Compare and Contrast Essay: Gun Bans with Works Cited

Gun Bans: for Better or for Worse?

Gun bans are very simple in theory, just take everyone’s guns, but the results are drastic. Removing all guns from the American Citizens hands will have effects on many aspects of life. This simple plan proposed countless times by countless politicians will make many people angry and others glad. This is great in theory, but the real life consequences will outweigh the benefits.
There are some benefits acquired by banning guns. For instance, if all guns were to be banned in the United States, then some of the simple, very preventable deaths could be prevented. For example, a child is left at home and finds a gun in his father’s dresser drawer. The child accidently discharges the gun and fatally wounds himself. This accident would be easily preventable; simply remove the culprit, the firearm. “The reason, plain and simple, is guns. We own more guns per capita than any other high-income country” (Olsen). For another example, a teenager is having trouble in high school with a bully and decides to take the pistol that’s in his house and brought it to school to solve his problem. If there were no guns in citizen’s houses, there would be no more school shootings; plain and simple.

Handguns lead to may crimes. “Hand guns have been shown to lead to crimes more frequently than rifles or shotguns.”(Olsen). They can be easily concealed and brought to the nearest convenience store for some quick cash. Handguns also prove to be the biggest crime inducing guns in the cities because of their availability and small size. In Washington D. C. they banned all handguns and required all other firearms to be disassembled within city limits in hopes to quell the enormous amount of crime there. To the legislators believed that the removal of all guns would decrease the crime rate drastically. Considering that most crimes are made with a gun in hand or the person who commits the crime has a gun in hand, this is a very logical solution.

Furthermore, the removal of guns would save many lives in law enforcement. Police officers put
their lives at risk every day because the populous has firearms in their possession. Police officers jobs would be drastically easier if the criminals didn’t have guns and the cops did. Also, Police officers are shot or killed everyday because of the amount of firepower criminals have.

Removing firearms from the equation would save a great deal of police officers lives. The amount of organized crime would go down because all of their power is derived from their use of firearms and that is a significant amount of their profit. After gun profits is removed from organized crime, they would have to resort to drug sales, which would be a lot easier to stop if the drug dealers didn’t have guns. Those in support of firearms bans argue that having no guns at all in the homes of Americans would make everyone feel safer at home and in public.

Banning guns has many benefits but the criminals could get their guns from various illegal sources, such as black market and other countries. Most of the guns used in crimes are bought illegally or stolen anyway, so that proves the ban wouldn’t affect the criminal’s ability to commit crime. The bottom line is that if criminals need a gun, they will get one. “Since 1976, it's been illegal in Washington, DC to own any handguns or to keep any type of gun in your home unlocked and fully assembled. However, Washington, DC is the ‘murder capital of the United States.’”(Kopel). This concept of banning guns has been tried and has failed terribly; it has had an opposite affect on crime rates.

There is one major flaw of the country wide gun ban; it goes against the constitution. The second amendment clearly gives us the “right to bear arms” which led us to the founding of our country. When we were ruled over by a different country that didn’t allow us the proper freedoms, the citizens rose up with their guns in hand and overthrew the British government. That is the reason that amendment is in the constitution to permit the general population to form a militia. If the average citizen was denied the right to have a gun, the military could come one day and just sweep through the country and impose a whole knew government on us without our permission or say in any part of it. Also, this would put the country at greater risk for invasion. Any country would be able to come to America and take over the country without any resistance from the citizens. This would lead to a helpless feeling among the population. That is why the right to bear arms in this country is so important to the nation.

Another drawback the gun ban would be the fall in the United States economy. The productions of firearms employ hundreds of thousands of people and are the life blood of multibillion dollar corporations. If we were to stop the production of firearms these companies would go out of business and they would have to lay off all of their employees. Corporations don’t just pay their employees, they pay millions in taxes and also pay other companies for the materials to produce guns.

Those in favor of the ban of firearms must not realize the importance of guns to the entire country. This county was built around them, with them and for them. If we remove firearms from the citizens of the United States of America it would go against everything this county stands for.

Works Cited

Kopel, David. "Will you be Safer if Guns are Banned?." International Sociey for Individual Liberty. 1995. 6 Dec 2008 .
Olsen, Terry. "Ban all (hand)guns!." OlsenOline. 17 Apr 2007. 6 Dec 2008 .