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Elijah Garcia

Professor Vyvial

ENGL-1302

21 March 2019

Regulating Gun Control

Gun control has been a prevalent and controversial topic concerning the ownership and

use of firearms by citizens. According to the second Amendment of the U.S Constitution, “A

well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to

keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This means that people are free to keep guns in their

household. However, this enables motive to use the weapons for the wrong purposes, such as

robbery or harmful acts. People generalize the negative perspective of guns with the correlation

of the laws established, causing the rise in the domestic violence. The U.S government is to

blame for the many deaths and injuries because of the loose and unregulated guidelines

concerning firearms.

The subject on gun control have been debated over many years, shedding light on both

the negative and positive aspects of the laws set in place. A gun can determine a person’s life, so

it cannot be treated lightly. The lack of gun control and regulations established by the

government and in turn affected many indirectly and directly. Because of the absence of rules

and guidelines, there are firearms released in the streets used in robbery. With firearms

unregulated in the streets, innocent people will die and become a casualty. With the death of

innocent people, it is bound to affect the family and relatives with emotional grief. Because of

the emotional grief, it can affect the family’s lifestyle and outlook on life. As a result, the

perspective of gun control is viewed as negative subject. Because gun control is perceived as a
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negative topic, people are protesting on the stricter guidelines on the rules concerning gun

control.

People have different views whether it should be revised because of the crime and

violence it has caused over time. Different types of conflicts vary from armed robbery offenses,

school shootings or mass shootings in public places. However, guns can be also used for self

defense in case of an emergency or whenever its appropriate. This can also include interests and

hobbies people can take, collecting limited edition weapons or building an armory for their own

personal use. Nevertheless, both perspectives or sides bring valid points at hand and can cause

distortion between people’s belief in this subject.

The real question behind this contentious subject is why there is no strict and extensive

rules regarding the licensure of handling and owning a gun. Many people have mental illnesses

that can affect their judgement and actions without them have conscious awareness of it. Many

people’s lives are at risk but “[that] diagnosing these conditions mostly relies on the person's

report and the physician's observation, and the ability to rely on their report is important”

(Javanbakht). The background checks and understanding the mental capacity of these gun

owners are important to protect themselves and others around them. A psychologist could ask

them a series of questions of concerning their intentions in life. After, the observer or psychiatrist

will evaluate his answers and determine his capability of handling a firearm. However, to some

people it may seem as a waste of time and skip this process indefinitely. Overall, this will have a

good effect in the future to prevent suicides and possible murder of innocent citizens. Having the

peace of mind knowing that new and current gun owners can know the importance of a loaded

weapon is something they can rationally decide for themselves. Not everybody has the same

disorder or disease, so the doctors must treat it as in life or death since pulling a single trigger
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can determine a person’s fate. In turn, this would help those who are affected by disorders saving

them from death and protecting others around those who are wielding a live firearm. However, it

may be expensive to hire a lot of doctors to evaluate the gun owners.

Similarly, the rise domestic violence that occurs is with the involvement of firearms. The

most common form gun violence is homicide also known as murder. People resort to this action

mostly to rob stores or houses since they cannot provide for themselves or simply without a

motive in mind. According to Mc, “of the 12,765 murder in the U.S. in 2012, two-thirds were

committed with firearms” (Mc), it is said that is the quickest and detached way to take

someone’s life away without guilt. Reports of mass shootings and school shootings has been

prevalent in the past couple of years. Lives were lost in a blink of eye, including men, women

and especially children due to the destruction of guns in people’s hands. Protestors started

speaking out to the public when the Sandy Hook shooting happened in 2012. Adam Lanza, the

man behind the gun, shot and killed twenty-six people, twenty of them were children and six

administration members. People around the world started charities and foundations to help

support those who were affected by the Sandy Hook shooting. As a result, “[They] forged a

broad and inclusive coalition that helped us enact more than 20 executive orders to reduce

violence” (Biden). Families and children are afraid to go to a place where they are supposed to

learn and grow as an individual. Instead they cower in fear since anyone can obtain a gun at any

time. As a result, some things that were done to reduce or mitigate this problem is implementing

secure gun safes, asking the manufacturers to keep a record of the firearms and ammunition sold,

or requiring essential training on how to handle a firearm. Until now, people are still enforcing

these rules because it can result in losing another life just because someone did not lock his/her

gun in a secure location. Additionally, some solutions that may work would be to limit the ability
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to purchase weapons or ammunition to a certain extent. A firearm is nothing without ammunition

therefore reducing the causalities and finding a medium those who are pro-gun control.

