Gun Control

Gun Control, No Thank You On December 17, 2012 Jesus Manuel Garcia became upset because his girlfriend had broken up with him. Jesus text messaged his girlfriend saying he was going to go to the restaurant he worked at, and shoot someone. His girlfriend called the police about his message but by that time Jesus Manuel Garcia was at the restaurant he worked at, armed. He walked in and attempted to open fire but his weapon jammed. The patrons and employees fled the restaurant to the movie theater next door. Jesus followed them into the lobby and opened fire, hitting a man in the chest. By this time, an off duty police officer, who was working security, followed Jesus Manuel Garcia into the men’s’ restroom. He did not fire at her but because his gun was drawn the off duty officer fired one shot and wounded Jesus, the off duty officer then seized his weapon and arrested the would be killer. Both Jesus, and the man shot were taken to the hospital and are expected to recover. This story was not all over the news, unlike the Newtown shooting. In my belief, it was because no one was killed and the “bad guy” with the gun was stopped by a “good guy” with a gun. Because the media could not use this story as another example to ban or make stricter laws against guns. I do not think that laws should be any stricter to get guns, but the ones in place do need to be enforced. Banning guns all together would never work in this country, to many people own one or more guns and very few would freely hand their weapons over to the government. To many American’s support the second amendment for anything to be passed and I also believe that if it was passed that people would fight to keep the guns they have. The government would literally have to go to every house in United States and search them for all fire arms if all weapons are banned, and that just isn’t possible. Also, making guns harder to get would not affect most criminals to get guns because the majority of fire arms used by criminals are not legally owned. Stolen guns account for 15% of guns used in crimes. The next way a criminal gets a gun is when they have an anonymous associate who can buy a gun legally buy the gun for the criminal. Another way criminals get guns are from corrupt licensed gun traders or gunsmiths. But the largest are illegal street dealers who buy guns legally or acquire them illegally and then sell them illegally for cash. When criminals who are arrested and have an illegal gun on their person are asked how they acquired their firearm, 56% said they paid cash, 15% claim it was a gift, 10% say they borrowed the gun, 8% say they traded for the gun, and 5% say they stole the weapon. Even if gun control laws become sterner it will not stop the distribution of illegal firearms to criminals. It will just make it harder for law abiding citizens to obtain firearms to defend themselves and their families. Also, any new laws would not affect the guns that are already illegally acquired. If an illegal street dealer already had illegal guns, then the new gun laws would not affect his sales. If anything it would just increase the value of his weapons, earning them more money. I believe in concealed carry because I feel that a potential thief or murder would think twice about harming a person if they don’t know if that person could hold a firearm on them at that exact moment. I don’t think it’s necessary for military weapons to be legal but what people claim to be assault weapons are far from military grade weaponry. They are considered to be an assault weapon only because of the appearance of the firearm. A Ruger 10/22 is a perfectly legal gun, but if a person bought enough aftermarket attachments, they could give the weapon the appearance of an assault weapon which would then make it illegal if assault style weapons are banned. Assault style weapons are not being banned because of their caliber but because they look aggressive and more deadly than an average gun. A person could do the exact same amount of damage with a simple hand gun as they could with a so called assault weapon. Simi-automatic hand guns can hold up to fifteen rounds or have as few as seven rounds. It depends on the gun, make, and caliber, but the majority of those hand guns can be emptied and reloaded quickly. Banning assault style weapons would not decrease the number of shootings or murders in America, those guns would just be replaced with a handgun or shotgun. A pump action shotgun can hold up to four to nine shot before the person has to reload. Banning assault style weapons will not lower the numbers of shooters, or their efficiency. The reason the story from above was not on all the major news stories is because it was prevented by an off duty officer using her gun to protect all those innocent people. If the shooter would have wounded, or killed multiple people before he was stopped then people would cry out for the need to ban weapons. But instead he was quickly stopped and the city of San Antonio are awarding the police officer an award that she well deserves. I feel like because hardly anyone was injured and no one was killed is why it wasn’t over the major news channels. No congressman or woman used this story to support gun rights, because they are so set on making it harder to get a gun that they are censoring the news to help their fight. Also, you don’t see any other stories similar to this one being released very much. You hardly hear about a police officer stopping criminals with his or her firearm, unless an unnecessary amount of people are injured are killed. If the government really wants to reduce the amount of gun crimes then they need to enforce the laws that are already in place and heighten gun education at a young age. When I was in middle school, our principle had a police officer come to class to teach us about gun safety and everyone received a free gun lock to bring home. If all schools taught mandatory classes for gun safety, then people would understand how to safely store their guns, and how to respect the firearms that they or their family owned more. Banning more guns or making guns harder to get ahold of will not stop the amount of gun crimes and shootings. The government needs to focus on gun education at an appropriate age, and the media needs to stop painting the gun as a tool only for criminals or deranged shooters. If the government tried to ban weapons or heighten gun control, people would be outraged instantly. But showing kids at a young age how to properly use, store, and respect a firearm then maybe they will be less likely to use it on another person when they grow up. Also, teaching younger generations how to safely store their weapons will lower the amount of private guns stolen in later years, keeping less guns of the streets. There will always be violent crimes and shootings but keeping less illegal guns off the streets, and making sure that a trained police officer is nearby with a fire arm will lower the number of these deadly shootings.

Work cited http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/guns.html, The Frontline. Hot Guns. 1995-2013 web access.