Recently, an event In aurora, Colorado, re-sparked the age old debate of gun control in the united states. James Holmes was a young and well educated man who killed 12 people in a matter of seconds. What enabled him to murder so many people in such a small matter of time was not because he had the training or experience to do so, but because the law allowed him to purchase guns and ammunition, objects which are designed to easily kill people.
Guns must be banned in the United states to prevent incidents like this from happening. We live in a society where weapons are no longer essential to survive. It’s true that the second amendment to the united states constitution states that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” and this is used as a reason to protect gun ownership and legality. However, laws are made according to the needs of the people and the time period. Back in the 18th century when this amendment was adopted, guns were necessary to survive. There was not an established police force yet and people still hunted their own food. Today, there is a police officer almost everywhere. And if you live on campus, you definitely know. We no longer have to hunt for our food –transportation allows us to go and buy our food. In fact, if we went out trying to hunt for animals all we’d find are cats and dogs. Clearly, we are living in a civilized society, and we have no need for guns, whose sole purpose is to take away a human being’s life.
Among common weapons, guns are unmatched in their killing ability. Despite the fact that we are only flesh and bones, humans are surprisingly hard to kill. However, it takes less than a second for someone with the intent to kill to pull a trigger and launch a bullet traveling at hundreds of feet per second into your head. The availability of guns in the US only allows murderers to feasibly carry out their crime. They give the element of surprise to the attacker and allow someone to be killed from far away, compared to hand weapons. As stated earlier, James Holmes was not a specialized killer or trained in any martial arts. He was an ordinary citizen who took it upon himself to purchase a weapon and use it. If guns were not available, it would be considerably harder for him and others with the same intent to kill people with just hand weapons. According to FBI crime statistics available on their website, 67 percent of all murders in the united states was committed with firearms in 2010.
The availability of guns not only incite murder, but allow gruesome outcomes to suicides and homicides. Suicide is a heavily thought out act of despair. The presence of a firearm will only make the process easier for someone to carry out. According to the CDC, suicides accounted for 55 percent of firearms deaths, 40 percent were homicides, 3 percent were accidental shootings, and the remaining 2 percent were killings in self-defense. The national institute of justice shows that 450k people are victims of a gun-related crime annually. These statistics show that the proportion of guns killing people