HUM 152 Cultures Of America: Should Weapons be Legal in America?

Introduction

Weapons are used by countries all across the globe; however, they have significance in American culture. The issue of legalization of possession of weapons in the United States is controversial topic for debate. In the American Constitution, the second amendment contains the legal basis of possession of firearms. Also, the person has to be at least 18 to buy shotguns and rifle and 21 to buy all other handguns. Any person who has a medical history of mental illness or the person had been a criminal and got punished for more than one year are not eligible to buy any kind of weapons. Also, gun possession is declared as legal and feasible by the Supreme Court in D.C. v. Heller 554 U.S. 570 (2008) (Williams, 2014). High-Income Countries has 25 times lesser gun homicide rate than the United States (Beckett, 2016). The United States is completely divided into foremost thinkers which are:

Liberals- they have a thought and ideology of their own that putting actual law binding restriction can save a lot number of lives in America.

Whereas, Conservatives- says that criminals do not mind about the laws, whether they are tough or not, if one has to commit a crime and kill people that person will do the same without any second thought in any case or any scenario and this will not be a good option to reduce the gun’s death.

 The answer is very debatable since it has both pros and cons. The government also knows what is beneficial for the citizens and what is not. This report will discuss their positive and negative aspects of legalization of weapons in the United States along with my personal position. The question about weapons being legalized or not is not just a question but the view regarding this differs from person to person, and hence, government policies and steps were taken in this context will be discussed further to understand more on this topic. This issue is among one of the most heated topics in the United States (Lankford, 2015).

Should the weapon be legal in America?

Well, the very first concept related to weapons is that not only arms like guns but also there are types of weapons for example- chemical weapons, nuclear weapons and so on (Brockes,2018). But when we talk about legalizing the usage of guns in every other household by every normal being two aspects which need to be given more attention is-

Why it should be legal

Yes, the foremost and the utmost thing of having a gun in a house is to protect the family from criminals and intruders. This can be easily understood through an example: like if there is a girl who is 5”5 and hardly is of 60kgs and a man who is 6”1 and he is around 85kgs, and he tries to molest her in any way then in that scenario the girl in a country like US can take advantage of carrying a gun with herself and this can easily lay off the man who is actually would not have been possible without having a gun (Jacobs, 2002).

By creating some restrictions on the purchases can actually be a possibility to reduce a large number of casualties. The legal purchasers will only be few and that too they will be the persons who would not misuse it. Mother Jones also discovered that 75% of the incidents took place were actually legally purchased and hence putting restrictions can easily lead to less number of deaths (Christensen, 2017).

The third and again an important point is that it is a constitutional right of every individual to be protected and can also protect. The constitution states that every human being is important and thus no unnecessary accidents should take place and hence it is every individual’s right to save lives and exists peacefully with no violence (McCarthy, Beckett, & Glenza, 2017).

Why it should not be legal

Every year in the United States more than 10,000+ deaths occur and out of which 7,000 were suicides (Burnett, 2015). That data emphasize improving access to community support, other resources like health services that actually/genuinely can help people in such emergencies/problems. Only warnings are not sufficient in the case where such dangerous weapons are involved otherwise only warning would have been sufficient in every field, but it is not hence punishments are there for such acts.

In a data, it was said that three quarters out of 143 guns possessed by the killers were purchased legally. Most of the riots or massacres happened in the United States are essentially done through legal firearms/guns in order to avoid any further legal problems, and this leads to making things difficult for the person who issued that on his own name. Majority of the crowd in the United States actually just wanted to use “protection” as an excuse to buy guns which create a lot of massacres and incidents (Fox, & DeLateur, 2014). Like a suggestion is to take fingerprints on every gun and through the thumbprint or fingerprint of the registered person the gun can be used which can easily be recorded and tested before as well so that in order to avoid every other kind of misuse and chaos which will be created if someone says that the use of gun was not done and hence now if this (fingerprints) system been used then it can easily be proved or disproved by the person.

As per the facts, this is to be stated that according to a small army survey conducted in year 2011, there are 88 guns per 100 people (average) in US. In the year 2017, it was revealed in a survey of Smalls Arms Survey (2017), U.S Census that more than 393 million civilian-owned firearms. It can be estimated that 120.5 guns for every 100 residents in America.

American Courts have to deal with the huge number of court cases of gunshot. Many of the cases are reporting every day related to firearm murders and suicide in the courts of US. There were laws in America such as handgun bans at the federal, local and state level but it was overturned by the Supreme Court in the case of District of Columbia v Heller 554 U.S. 570 (2008), and McDonald v. Chicago 561 U.S. 742 (2010). These cases hold that the protection has been given to individuals to possess a firearm in the second amendment. 

 The Brady Campaign estimated that in US nearly 114994 people are shot per year (Dw.com, 2018). Recently in 2018, around 2 million people have marched to support the stricter gun control. The issue is very significant. Excluding suicide, around 13000 people were murdered with firearms in US in 2015, which is very crucial number (Mosher and Gould, 2018).

 If to talk about average suicide cases, this is to inform that around 22000 Americans commit firearm suicide that includes more than 950 teens and children (Everytownresearch.org. 2018).  An estimated average of suicides in America is 59 deaths a day.

