Essay - The Major Arguments Against Gun Control Gun Control is One...

THE MAJOR ARGUMENTS AGAINST GUN CONTROL

Gun control is one of the most controversial topics in America, and this discussion is even spread*****g to o*****r parts of the world (Goldring, 1999). This paper will attempt ***** summarize one part of this international debate; specifically, it will deal with the arguments against gun control. This ***** be accomplished by arguing the following premises in this order.

*****. The right to ********** arms is guaranteed ***** ***** Constitution.

2. There is little empirical evidence that gun control is an effective deterrent against crime.

*****. There is much empirical ***** that suggests ***** owning a gun can be a v*****lid and efficient method ***** self-defense.

Argument 1: Constitutional Guarantee

The primary bas***** for many of the ***** against gun control is found in the Second Amendment to the Constitution ***** the United States, which states that "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right ***** the people to keep ***** bear arms shall not be infringed" (Encarta, *****999). However, the courts have never struck down a gun control law *****cause of ***** prov*****ion.

The federal government and all U.S. states have some gun control laws. These ***** are based on several strategies: forbidding ***** who are considered to be unreliable from obtaining any firearms; prohibiting ********** other than the police, the military, ***** persons ***** special needs from acquiring high-risk guns (those that are particularly likely to ***** misused); and requiring waiting periods before purchasing a gun or gun license.

***** U.S. states ***** adopted laws ***** on ********** strategies. Sullum (1994) pointed out the historical precedent of ***** control laws, which were originally racial in nature. "*****fter ***** Civil War, several Southern ***** passed ***** aimed at limiting access to cheap firearms by emancipated blacks. In 1870, Tennessee banned the sale of all but the most expensive hand*****, which blacks generally could not afford. Arkansas enacted a similar ban in 1881" (Sullum, 1994, 27).

David Kopel ***** his 1992 book, The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy, talks about how the influx ***** immigrants from Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe fed support for gun-control measures in the Northeast. ***** 1903, for example, the New York Tribune compla*****ed about pistols found "chiefly in the pockets of ignorant ***** quarrelsome immigrants of law-break*****g propensities" and condemned "the practice ***** going armed...among citizens of foreign birth" (*****, 1992, 17).

Argument 2: Gun Control Does Not Reduce Crime

In 1911, the first person sentenced under a strong ***** York Gun Control L*****w, an Italian immigrant, was lectured by the judge: "It is unfortunate ***** th***** is the custom with you and ********** kind, and that fact, combined with your irascible nature, furnishes much of the criminal business in this country" (Kopel, 199*****, 20).

***** 1993 the Congress of ***** United States ***** the Brady Bill, named after former White House press secretary James *****. The law, which went *****to effect in 1994, provided a five-d*****y waiting period for individuals *****