Persuasive Research Paper Eng/215CA
August 04, 2014
Carolyn Crane

Persuasive Research Paper

The Second Amendment word-for-word text is “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”. In December 15,1971 the right to bear arms was adopted into the Constitution, making the first ten amendments to the Constitution. When the topic of Gun Control is brought up you will find that there are many opinions divided amongst the population. Whenever there is an election or a major event that happens to involve guns this is a highly debated topic. People that are anti-gun control believe that it is their Constitutional right to bear arms. They also believe that “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. Pro-gun control activist believe that guns are the source to many of America’s violent crimes. However, to place blame on any type of weapon makes no sense, it would be like blaming cars for an accident that had a drunk driver behind the wheel, or blaming airplanes for the attacks that took place on September 11th and not the terrorist that high jacked the planes. This is why gun control is a highly debated topic.
Pro-gun control activist believe that the accessibility to purchase a gun makes violent crimes happen and that violence by guns would greatly decrease if there were limited access to firearms. On November 30th, 1993 President Clinton signed the Brady Bill I, which is the law that requires a waiting period on all firearm purchases. One of the main arguments opposing this law is that many criminals acquire their weapons illegally and avoid the proper/legal channels of gun ownership. A study conducted by Professor James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi, showed that half of the criminals released are expected to illegally acquire a gun the same day. (James D. Wright & Peter H. Rossi 2003) This startling statistic leads one to believe that gun control would only impact law-abiding citizens, leaving them unable to protect themselves.
Another argument that pro-gun control activist believe is that the police are here to protect the law abiding citizens. The truth of the matter is that the police are not our bodyguards and cannot follow everyone around; there is only so much they can do. In most cases the police are not called out until after a crime has happened and by that time the criminal is gone. A study conducted on 1,874 imprisoned felons by Dr. Paul H. Blackman had asked a series of questions, the first question of many that he had asked the inmates to either agree or disagree on was "a criminal is not going to mess around with a victim he knows is armed with a gun.” The results to that question were" About three-fifths of the sample (56%) agreed”, “There were also two direct questions on whether guns thwart crimes.” One reads, "One reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime." Three-quarters of the sample (74%) agreed.” (James D. Wright & Peter H. Rossi (2003) pg.27 par. 3&4).
Pro-gun control advocates also argue that resisting against a criminal will only get you hurt. They believe a criminal will use the victim’s defense weapons against the victim, ultimately hurting or killing the victim with their own gun. According to Kleck “That is false," he says, his tone underlining the word "false." He adds that the only quasi-factual foundation for this claim appears to be the idea that police officers are occasionally killed with their own guns. "This is extremely rare," Kleck says, "Over the period from 1997 through 2006, an annual average of 4.8 police officers in the U.S. were killed with their own guns, out of a total of 665,555 full-time sworn officers in the nation." (Jeff Worley (2009) pg.1 par.10).
Law-abiding gun owners do not commit the majority of the crimes that are committed; conversely, the majority of crimes that are committed are by