A Call For Sameness
By Hunter Yarbro and Parker Clay
A synopsis of the arguments against gun control
With recent events involving gun violence coming into light, questions arise regarding the ethics of the civilian possession of weapons. Bias from both sides plague most popular media. Each side, though occasionally agreeing, seems to cite facts that directly contradict the other. In fact, they do. Their argument is founded in their bias, under the assumption that there can be no middle ground. Stripping the debate from its political agenda, people who disagree with stricter gun control assert a pragmatic approach. They suggest mental health reforms along with civilian utilization of guns as the solution to weapon rampancy.
As much as both parties dislike to admit it, a “common sense” solution is completely applicable. Everyone can agree that the people who commit atrocities are objectively mentally ill. Reforms in the fervor of background checks would make legally mentally defective people unable to acquire a permit, a compromise that protects gun rights while working to solve the problem.
Acting on that premise, Republican John Cornyn of Texas proposed a bill that would require background checks to be more strict in its search of previous crimes and mental health commitments. This bill, though, has been made to be a lesser version of a bill previously proposed but condemned by gun lobbyists. With the softening of the restrictions, the NRA gave their support to the bill which includes the closing of exploited loopholes regarding unregistered purchases at gun shows and in other blind spots of the system.
With the prevalence of gun ownership in the United States, a gun “clean up” would be ineffective. If we were to follow the course of action of the United Kingdom, the first step is gun registration. The problem, though, is that this can only regulate legal weapons. Criminals, by definition, do not abide by the law. Unregistered guns would outnumber legal ones, enabling the problem even further.
Legal weapons enable the populace to defend themselves against the violent world they're presented with. The most proactive source of civilian defense lies in the civilians themselves. Published by the National Institute of Justice in 1997, out of 2.5 million gun-involved situations every year, 1.5 million cases of self defense are taken to court. Less than 8% of the time a gun is involved is the criminal killed. Often, simply brandishing or wounding will end the conflict. Specific to women, 200,000 cases of sexual violence are stopped by a weapon. People must rely on themselves in the moment of an attack. Every year, citizens kill around double the amount of confirmed criminals than the police. Taking away the most effective method to defend against illegal weapons will undoubtedly raise the number of victims
An increase in gun control could potentially result in repeated history that we have seen during the time of liquor prohibition. In 1920, the 18th Amendment was passed in order to prohibit the non-medical sale of alcohol. This is similar to gun control, in that it is limiting something that could be unethical yet is ubiquitously used in our current culture. The 21st Amendment was created in 1933 to repeal the Eighteenth amendment because of the . This could be the same case for guns. If we decide to limit their production. A Black Market demand for guns has lead to the rise of organized crime like we’ve seen with bootleggers such as Al Capone.
FEATURES
Picture from a gun show in Huston, Texas.
Photo courtesy of M&R Glasgow
A Student Voice: Gray Marler
Q: How do you feel about the legality of Americans obtaining multiple assault rifles?
A: “What difference does the number make?... I think that it doesn’t matter how many you have - it only takes one to kill”
Q: How do you feel about current gun control laws?
A: “Laws are being made by people who don’t truly understand what’s going on because how mean a gun looks has nothing to do with its capacity for killing.”
Q: Why do you think Americans should be allowed to use assault rifles?
A: “I know many people who use assault rifles for hunting… The thing that Americans think is that these guns look aggressive therefor they are better at killing people, and that’s simply not the case because it is in no way better or worse for that - it’s a more adaptive platform.”
Amy Decillis