The issue with guns and their ownership is cornerstone today. There are two groups of people with different opinions for or against the legalization. The first one states that it is their constitutional right for the purpose of self-protection, whereas the second group states that gun ownership endangers normal peaceful way of life. In this respect, opinions differ, but the real threats are still surrounding people in everyday life. The government should ban guns for civilians in order to decrease the rate of crimes committed. Additionally, the administration should keep a strict eye on the regulation and distribution of guns within the society in order to ensure safety and security for ordinary people. Thus, even though possession of guns is right according to the Constitution and people’s need for self-defense, guns should be illegal in order to decrease the population of potential criminals and those who use guns for their own unlawful needs.
In the first place, it is vital to state that when people can easily buy guns, there is a constant threat that this gun will take a shot and possibly kill someone. In other words, people are different and with different intentions in mind. A salesperson at the gun shop cannot distinguish between potentially dangerous and law-abiding people. It gives grounds to the legal distribution of firearms to possible felons, mentally ill people, and even terrorists. Harry L. Wilson in his book makes a remark on the illegal use of firearms, namely: “Safe storage laws and gun safety requirements should be universal” (Wilson 11). It means that firearms should not be regarded as an ordinary item similar to foods and other goods.
Considering the cases at Virginia Tech and other schools, colleges, and universities, the victims of the shootout are numerous thereafter. It was due to the open access to the guns. Most importantly, youngsters with fragile psyche can easily use firearms in order to put it on somebody or even to take one’s life. Bullying in schools is a fact, and those considered outsiders can someday use the gun against potential bullies. In sum, the social space becomes more dangerous and unstable in terms of the security and personal protection. Criminal justice appears to lag behind these dangerous threats and concrete events when someone uses firearms against the civilians.
On the contrary, it is clear that people want to feel safe and secure with the help of firearms in their households. It is about the right of private property and self-defense. It is also clear that law-abiding people would rather say the prohibition to have firearms would make them easy victims for the real criminals. However, the last ones would find alternative channels of getting their guns. In this scenario, a person is unable to defend himself from the criminal because he/she has no right to buy and keep guns for self-protection. As a result, the fragility of the social life gets higher, and the criminals would rather benefit from this situation.
Harry L. Wilson found in one of the works that “it is the availability of illegal guns, not the overall availability of firearms, which is most strongly related to crime” (Wilson 74). Obviously, people who support the gun right are frightened by the possibility of being disarmed while the criminals will never be disarmed in this situation. However, to make it plain, the role of the government and its agencies should be increased while controlling and regulating the flows of firearms across the nation. In this regard, to make the environment safe, law enforcers should provide a stricter regulation on the criminals while banning the guns. Anti-gun campaign is not an easy thing to do, but it serves as a good solution in conjunction with multifaceted nature of the governmental regulations and restrictions monitored and fixed nationwide at each level of local, state, and federal jurisprudence.
John R. Lott also assumes that there is no way out of banning the guns, because criminals will have an advantage over their victims (including women, children, and old people) and it will reduce the extent of their fears while attempting to break into homes with residents there (Lott 168). In fact, the psychology of criminal activities changes when they have no resistance on the part of their victims. In this respect, it is vital to think of the role of the police officers and their duty to protect the society from criminals. While making guns illegal, the government should increase the number of police members in order to encompass the scope of potential danger coming from offenders.
Moreover, the well-known practice of gun registration will not work effectively for those who support the gun control position. The thing is that it is not necessary for criminals to register their guns, as they can buy them illegally or steal guns just at the scene of a crime or somewhere else (Wilson 138). It becomes easier for criminals to use guns while living in the poor districts, slums, and so-called ghettos. There is always a great imbalance between law-abiding people and criminals in these areas, especially black ones (Lott 75). In this respect, the reformation should start with the reorganization of those problem areas, especially, paying attention to the supremacy of law for residents living there. In turn, it will enable law enforcers to persuade the rest of the population that the situation is under control.
Nowadays, the threat is constantly increasing, and the policy-makers are likely to change the laws in different states paying attention to the size and characteristics of a particular kind of guns. It is vital to note that with the overwhelming choice of having a gun legally among people, they create more opportunities for those who want to have whole arsenals of weapons. The officials should register, duly regulated and control these facts.
However, people are still dying because of many mismatches and accidents. It would be better for the law enforcers to have guns and other weaponry only. In this respect, the Second Amendment has to be re-amended with the effect of collecting guns from individuals. Nevertheless, it can create a huge turmoil within the society, as the rights of people are violated. Some of the efficient methods to decrease the gun-related violence are to enhance sentence for gun-related criminals and “to use the police for cracking down on illegal gun carrying or increasing patrols in high-crime areas” (Wilson 85). However, these are the possible ways to control the situation in terms of the nationwide legalization of guns. As the problem is still very difficult to solve, experts and society should still work on ways to make guns illegal.
In conclusion, one can say that the society is split into the gun control and gun right groups. Guns should be illegal in order to make them less harmful to law-abiding people who want to live in a safe and protected society. The role of the police should be increased, and law enforcers with policy-makers should work hard on the goal of social protection from the criminal groups in the situation of banning guns for the population. Meanwhile, the critics of this viewpoint agree that being disarmed, this will not make real criminals disarmed. Thereupon, legalization of guns fulfills them with the right for self-defense. Nevertheless, the tragic cases of gun-related violation because of an open access to firearms are constantly growing in number.
Works Cited
Lott, John R. More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, Third Edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2013.
Siegel, Larry and John Worrall. Essentials of Criminal Justice. New York, NY: Cengage Learning, 2014.
Wilson, Harry L. Guns, Gun Control, and Elections: The Politics and Policy of Firearms. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. 1442 words