Similarly, increasing the prices on those products relating to firearms so people are hesitant to

purchase it. However, this may cause businesses such as gun ranges to charge more for their

services since it is limiting their resources to bring income and customers in. Some businesses

may run out of services because of the inflation of prices of weapons. This might not be able to

keep firearms out of the streets completely, but it serves as an obstacle for those people who

want to acquire it for themselves. Even though these may seem to be little steps, but it is one step

closer towards a safe place for everyone.

A final solution would be to ban and put restrictions on assault rifles and high capacity

firearms. This would avoid large death casualties because there are more rounds in the gun in an

assault rifle. A large capacity weapon would contain around 10 to 30 bullets in a regular

magazine. If a person was able to purchase and own a high capacity weapon, it can cause major

problems and conflicts if used incorrectly. States before has created laws concerning assault

rifles, for example, “in 1989, California became the first state to prohibit the manufacture, sale,

or possession of semiautomatic or assault guns” (Gun Control). Even though it is not a complete

ban of guns of all types, but it takes a step forward to reduce the deaths in the future. Having the

peace of mind that automatic weapons are kept out of consumers hands. However, this is not true

for everywhere else in the country. There are many people who take interest in firearms simply

for the weapon’s value or using for it for sport such as hunting or skeet shooting. No one has the

excuse of owing a high capacity weapon because they will not use it anytime soon.

Despite all the solutions mentioned, understanding and evaluating people’s mental health

is the most important solution moving forward about gun control. It dictates the decisions and
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actions of people and can affect others around them. Mental problems can lead to certain actions

that have them unconscious, unaware of what they are doing. “Nearly two hundred shootings

took place in the United States… carried out by those diagnosed with a mental disorder or with

demonstrable signs of serious mental illness” (Philpott-Jones). To put this solution into action the

government needs to hire psychiatrists to evaluate gun owners to diagnose their mental state to

see if they are capable to handling one. Money and time invested to this program and plan of

action will save the lives of many in the process. This process should be completed in a year to

fully understand what needs to be shown in the evaluation by the doctors. However, this plan is

not perfect but will substantially divide those who can and cannot handle a firearm.

All in all, gun control until now has presented itself as an important subject. It saves lives

of men, women and children in the United States, saving them from the emotional grief it can

cause in families. The government are held accountable if lives are lost because they are the one

stating the laws concerning firearms, they need to enforce them because lives matter. Without the

strict guidelines and rule established, many deaths could result of that. School shootings has

caused an uprising for stricter gun laws because children are dying because of it. The best

solution for gun control would be to have a correct evaluation of the mental capacity of future

gun owners and to see if they can handle a loaded weapon. The result of this would reduce the

deaths of people in the United States and can grant people the peace of mind knowing citizens

will not lose their life in their day to day life.

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Works Cited

Biden, Joe. “How the Sandy Hook Families Give Me Strength, Five Years Later.” TIME

Magazine, vol. 190, no. 27/28, Dec. 2017, p. 21. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=126860907&site=ehost-live.

“Gun Control.” Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, Jan. 2018, p. 1; EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=funk&AN=gu112600&site=ehost-live.

Javanbakht, Arash. “Guns and Mental Illness: How Do You Judge Who Shouldn't Get

Weapons?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/guns-and-

mental-illness-how-do-you-judge-who-shouldnt-get-weapons/.

Mc. “The 10 Most Common Murder Weapons in the United States.” TheRichest, TheRichest, 10

Sept. 2014, www.therichest.com/rich-list/most-shocking/the-10-most-common-murder-

weapons-in-the-united-states/

Philpott-Jones, Sean. “Mass Shootings, Mental Illness, and Gun Control.” The Hastings Center

Report, vol. 48, no. 2, Mar. 2018, pp. 7–9. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/hast.832.