Topic: gun-control

Another common argument against repealing the Second Amendment and gun control in general is that firearms are needed for self defense, this argument is very common within the pro-gun party. Even the National Rifle Association’s Executive Vice President, Wayne LaPierre, has spoken out about guns being vital to defend people’s lives. LaPierre claimed that ‘The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.’ (The Week Staff) In other words LaPierre believes that firearms are a necessity when it comes to defense against a bad guy. Not only does the pro-gun party support the belief of guns being needed for self defense but even the Vice President of the largest gun rights group with a huge influence in the political world openly expresses this idea. The problem with LaPierre’s conclusion is that it came from his research of 6,000 over the phone surveys which were given to firearm rights supporters, meaning it is very likely that the survey takers would be biased and could have lied about their experiences with the use of guns for self defense in an attempt to protect their gun rights. Not only is his evidence inaccurate due to its biased survey takers but there is also lots of other more critical research that proves that firearms do not help with self defense. The Violence Policy Center released federal data about firearm use in 2014 and the American new source HuffPost summarized some of the main points of the data. According to the Huffpost “Only 1.1 percent of victims or intended victims of a violent crime used a firearm in self-defense.” (Sugarmann) Meaning that out of all of the incidents that required self defense in 2014 only 1.1 percent actually used a firearm to help protect them, if guns are so vital and helpful in self defense situations then that rate should be way higher. The same study also concluded that for every person who kills another due to self defense there are 34 people who die for no reason such as a death from a mass shooting. Not only are firearms statistically unneeded for self defense, contrary to the belief of some, but the number of innocent lives lost trumps the deaths due to a defense incident. Guns are also used more in criminal acts then in defense, “Using data from a national random-digit-dial telephone survey of over 1,900 adults conducted in 1996, these researchers found that criminal gun use is far more common than self-defense gun use.” (Hemenway and Azrael) In other words a firearm is more likely to be used against you in an attack then to be used as a self defense method which means instead of helping fight against criminal attacks, firearms are increasing the threat of them. Luckily though since self defense is important firearms aren’t the only weapon for self defense, and there are other methods that can be just as effective plus these alternative weapons can be taken into areas where guns may be prohibited. According to the website Marine Approved the top weapon for self defense is Salt Supply Long Range Pepper Spray meaning firearms aren’t even the top option for keeping yourself safe. Not only are guns statistically not needed or used for self defense in the past they are also not even the most effective weapon as they are illegal in many areas. Though many would like to believe and argue that fire-arms are essential to protecting yourself years of research show that this is not true, meaning that the right to bear arms is not needed by U.S citizens in that sense.