Argumentative Essay: The Science Of Gun Control

The Second Amendment of the Constitution was created to protect the right of individuals and militia to keep and bear arms. In 2015 a survey of American fears was conducted by Chapman University which reported that 36.5% of Americans said they were “afraid” or “very afraid” of gun control (Ledbetter). Gun control has become a hot button issue within the scope of politics. This brings to the surface questions of why Americans are so afraid of gun control. An increased push in the desire for gun control legislation causes fear in Americans because of the perceived loss of control with personal protection. Along with this lack of control comes increased feelings of vulnerability, self-preservation, and a lack of empowerment.
Before understanding
why Americans fear losing guns, one must understand why they are so important to American culture. The love affair with citizens and guns is encoded in American DNA, it is a matter of their world view. A world view is the perception of an individual or society including whole individual or societal points of view and knowledge. The cultural, racial, religious, and economic diversity of Americans all contribute to an individual stance on gun control. For example, guns can infer social status in American culture, meaning more or better guns provide the perception of higher status (Burnett). These perceived views of status can push the division of gun control regulation even further among Americans.
According to a Gallup poll from 2005, the most common reason an American owned a gun was for protection (Burnett). An article in ScienceDaily talks about a study published in The American Journal of Medicine. In this study the risks of guns in the United States are compared to that of the risks in 22 other high-income nations. The results are frightening; Americans are ten times more likely to be killed by a firearm of some sort than other citizens of countries in the developed world (Elsevier). Concluding this, why do 36.5% of Americans fear the loss of guns? Given American obsession with firearms, the loss of guns as a means of personal protection could also create feelings of vulnerability, a need for self-preservation, and a lack of empowerment.
Feeling vulnerable can be uncomfortable in any situation.
However, when innocent people are being robbed, assaulted, and even murdered, this can cause one to feel even more vulnerable. The desire for guns then arises from the vulnerability posed with these criminal activities and the fear of other people (Hargrove and Perdue 225). When bad things are happening to innocent people, the danger of something bad happening becomes more real. Daniel Gardner, author of The Science of Fear, explains that some cases push our risk-perception buttons; specifically in this case the issue of gun control legislation causes a sense of personal risk to arise
(Gardner).
Gardner refers to two systems on thinking, system one which is gut feelings and system two which is reason (Gardner). When Americans citizens feel that their right to bear arms is being taken away, their mind tries to rationalize why the government would do this. Rather than seeing the issue logically they go with their gut feeling that the government is doing this to make them feel vulnerable and unprotected. This will cause the citizen to want the option of personal protection, which can be achieved through owning a gun. Dean Burnett states that, “Humans are all about self-preservation and prone to anticipating worst-case scenarios, so if you’re surrounded by people with guns, it would be logical to conclude you need one too” (Burnett). Individual risk without a gun for protection is huge, that is if being without one is personally endangering, the situation is riskier. It is not surprising to find that self-preservation is natural to humans, or that power over other people is held with pride.
The right to possess guns can be empowering to citizens, and losing this right would increase the perception of their inability to protect themselves and others.
In the mid-2000s crime rates began declining fast. Despite this trend, 70% of Americans still wrongly believed that crime rates are on the rise (Frum). The criminal world will always be something for citizens to worry about. According to William Vizzard, evidence supports the conclusion that criminals prohibited from guns acquire them most often from acquaintances or through illegal markets (Vizzard 894). When crime looks like it is at an all-time high, it will seem that law enforcement is slowly becoming more ineffective. With the thought of police protection spread thin, Americans will worry that police will begin showing up at the crime scene, too late to be of any help. This is what will cause citizens to take matters into their own hands and why they feel safer with guns readily available to them for their own defense. Fear of gun control brings to light many reasons as to why personal protection is so important to Americans. The avoidance of feelings like vulnerability, the need for self-preservation, and a lack of empowerment all contribute to the perceived inability of self-protection. Concluding these feelings is the reason that 36.5% of Americans fear the loss of their right to bear
arms.