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Do guns kill or do people kill people?
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More guns corresponds to more death

Among developed nations, the US is by and large the most homicidal — in large part due to the easy access many Americans have to firearms. When more guns are available to civilians, there is more death.

The Argument

A country with fewer guns available to citizens will have fewer deaths. Statistically, it is unlikely for a country with fewer semi-automatics available to their civilians to have more cases of gun violence and mass shootings in comparison to countries with strict gun control laws.[1] In 1994, there was a US federal ban on assault weapons that went into effect through 2004. As a result, September 1994 to 2004 was associated with a 25 percent drop in gun massacres and a 40 percent drop in fatalities.[2] Reducing the number of semiautomatic firearms that are designed for rapid fire and large-scale destruction of life, reduces the number of gun violence incidents and related deaths. If all guns were effectively banned and taken away from citizens, there would be no more gun-related deaths.

Counter arguments

Guns don't kill people, because gun control does not work to stop death. More guns do not always correlate to more death. There are plenty of countries that have strict gun control laws and have relatively fewer guns in the hands of civilians. And yet, these countries still see gun violence to an equivalent extent as before their gun control laws or as equal to nations without struct gun control laws. For instance, the claim that Australia's gun laws reduced gun homicides and violence is not entirely true. Australia's gun confiscation is not the only explanation for falling homicide rates because firearm-related suicides had been declining in Australia for nearly ten years before the 1996 restrictions were introduced.[3] Banning guns is not the most effective means of stopping gun violence and related deaths. Bad guys who are looking to cause harm will always find a way to get their hands on guns. For instance, America is home to hundreds of millions of guns.[4] Regardless of gun control laws, criminals, the mentally ill, and terrorists manage to obtain firearms. They always have been and they will always be able to. To believe otherwise is dangerously naive because doing so means the real problem will never be addressed, which is the people who pull the trigger.

Proponents

Premises

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts
  2. https://search.proquest.com/docview/2284226502/ED0FBFC3B34D4E53PQ/3?accountid=11752
  3. https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/10/australia-gun-control-obama-america/
  4. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/10/03/robert-farago-gun-control-doesnt-work-editorials-debates/106276624/
This page was last edited on Monday, 19 Oct 2020 at 01:13 UTC

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