The Need for Stricter Gun Control in America

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1ACADEMIC WRITING
Strict Gun Control refers to a plethora of officially authorized restrictions that is meant to
impose firearm security on the general populace. It is governed by the fact that good citizens as
well as notorious criminals inflict a high percentage of death and injury due to widespread
prevalence of guns in society. In order to prevent criminal gun violence, one should introduce
measures for gun control. According to scholars, one should ensure handgun scarcity among the
general population. In addition, carefully- crafted firearms control policy can lead to a decrease
in criminal violence. This paper will try to show how measures of gun control can reduce the
homicidal rate of America.
The United States of America is plagued by violence in the form of massacres and mass
murders that is caused by citizens who possess firearms, most notably guns (Cornell, 2017). The
gun control issue affects many Americans whether they support the right to possess guns, or gun
violence has a detrimental effect on their community. Apart from reducing violence in the
streets, by making guns scarcer in society, America’s suicide rate will also decrease, as the
general population will have less access to guns. Greater availability of guns leads to more crime
that is violent in nature (Cornell, 2017). Gun control will lead to a decrease in accidental
shootings, murder, non-lethal gun violence and mass murders as well as suicides. Gun control
laws lead to reduction of violent crime and the government should pass stricter laws against gun
control. Stricter laws against gun control would reduce the instances of mass murders. One
should criminalize the production, sale and possession of guns by the general population. The
easy availability of guns, whose only purpose is to kill human beings, only leads to massacres.
Guns should be banned from the streets because they have no purpose other than to kill. Keeping
in mind the safety of the public, the responsibility lies with the government to ban weapons that
are commonly used for purposes that are criminal in nature (Cornell, 2017).

2ACADEMIC WRITING
In the wake of the December 12 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, Newtown
Connecticut, wherein a person killed twenty first-grade students and six adults, surveys have
shown that a majority of American population favour banning “assault weapons” in order to
prevent school shootings and also minimizing casualties (Jacobs, 2015). The Sandy Hook
massacre led to state level proposals to ban assault weapons. Maryland passed a ban against
assault weapons for the first time. Colorado, Delaware, New York and Connecticut tightened
their existing Assault Weapons Bans (Jacobs, 2015). Assault weapons are weapons of war and
are not meant to be used on city streets. Assault weapons are manufactured with one purpose in
mind and that is to kill human beings. Assault weapons have no place in civilized society and
ought to be banned. Banning assault weapons is a stepping-stone to broader gun control (Jacobs,
2015).
It has been noted that in nations where the majority of the people owned firearms were
more susceptible to gun violence and mass shootings, for example the United States of America
(Lewis 2018). There is a strong relationship between gun control and deaths caused by firearms.
For example, the United States of America, most unfortunately surpasses all other nations when
it comes to incidents of mass shootings. However, due to the training provided by the police on
ways to respond to a mass shooting, the casualty rate per incident is comparatively low than
other countries (Lewis, 2018). Thus, gun control is the need of the hour since gun control is
associated with a decrease of instances pertaining to mass murder.
A plethora of factors lead to gun violence, which includes institutional and ideological
forces which creates a context wherein so many people are willing to take the life of others,

3ACADEMIC WRITING
poverty, law enforcement, population density and mental illness such as people who suffer from
schizophrenia and personality disorders (Lewis, 2018). Population is one of the major factors for
gun violence. A higher population offers a greater number of opportunities to commit crimes and
a big pool of people from where the perpetrators of gun violence can draw from. Emotions are
another factor as emotions motivate behaviour, which can facilitate anger. Aggressive acts of
violence are preceded by increasing feelings of anger, contempt and disgust. Outrage or anger,
contempt that is based on a feeling of superiority, and disgust motivated elimination also leads to
incidents of violence and carnage. Thus, appraisals and emotions lead to violent behaviour.
Strain, victimization, social learning also are also factors that lead to carnages in society. Apathy,
devaluation of the life of humans and social isolation also facilitate gun violence. Gun violence is
also related to gun ownership that is irresponsible in nature, i.e. people not abiding by rules on
gun safety, parents failing to ensure that their guns are out of reach from their children among
other factors. Gun violence is also perceived to be caused by an individual who is suffering from
some deep aberration (Rostron, 2013). A highly materialistic society where people embrace a
highly materialistic life leads anything that lies outside the material realm, including human life,
to be devalued. This is one of the most significant factors that facilitates gun violence. Stiff and
increased levels of competition prevalent in society also contributes to dissatisfaction with
oneself, one’s work and leads to anger and disgust thereby promoting gun violence. It is in this
social context, that homicides that are related to gun violence takes place. The feeling of
powerlessness that people feel in a neoliberal society also contributes to gun violence. Since
social ties tends to get weakened and individuals are reduced to “consumers” in a materialistic
society, a lot of people perceive themselves to be incapable of making a difference to society and
feel irrelevant (Lewis, 2018). Thus, the multitude incidents of gun violence, carnages, mass