Gun Debate
The U.S. government has tried for many years to decrease gun violence with numerous restrictions and regulations on gun ownership and gun use but yet gun violence in America is still extremely high. Government policies alone cannot help to improve the gun violence, responsibility must be taken from all parties, especially gun distributors. Majority of guns used in crimes were purchased at a legal institution somewhere down the line so how can distributors control this?
Gun violence claims over 30,000 lives a year and over 100,000 people fall victim to crimes involving guns. Gun violence is clearly an epidemic in the United States but what has been done about it? The government has implemented numerous different laws and policies in an attempt to control this problem with policies like the buy back program and putting restrictions on who can purchase a gun. These policies have both done very little in actually reducing the number of guns on the street. The buyback program seemed like a good idea in which people can come hand in their guns and receive cash or gift cards for their guns. One issue with this is that people who are more likely to commit a crime with guns are far less likely to even turn their guns in so it was sort of a waste of money. Government restrictions on who could purchase a gun has somewhat helped in decreasing gun violence. For example, the government restricts people with felonies on their record from purchasing guns. While some people will deem this unfair, in a study 77% of inmates in 2011 had prior arrests proving that felons are more likely to commit another crime. Since 77% of felons are likely to commit another felony, the restriction preventing them from purchasing guns would prevent numerous crimes. So since government policies have proven to somewhat help in decreasing gun violence, what action can be taken to further