Gun Control

Gun Control

Patrick Domench

Composition

Professor Lawrence

DeVry University

October 13, 2013

With the current rise in crime and tragic shootings happening around this country, it is easy for some Americans to blame the gun, and call for stricter gun control laws. But, by looking at figures from continental Europe and comparing them to the US, it has been proven that more gun control does not reduce rates of murder, crime or even suicide; in fact, quite the opposite is true. Stricter gun control is not the answer to this country's current problem with gun violence. Disarming the citizens of this country would prove to have the opposite effect of its intended purpose.

There is a common misconception, held by some Americans, that violent crimes across the country are enabled by the fact that U.S. citizens have the constitutional right to bear arms. If this was the case, it stands to reason that a society that banned firearms would see a drop in the statistics that track violent crimes. When one looks across the pond, to the United Kingdom, however, the facts paint a very different picture. In the United Kingdom, where guns are banned, crime has soared to new heights. It has increased by 89 percent in the last decade (Katie 2012). The results, therefore, do not match the expectation by gun-control advocates.

In America, where more people own guns than ever before, crime has actually decreased. As a matter of fact: in 2011, violent crime decreased again, for the 5th consecutive year. The murder rate was down, from the previous year, 0.7%; robberies, 4%; aggravated assault cases, nearly 4%; and forcible rape fell a substantial 2.5%. These decreases are not limited to only violent crimes, either. Property crimes in the United States are at a nine year low (Katie, 2012).

One of the most dangerous cities in this nation, Washington DC, saw the number of murders which occur within its city limits drop below triple digits for the first time since 1963, in...