Analytical Essay on Gun Control Opponents

This analytical essay discusses the negative impacts of personal ownership of guns and implores civilians to use guns in a rational manner. It argues that gun control will help to control mass firing incidents and make society safer.

Running head: ANALYTICAL ESSAY
Analytical Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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ANALYTICAL ESSAY
In the article “Let’s Be Honest, Gun Control Opponents” the author Nick Laure talks
about the negative impacts associated with the personal ownership of guns. This particular work
of the author belongs to the genre of persuasive writing where the author is using the method of
persuasion to implore the civilians to use the guns in a rational manner. He admits that all the
owners of guns are not bad but still there are several instances of mass shooting related with the
owning of a personal gun. He is frank in his approach and he dedicates the text especially to the
people who advocates the gun control. He implores the gun owners to be honest and justify the
necessity of personal arms. He also argues that just the passing of the guns law and the
prohibition of the use of the guns by the civilians.
Owning guns does not help in any way to prevent massacres as the perpetrators depend
on the element of shock and surprise while attacking the victims. The killers will always have the
advantage of surprise attack, and under such circumstances, the victims will not have an
opportunity to defend themselves. “Doesn’t honesty feel great? I understand that a little bit of
selfishness is human nature. You probably don’t personally know any of the victims of mass
shootings, and you think you’d be able to use your gun to defend yourself in the event that one
occurred. But forget everyone else, right?”. These lines emphasizes upon the selfishness of the
gun owners who justify their actions by saying that they own a gun in a bid to feel safe1. The
author recalls the incident of mass shooting which happened at the Sandy Hook elementary
school where a 20-year-old teenager named Adam Lanza opened fire inside an elementary
school and killed 28 people2. These types of incidents are quite common in the states where there
is no gun control imposed on the purchase of guns by the common citizens. It is interesting to
note here that the government has several regulations regarding the purchase of guns in the legal
1 Rossi, Peter H. Under the gun: Weapons, crime, and violence in America. Routledge, 2017.
2 Benton, Adrian, Braden Hancock, Glen Coppersmith, John W. Ayers, and Mark Dredze. "After Sandy Hook
Elementary: A year in the gun control debate on Twitter." arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.02060 (2016).

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ANALYTICAL ESSAY
manner however there is no such major regulation regarding the purchase of guns from the black
market. Furthermore, the author argues that the majority of the cases of the misuse of guns are
the cases where the children use the guns of their parents or their family members. Thus, just the
passing of laws regarding the purchase and the sale of guns is not enough. The ability to own
personal guns did not help these poor children and the school staff to prevent the perpetrator
from attacking3. At the same time, the author mentions that arming the guards will also not help
in any way due to the element of surprise. He mentions the incident of shooting that happened at
the Pulse Club, there was a guard present over there who had a gun but it was of no use and the
gunman killed 49 people still4.
The incidents of mass shootings are proof that most of these shooting were done with
personally owned arms5. The people who commit such crimes are mostly mentally sick and
thinking about it logically and honestly, it can be said that these people will not have the ability
to acquire guns illegally. “And you are absolutely right about the fact that people could still get
guns illegally despite gun control measures”. Moreover, the author admits the fact that it is true
that people who would want to own a gun will do that anyhow even by acquiring the same by
illegal means, but it does not justify the reason to impose gun control. A teenager will not have
the required confidence to find a dealer and to acquire a gun in that manner; a mentally ill person
will have a lot of difficulty to do so6. Imposing gun control to stop such random purchase of guns
by common people will help to control the mass firing incidents. He also adds that it is true that
imposing gun control will not stop illegal purchase of arms but it will of course stop most of such
3 Wozniak, Kevin H. "Public opinion about gun control post–Sandy Hook." Criminal Justice Policy Review 28, no. 3
(2017): 255-278.
4 Stewart, Chuck. "Massacre at Pulse Gay Nightclub and LGBT Gun Control Leadership." (2017).
5 Newman, Benjamin J., and Todd K. Hartman. "Mass Shootings and Public Support for Gun Control." British
Journal of Political Science (2017): 1-27.
6 Starbird, Kate. "Examining the Alternative Media Ecosystem Through the Production of Alternative Narratives of
Mass Shooting Events on Twitter." In ICWSM, pp. 230-239. 2017.