Personal Position

I did not support legalization of weapons in the United States because I believe that its threats overshadow its benefits. There is a saying that “Guns do not kill people, but people do” and if paid more attention to it, it can be easily understood that making sensible and bit strict gun laws can lessen the number of school shootings and other criminal activities too, by preventing unsafe people access to guns. However, this is not true because the number of mass shooting in the country is increasing rapidly because of legalization of weapons. I believe that states should increase the legal age to obtain weapons to 21 because it can lower the risk of killings as because the anger is very common in the teenage which again is a very common reason for the unnecessary killings whether street or school killings (lee, 2014).

I believe that the number of suicides in the country can be reduced by imposing restrictions on purchase of weapons. The saying that “Precautions are better than cure” is just not a saying but if given a thought deeply then the importance can be easily understood. Just like any individual need a dog to guard its place/home, every other person even a car parking guard needs a gun too, in fact, he/she must be definitely having one by his/her side, this is the most common answer any person or any juvenile in the US states that the gun which the person was holding was for his/her protection not for any mass casualty or any riot (Boseley, 2013). However, it is very easy to understand that more use of gun would definitely bring the issue of more violence. In the current world, full of technology, stress and demotivation, there are high chances of suicide cases in teenagers.

My arguments are supported by the study of Smalls Arms Survey (2017) which shows that number of people who have access to firearms. The study of Mosher and Gould (2018) also supports my arguments because they provided that more than 13,000 people murdered due to firearms. These data did not provide information regarding how many people are saved because of firearms. Complete prohibition on weapons will also limit the access of criminals to the weapons as well which will reduce the number of crimes in the country. The United States is in much need of a strict law or legal policies for gun control to either put a full stop on the massive killings happening due to this, as already mentioned in various articles and news mentioned in this writing and in the references, the government has to take some strict initiatives regarding this. In fact, the government can easily make everything very smooth and effective just by implementing stricter laws. Therefore, I believe that guns should not be legal in the United States.

Conclusion

According to all the reports and data collected through all the major sources, it can be easily concluded that possession of a gun is not a bad thing, but when it comes to legalizing of having firearms or guns then it is not a good idea. Because having a gun in premises will be a major cause of suicides instead of homicides. In fact, in the United States, every other victim who survived suicide is usually was suffering from mental depression, medical bills, underemployment, and social isolation. In fact, there shall be some restrictions too on having legalizing weapons, because the bulk of the mass killing is from the legally purchased guns. Hence, it can easily be concluded that just because anyone wants to ride a horse can take that horse with them anyplace they want too, as because this is not practically possible and if it is done then consequences can be harmful to many in many ways.

Lastly, the violence cannot be controlled by putting restrictions on limiting gun usage but when every child or even adult in the United States get improved education and available to all in anti-bullying schools or institutions. No nation in the world or across the globe can progress or maintain peace unless the citizens are educated and sensible enough to understand the losses of lives and also the result of creating violence in just to fulfil their revenge or to calm their anger. Hence, there is no particular measure or solution to this problem, nor there is an end to this, but the conclusion is to look up for the alternate in which weapons are not at all in the scenario leaving “Security of the Nation”.

References

Beckett, l. (2016). Four countries with gun control- and what America could learn from them. The Guardian:  Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/15/so-america-this-is-how-you-do-gun-control

Boseley, S. (2013). “high gun ownership makes countries less safe, US study finds”. The Guardian: Retrieved from : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/18/gun-ownership-gun-deaths-study

Brockes, E. (2018). “Why do people cling to their guns? We need to get inside their minds”. The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/01/weapons-gun-lover-control

Burnett, D. (2015). Gun demanding: the psychology of why people want firearms. The Guardian: Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2015/oct/07/gun-demanding-control-firearms-psychology

Christensen, J. (2017). “Why the US has the most mass shootings”. CNN. Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/27/health/u-s-most-mass-shootings/index.html

D.C. v. Heller 554 U.S. 570 (2008)

Dw.com. (2018). 8 facts about gun control in the US. Retrieved from : https://www.dw.com/en/8-facts-about-gun-control-in-the-us/a-40816418

Everytownresearch.org. (2018). Firearm Suicide in the United States. Retrieved from : https://everytownresearch.org/firearm-suicide/

Fox, J. A., & DeLateur, M. J. (2014). Mass shootings in America: moving beyond Newtown. Homicide Studies, 18(1), 125-145.

Jacobs, J. B. (2002). Can gun control work?. Oxford University Press.

Lankford, A. (2015). Mass shooters in the USA, 1966–2010: Differences between attackers who live and die. Justice Quarterly, 32(2), 360-379.

Lee, J. & Williams, J. (2014). Pro/ cons: Will more gun control stop school shootings? The Bruin Voice. Retrieved from: https://bruinvoice.net/970/opinion/procon-will-more-gun-control-stop-school-shootings/

Mc Carthy,t., Beckett, L. & Glenza, J.(2017). America’s passion for guns: ownership and violence by the numbers. The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/02/us-gun-control-ownership-violence-statistics

Mosher, D and Gould, S. (2018). The odds that a gun will kill the average American may surprise you. Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.in/The-odds-that-a-gun-will-kill-the-average-American-may-surprise-you/articleshow/63457382.cms