Gun Ownership Should be Tightly Controlled
In line with the litany of mass shootings that occurred in 2012 which resulted to the deaths of twenty (20) students at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, President Barack Obama decided to create stricter gun control policies in the country (Fuller 7). The U. S. President declared government must take action to prevent the violent use of firearms to protect the nation. President Obama argued that in order to put an end to the senseless violence, there must be serious discussions on gun ownership which can be controlled by using two core approaches: the criminological aspect and the legal aspect. Although there are gun control policies that are currently being implemented to reduce gun misuse and violent crimes using firearms, gun owners must abide to the rule of law at all times and take full responsibility for any consequence that may result in the use of guns.
Thesis Statement: Guns give owners a sense of limitless power which government must endeavor to prevent by implementing stricter gun control policies to prohibit mass killings and violence in society.
Based on my own personal experience, I have a friend who has been a victim of gun violence and it is with his death that I become an advocate of stricter gun control policies to protect innocent victims. Losing a loved one in the hands of irresponsible gun owners is heartbreaking. My friend was violently killed with a single pull of a trigger over a heated argument over traffic signs. The man who killed my friend was convicted for murder and was sent to serve imprisonment for 50 years. The pain and loss that his family had to go through is unbearable. Killing an innocent student was a result of a road rage of one irresponsible gun owner who took the law in his own hands. With this experience, I believe that the government should dictate the issuance of gun licenses to only deserving individuals who can full accountability for their actions.
While it may be true that the right to arms is entrenched in the U.S. Constitution, the Second Amendment admitted restrictions on gun ownership to implement legal barriers to restrict the gun ownership and gun use (Fuller 8). Misuse of guns can be considered as a public health problem that American seeks to dominate through enforcement of gun control policies among the citizens. Thus, if individual persons are given the privilege to own guns, it is the duty of the government to ensure that these gun owners carry their firearms as safe as possible (Fuller 8).
Whenever a person owns a gun, he or she may claim undue power and can raise self-defense with every discharge of such firearm. Hence, the state should implement legal barriers to prevent the unauthorized use of gun by imposing stringent penalties to protect the people from senseless violence. It is not a guarantee that gun control policies may lessen criminality. In fact, government must set aside allocation of budget that will fund extensive research studies on the effect of gun regulation. Although the reports show that states that place restrictions on gun ownership are more likely to experience fewer murders and suicides. However, further studies must be conducted to determine the correlation or causation of gun ownership and the killings. It is best that every citizen must act to fight for the constitutional right to own guns, but at the same time, the government should take action to restrict gun ownership and its use.
Works Cited:
Fuller, Jaime. “Shooting in the Dark”. American Prospect. 2014. Print.