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ANALYTICAL ESSAY
unfortunate incidents. The fact has been proved by the gun control act imposed in Australia and
some of the states in the USA, and the rates of crime and mass shooting has reduced a lot7.
The criminals will commit crimes and the murders will kill people, gun control will just
prevent the unfortunate incidents occurring within the society which, can be controlled if certain
preventative measures are adopted. “Oh, and please don’t allow me to forget to touch on one of
your favorite arguments, the one that suggests we might as well outlaw all things that could
possibly be utilized as weapons. Am I forgetting about the time someone single-handedly
murdered dozens of people in minutes with a baseball bat? A sword? A chainsaw?”. Nick Laurie
says that there are several other ways to harm people if one wants to do it, if a criminal or a
terrorist decides to kill people they will take any necessary means to do so by using a bomb, or a
murder someone using a simple bat or a chainsaw. The gun advocates can easily use these
arguments to try to win the case but, to think responsibly and logically gun control will help the
society to a great extent and make it safe comparatively8. Moreover, it is interesting to note that
the focus of the author is on the people belonging to the younger generation. This becomes
apparent from the several examples which he makes related to the incidents that deal with the
young people. This becomes evident when he says that “Let’s consider a kid in Connecticut that
wants to shoot up a school. Do you see him talking to arms dealers in a dark alley downtown? Or
would it...I know you can’t think it’s fair for the rest of us to pay the consequences”.
Furthermore, he tries to repudiate the concept of the “good guy with a gun theory” in the words
like “This isn’t an action movie. You aren’t Liam Neeson....but it completely shuts down the
7 Sarre, Rick T. "Gun control in Australia: A criminological perspective." Browser Download This Paper (2015).
8 McGinty, Emma E., Julia A. Wolfson, Tara Kirk Sell, and Daniel W. Webster. "Common sense or gun control?
Political communication and news media framing of firearm sale background checks after Newtown." Journal of
health politics, policy and law 41, no. 1 (2016): 3-40.

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ANALYTICAL ESSAY
“good guy with a gun” theory. You’re not even fooling yourself with that argument anymore, so
maybe it’s time to be honest about it”.
To conclude, crimes will happen but the people of the society should take up at least
some responsibility to make their own surroundings a bit safer. Gun control will not reduce the
percentage of gun related crimes to zero but it will decrease it to quite an extent and make the
society safer. One can argue for the sake of arguing then they can find our several reasons to
keep their gun with them, but to look at the bigger picture will help everyone in the long run.
Reference List:
Benton, Adrian, Braden Hancock, Glen Coppersmith, John W. Ayers, and Mark Dredze. "After
Sandy Hook Elementary: A year in the gun control debate on Twitter." arXiv preprint
arXiv:1610.02060 (2016).

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ANALYTICAL ESSAY
McGinty, Emma E., Julia A. Wolfson, Tara Kirk Sell, and Daniel W. Webster. "Common sense
or gun control? Political communication and news media framing of firearm sale background
checks after Newtown." Journal of health politics, policy and law 41, no. 1 (2016): 3-40.
Newman, Benjamin J., and Todd K. Hartman. "Mass Shootings and Public Support for Gun
Control." British Journal of Political Science (2017): 1-27.
Rossi, Peter H. Under the gun: Weapons, crime, and violence in America. Routledge, 2017.
Sarre, Rick T. "Gun control in Australia: A criminological perspective." Browser Download This
Paper (2015).
Starbird, Kate. "Examining the Alternative Media Ecosystem Through the Production of
Alternative Narratives of Mass Shooting Events on Twitter." In ICWSM, pp. 230-239. 2017.
Stewart, Chuck. "Massacre at Pulse Gay Nightclub and LGBT Gun Control Leadership." (2017).
Wozniak, Kevin H. "Public opinion about gun control post–Sandy Hook." Criminal Justice
Policy Review 28, no. 3 (2017): 255-278.