The Government Takes the Shot
According to a nationwide poll, 52 percent of Republicans want the gun laws kept as they are, while 66 percent of Democrats want stricter laws (down from 78 percent in February). Half of gun owners themselves want gun laws overall kept as they are, but a quarter of them call for stricter laws. I personally believe the government should make laws stricter concerning weapon control.
Every year there are about 649 deaths caused by guns and all of those deaths can be stopped if the government controls their gun laws a little more than they are now. Most people believe that they should control guns more but nobody exactly knows how they can do that, criminals buy illegal guns to avoid background checks, how can that be stopped?
The last time weapon laws were changed was in 1994 the law ban assault weapons but was soon expired in 2004. Today, if purchasing a gun, you have to go through background checks, so how do criminals and serial killers get passed these background checks? Illegally. Most people think that criminals get guns by stealing them but in reality stolen guns account for only about 10% to 15% of guns used in crimes. Most criminals get other people to get their guns for them, this is because stealing a gun would take too much time and criminals want to get their guns fast, so they pay other people to buy guns for them. This dodges all background checks and is an easy way to get access to guns.
Two bombs exploded in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2013 killing at least three people and injuring more than 140 in a bloody scene of shattered glass and severed limbs that raised alarms that terrorists might have struck again in the U.S. This incident was caused by people or 1 person who illegally bought bombs and guns; this is only one of the hundreds of people who have done the same thing without getting caught until after the fact. This shows that illegal weapon buying needs to be more controlled by the government.
A heavily armed man walked into a Connecticut elementary school December 14th, 2013 and opened fire, shattering the quiet of this southern New England town and leaving the nation reeling at the number of young lives lost. Within minutes, 26 people were dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School, 20 of them children. This tragedy shows that this one man was able to purchase enough guns and enough ammunition to kill 26 people in the course of minutes. In my opinion nobody should be able to purchase that many guns even if they do pass the background checks. But these guns were bought illegally which brings us back to the fact of finding a way to stop illegal gun purchases.
A lot of people argue that guns and weapons make us safer rather than less safe because of self-defense problems. On the other hand they wouldn’t need self-defense if guns were more controlled. Also, there is the argument of the 2nd amendment- the right to bear arms, but we have changed the constitution before, so why can’t we now when lives are in danger? All of these arguments about “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”, are missing a valid point; if there are no guns to kill people with then people don’t have the chance to kill because they don’t have the recourses to kill anyone. Finally, self-defense wouldn’t be a problem and neither would any of these arguments if the government decided to control gun use.
My opinion is that weapons should be more controlled by the government. I think this because the amount of tragedies and incidents, happening because people can get easy access to weapons, is overwhelming and ridiculous. Since 1982 there has been at least 63 mass shootings where people have been killed or injured because of violent weapons that the criminals shouldn’t have access to in the first place. All in all the government should figure how to make gun laws stronger and try to find a way to ban illegal weapon purchasing.
Obviously, there are 2 distinct opinions concerning gun control, my opinion is that weapons should be more controlled and there should be more laws to stop illegal weapon purchasing and use. There have been way too many tragedies for this not to be done. So all in all I believe that the government should work on passing new laws and being a lot stricter towards this issue.
Works cited
Durkan, Jenny A. "Editorials / Opinion." The Seattle Times (2 Feb. 2013). Web. 03 May 2013.
Zezima, Katie. "Newtown Shooting Details Emerge In Aftermath Of Sandy Hook Tragedy." The

Huffington Post (22 Dec. 2012). Web. 03 May 2013.