Opinion Essay
No Reason For Strict Gun Control Laws Guns have been an important part of the United States of America’s history. This right is part of the Second Amendment which was inserted into the United States Constitution on December 15,1791 with the purpose of giving the people the right to bear arms. Currently gun control is a controversial topic in the United States, and a great part of the population demand more gun control laws; people believe that guns are the cause for crimes and schools tragedies like Columbine. I believe and I will demonstrate that guns are not the problem, and that guns also save vulnerable people, so creating stricter laws does not reduce crimes.
The first and most important point is that guns are the great equalizer. What does this mean? What it means is that guns balance the power between the strong and the defenseless, making it more difficult for the strong to overcome the susceptible. This equalizer benefits women, the handicapped, and elderly people. Imagine a situation where an 8-month pregnant woman is alone in her house, and a thief just broke into her house. If she has the same weapon he does, which weapon would you prefer for her: a baseball bat, a knife or a gun? Well if you choose the baseball bat or the knife, she gets killed 99.9 % of the time, but with a gun, she has higher chance to survive. Even a warning shot is enough to scare him. Thus, guns support people unable to defend themselves to survive in critical situations.
The second point is that some people think light gun control laws increase crime rates, but this is false. Thirty one states in the United States that have laws allowing private citizens to carry concealed weapons have, on average, a twenty four percent lower violent crime rate, a nineteen percent lower murder rate, and a thirty nine percent lower robbery rate than states that forbid concealed weapons, according to Cato