Gun control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Gun control - Essay Example This paper will argue that there is a need for national laws regulating the sale of fire arms in gun shows, flea markets, and conventions. The controversy between gun control and gun rights advocates starts with the gun casualty statistics in America. Gun control proponents cite spiraling casualties as the reason for government intervention, while gun rights proponents downplay the carnage. For instance, since the 1990s, statistics compiled that each day in the United States, a person dies by gunshot every eighteen minutes, totaling nearly 30,000 deaths per year: about half of these are suicides, another 11,000 are murders, and about 1,500 are gunshot accidents. (Crooker, p. 1) The Violence Policy Center has reported the following figures on firearms deaths and injuries: Firearms are the second leading cause of traumatic death to a consumer product in the United States and are the second most frequent cause of death overall for Americans ages 15 to 24. Since 1960, more than a million Americans have died in firearm suicide, homiides and unintentional injuries. (cited in Crooker, p. 2) Critics of gun control argue that a rather large empirical literature has failed to establish a consistent, statistically significant link between gun ownership and crime. According to William Shughart, it was even reported that there is a negative relationship (i.e., that gun ownership deters crime), (p. 157) The consensus finding – no statistically significant link – seems consistent with ordinary common sense: Criminals can use guns to prey on law-abiding citizens, but if guns were legal. Law-abiding citizens can also use guns to defend themselves from the criminal elements. It is possible, Harry Wilson (2006) wrote, that all citizens benefit from those who own guns if criminals are deterred because they think a potential victim might be armed. (p. 74) Indeed, there is probably no stopping the individual who is intent upon killing another