Gun Control is when you keep firearms plus guns away from people. Many people think that gun control is right because they think keeping people away from guns will reduce the amount of deaths each year. They also think that guns cause many of the deaths that had been committed each year. Also when ever people hear the word gun, the thoughts are of violence and negativity. Many people, myself included think gun control is wrong because we know that it is not necessary, since we know that guns were not involved in many of the deaths caused each year. While many other people disagree and think it is good because of the safety for people. In this essay I will tell you why gun control is unnecessary and why there shouldn?t be any gun control at all.

There have been many gun control laws established throughout the U.S., but they vary from state to state. For example, in Colorado you can purchase any type of gun: handgun, machine gun, shotgun, rifle, automatic rifle, etc. at the age of 18, while in other places you would need a hunting license.1 I think this is unfair because when I?m at the age of 18 I would want to buy a gun, but I can?t because I?m living in California and another 18 year old could in Colorado. Also, another example is that in some states, they allow citizens to carry concealed weapons, while in other states citizens can?t. I don?t think this is fair at all because I think they should make laws that suits the whole U.S., and not make different laws in different states. Another reason that makes me think that they shouldn?t have different gun control laws in different places is because I knew a person that buys guns in New York, and some how got them over here and sells them to people by tripling the price. I have asked him how he got them over here, but he never told me how he did it. He told me that he has done this for many years until one time he got caught when he was selling them and was jailed for 6 or 7 months. If gun control laws were applied the same in every place he could of never have gotten the guns. This also means that criminals could have done the same thing that my friend had done, but not sell the guns but use them to do bad things. Another reason why different laws on different states are bad is that tourists don?t know the gun laws in that area and they would probably think it is the same as the state that they live in. They would be in big trouble if they did anything related to guns. So I think that if the government would want to make laws about gun control the laws should be the same everywhere and not have different laws in different places.

There should not be gun control because there are law-abiding citizens that would not commit murder, robbery, or domestic violence. Only guns in hands of people that have been arrested and have a record of violence actives cause murder, robbery and domestic violence the most. There should be criminal control and not gun controls because it would be more useful. In the year 1996 the U.S. Justice Department estimated there were more than 665,000 gang members and 310,000, almost half, of these gang members have guns although gun control laws have already been established in most parts of the U.S.2 There should not be gun control because even though there is gun control criminals could still have ways of getting guns in the black market where people make guns and sell them illegally. Many people buy guns for protection and self-defense because in1856 the Supreme Court said, ?Courts have ruled that the government does not have a specific duty to protect individuals.? 3 In the U.S. there are about 10 million violent crimes committed each year, and about 3.9 million times victims use guns for self-defense. So guns in the hands of good people are used for self-defense. There should be criminal control and not gun control because criminals can some how get guns illegally while people who are not criminals can?t. It would be bad for criminals to have guns and us to not have guns to protect ourselves against them. So I think there should be no gun control and everyone could own a gun for self-defense.

Many people think teenagers with guns are very dangerous because they are small and immature and probably would run around killing people with a gun. I agree that teenagers are very curious about guns and think they are toys, but they don?t kill much people with guns. According to the study by the U.S. Department of Justice?s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, teenagers who get guns from their parents don?t commit gun crimes at all; while teenagers who get guns illegally do commit crimes about 21% of the time.4 Many of the teenagers are being killed each year by guns, but not by juveniles; 90% of children under the age 12 or under being murdered and 70% of the aged 12-17 are being killed by adults out of the 2000-3000 children gun victims each year.5 Teenagers are primarily killed by gun accidents and gun accidents are increasing, but more teenagers die from accidental drowning and burns than from gun deaths (Please see accident chart in the back G.1) As I said before teenagers that have guns don?t kill many people. For example, about 186,000 teenagers carry guns to school for protection and self-defense, but less than 1% of all homicides among school children age 5-19 years old occur in school grounds or on the way to or from school.6 Also studies estimate that death at school is about 20-30 children each year which is 1/10 of the children murdered each year by parents or caretakers. So teenagers having guns and bringing guns to school is not so bad. So it is not necessary to have gun control for children sense they don?t do any bad things with guns and all they uses guns for is protection and self-defense.

Throughout the world the U.S. is the leader the world in gun deaths, with about 34,000 gun deaths in the U.S. in 1996.7 Many of the gun deaths are suicides and accidents and leaves out of a few being homicides. According to the FBI estimate the homicide rate is beginning to fall from 7.0 to 6.2 per 10,000 in 1998.8 This tells us that not many gun deaths are homicides. (Please see gun death rate chart on last page G.2). So as I said before gun control is not necessary because suicides can be done in different ways, if there were no guns people can use some other weapons or ways to commit suicide. Accident can be prevented if gun makers make the guns more difficult to fire and have more safety functions. So the only major issue left is homicide, which does not account for many of the gun deaths, and which is now decreasing.

Even though guns cause many deaths, they also save many lives too. Guns saved about 3.9 million peoples lives each year by self-defense. Only guns in the hands of criminals are bad and guns in the hands of regular people are for protection. So I think that everyone has the right to own a gun for their own protection and there should be no gun control laws.