,648 in 1997, an increase of 40%. It is interesting to note: Of the 20 areas with the lowest number of legal firearms, 10 had an above average level of “gun crime.” Of the 20 areas with the highest levels of legal guns, only 2 had armed crime levels above the aver (10)This has failed miserably in Britain and many other countries. If crime rates and homicides are supposed to go down because of gun control, then why do countries that enforce gun control have the highest homicide rates? Before I answer that in A2, let's look at some fun facts; AKA,mini points!!!Mini Point 1:Just wanted to say that America isn't in the top 100 countries for homicide. The top ten countries have either strict gun control or a ban on guns! (11)Mini Point 2:50% of the guns in the Philippines are illegally made. (12) Chinese police destroyed 113 illegal gun factories and shops in a three-month crackdown in 2006. Police seized 2,445 tons of explosives, 4.81 million detonators and 117,000 guns. (13) Doesn't that support my earlier point on how criminals can get guns illegally while you keep them out of the hands of good people?P3: Gun Control in the USAThis argument will be from this article (14)" When one examines the 48 metropolitan areas with one million or more residents and for which a full set of FBI crime statistics are available, homicide rates range from 1.4 per 100,000 residents in the Portland, Oregon area, to 19 per 100,000 in the New Orleans area. Burglary rates range from 248 per 100,000 in the New York City area (often considered to be a relatively high-crime area) to 1196 per 100,000 in the Memphis, Tennessee area (often considered to be a relatively low-crime area). So much for preconceived notions! So is there any correlation between gun control and either violent or property crime in these 48 metropolitan areas? The overall homicide rate, among the metro areas whose principal city is in a state that requires some form of permit to purchase a gun, is 4.32 per 100,000 residents, compared with 5.74 among cities in no-permit states. This certainly does not confirm the gun control = higher violent crime hypothesis. Quite the opposite. Similarly, the overall burglary rate, among the metro areas whose principal city is in a state that requires some form of permit to purchase a gun, is 442 per 100,000 residents, compared with 690 among cities in no-permit states. As before, the rate is somewhat higher in no-permit areas, although given the limitations of this analysis we caution against drawing any conclusions beyond the simple fact that no-permit areas clearly do not have lower crime rates, overall, than areas where permits are required."Where there are no permits for guns given in the USA, the homicide rate is higher. A2:I'd like to assert that people can use guns for self defense and deterrence against criminals.Out of space just read on site (15)Safety and protection of life is filled by con.1. Violence, Guns and Drugs: A Cross-Country Analysis, Jeffery A. Miron, Department of Economics, Boston University, University of Chicago Press Journal of Law & Economics, October 20012. Scotland tops list of world’s most violent countries, The Times, September 19, 20053.The most violent country in Europe: Britain is also worse than South Africa and U.S., Daily Mail, July 3, 2009, citing a joint report of the European Commission and United Nations4. British Home Office, reported by BBC news, July 12, 20025. YouGov survey of 2,156 residents in Sept 20076. Fear in Britain, Gallant, Hills, Kopel, Independence Institute, July 18, 2000 7. Crime Figures a Sham, Say Police, Daily Telegraph, April 1, 1996 8. Reported in The Guardian, September 3, 2000 9. 42 killed by handguns last year, The Times, January 10, 2001, reporting on statistics supplied by the British Home Office 10. Illegal Firearms in the UK, Centre for Defense Studies at King’s College in London, July 2001 11: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2010 12: Filipino gunsmiths are making a killing, Taipei Times, May 7, 2005 13: China Radio International Online, September 7, 2006 14: Bailey, D. (n.d.). Does Gun Control Encourage Crime? The Science of Crime Statistics. Retrieved January 6, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com...15: Guns and Self Defense. (n.d.). Retrieved January 6, 2016, from http://www.cato.org...