Reflection Journal 5: Bang Bang

There is a  debated topic in USA recently, especially after the terrible armed attack to a school in December 2012. The topic is whether having gun should be completely banned or not. In USA, acquiring a gun is so simple that anyone wanting to have a gun can get it within one or two days. Add to the easiness of acquiring a gun in legal ways, there are easier ways to get a gun which are called private-party sales and, of course, black market. A great number of the crimes include handgun, and these crimes are the serious problems of America right now. Although there is such a big problem, people who live in this problem cannot arrange settlement to what should be done about the problem. Some gun control supporter claim that banning all the guns would be enough to stop criminals committing crime with guns; yet, banning handguns or guns in general is not enough to prevent criminals from using guns; so, there is no use banning using of guns.

Gun ban laws prohibiting the citizens using gun fail to protect them, these laws may put them in great danger, however. Citizens who do not have guns become vulnerable to criminals because criminals are often red blooded, and they may do everything to get what they want and if their need is a gun, it is really simple to get one from black market or even from private-party sales. When you take the right of having the gun from the innocent citizens, they lose their choice to defend themselves against armed criminals.Moreover, there are quite interesting statistics about the crime rate when gun usage is banned in particular states. On September 24, 1976, Washington, D.C. placed a ban on all handguns; the ban was later overturned on June 26, 2008. Under the regulations of this law, no one other than a police officer was permitted to own a handgun. Authors Agresti and Smith (2010) state that “during the years in which the D.C. handgun ban and trigger lock law were in effect, the Washington, D.C. murder rate averaged 73% higher than it was at the outset of the law, while the U.S. murder rate averaged 11% lower.” (Agresti & Smith, 2010).  A second example of the ineffectiveness of banning handguns is that of Chicago, Illinois. In 1982, Chicago passed a ban on all handguns, except for those that were pre-registered with the police department prior to the ban. According to statistics of Illinois, the percentage of crimes committed with guns varied between 40 percent and 55 percent each year during the pre-ban period. In the years the gun ban was in place, the percentage committed with guns has been 70 percent or more.(Agresti & Smith, 2010). In both examples, we can see how insufficient the gun ban laws were in the past years.        

The second thing proving the paucity of gun ban laws is that there are always other ways to access guns. There are private-party gun sales and you can buy as many guns as you want anonymously. Add to that, private-party sales are not illegal, which causes serious problems when these guns are party to a crime. There is also a big gun trade called black marketing but it is an illegal way to acquire gun unlike to private-party sales. Furthermore, stealing a gun is another alternative way to have a gun for criminals because they have nothing to lose more. All of these ways whether they are illegal or not become a serious problem of citizens when gun ban regulations are realized. Everyone can understand what would be the consequences of the gun ban laws when there are these easy options to get a gun.