Gun Control

Every 23.1 seconds, a violent crime will take place within the United States

Every 385 seconds, a firearm will be used in a violent crime

Every three and a half hours, a victim of violent crime will be shot during the course of the crime

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3By Joe Scotto

Context

• Gun control divisive domestic issue

• Right to bear arms protected under the Second Amendment

– Some contend the law is outdated, and should be changed

• An estimated 200 million firearms within the United States• About one third of households own one or more firearms (Kangas)

• Majority of homicides committed using firearms

– Violent crimes – Robbery, rape, sexual assault, nonsexual assault, murder

• A firearm – A weapon that launches a projectile by using a explosive propellant

• Handgun – A firearm meant to be used with a single hand• Rifle – A firearm with a rifled barrel, intended to be fired from the shoulder• Shotgun – A firearm with a smoothbore barrel, meant to be shot over short

range• Assault rifle – A military-style firearm firing in either automatic or semi-

automatic mode, and implementing two or more of the following: folding or telescopic stock, pistol grip, bayonet lug, capability to attach a flash or sound suppressor or a grenade launcher

• Semiautomatic – Fires a round for each pull of the trigger• Automatic – Fires rounds as long as the trigger is pulled

Important Terms

Handgun

Rifle

Shotgun

Assault rifle

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Though many often cite loose gun control laws as a large contributing

factor in violent crime rates, gun control contributes little to preventing violent crime and diverts attention from real

contributing factors.

Thesis

• More gun control means less guns– Less guns means less crime– Stock of guns available to criminals decreases

• Criminals could no longer purchase guns to use in crime• Majority of homicides are committed using firearms

– 11,457 of the 16,137 homicides in 2004 committed using firearms (Firearms and Crime Statistics)

• If there was tighter gun control, these homicides would not have happened

• During the time of 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, crime rates dropped in half

Counterpoint

• Important for defense of family and property in high-risk areas– Stemming access to firearms would leave citizens at risk (Lieutenant Mori)

• Three quarters of handguns purchased for protection against crime (Guns in America)

– 71% of violent crime victims make an effort to defend themselves (Guns and Crime)

– “An estimated annual average of 62,000 violent crime victims…used a firearm in an effort to defend themselves” (Guns and Crime)

– Proper training with firearms would further reduce crime

Defense

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• Firearms essential for law enforcement

– “A gun has saved my life” (Lieutenant Mori)

– Lieutenant Mori would refuse to be an officer if he could not carry a sidearm, even if all guns were completely banned

More Defense

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Poverty• Poverty has a stronger correlation with crime than gun control

– Eight of the ten states with the highest murder rates are below national poverty level

– Nine of the ten states with lowest murder rates are above national poverty level– Majority of these states share the same gun laws

• Wyoming and Louisiana have almost identical laws, but murder rate in Louisiana is about six times higher

• Maine has much tighter laws than California, yet has a fifth of the murder rate of California

• “When unemployment goes up 1%, there's a 4% increase in homicides, a 6% increase in robberies, a 2% increase in burglaries, and measurable effects on rape and other crimes” (O’Connor)

Thieves Around the World• Extremely tight gun control in England and Wales

– Burglary rates per household in the UK are twice that of the US (Cross-National Studies)

• The Netherlands has tighter gun control than the US, but four times the robbery rates per individual (Cross-National Studies)

• Much lower robbery rates and looser gun laws in US than many first world countries, namely the Netherlands, England, Wales, Scotland, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia– Higher gun control does not

mean less robberies andburglaries

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Crime is Decreasing• Violent crime involving firearms has drastically decreased

– About 1,250,000 crimes in 1993 to about 400,000 in 2003, lowest rate in 20 years (Key Crime)

• Only 6% of rapes, sexual assault, robbery and assault involved firearms– “less than 1% of serious nonfatal violent victimizations resulted in

gunshot wounds” (Firearms and Crime Statistics)

• Only 17% of violent crime victims involving firearms are injured during the crime (Firearm Injury)

– 61% of injured victims receive only small injuries, such as scrapes or bruises (Firearm Injury)

• Attackers with handguns are less likely to injure victims than attackers armed with anything else

Past Laws• 1994 Assault Weapons Ban – Highly ineffective

– Placed heavy restriction on “military-style” assault rifles– Assault weapons used in a small fraction of crimes– From the U.S. Department of Justice: “Further, the banned guns are used

only in a small fraction of gun crimes; even before the ban” (Impacts of the 1994 Assault

Weapons Ban)

– Production of soon-to-be banned assault weapons increased greatly before the ban took place

• Brady Act – Good intentions, but useless– Mandated gun dealers to perform background checks– Decreased amount of criminals buying guns through legal channels

• Illegally obtained firearms increased and crime rates remained unaffected

Who Obeys the Law and Who Doesn’t• Criminals break the law, not law abiding citizens

• Criminals will continue to break the law– 40% of prison inmates in 2002 served three or more previous sentences

(Criminal Offender Statistics)

• Of incarcerated violent criminals, four of five had a previous violent crime conviction (Criminal Offender Statistics)

• 78.8% of criminals using a firearm in a crime obtained it from illegal or uncontrollable source (Firearm Use By Offenders)

– Cannot regulate these sources without infringing on peoples’ rights– “Criminals will always be able to get their hands on firearms” (Lieutenant Mori)

• Criminal juveniles can easily obtain firearms illegally

• 200 million guns in the US is too great a number to regulate

Conclusion• “Stricter gun control will not change our crime whatsoever” (Lieutenant Mori)

• Provides defense for both citizens and law enforcement• Poverty is a greater cause for concern regarding crime• Though US has light gun laws compared to other countries, the US has noticeably lower

armed robbery rates• Crime is already drastically decreasing in the United States, and not due to any gun laws

in effect• Past laws such as the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and the Brady Act failed to properly

address the issue of gun crime• Criminals are the ones who would break gun laws• Criminals will always be able to obtain firearms due to their proliferation within the

country• For these factors, gun control laws cannot noticeably reduce crime

Motivation• Don’t view guns as products of evil

– Only as dangerous as their owner• If you’re 18, go buy a rifle or a shotgun, exert your Second

Amendment rights– Be safe, it isn’t a toy– Learn how to use it, don’t be ignorant

• If you’re not 18, get your parent to buy one and transfer it to you

• Keep a well regulated militia, as it is necessary for the security of a free state

• Learn the laws of the state, don’t be ignorant of your rights

Questions

• How can we prevent criminals from obtaining firearms?

• Is there a way to control firearms without infringing upon citizens’ rights?

• Will firearms ever become outlawed in the United States?

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Works Cited“Assault Weapons”. GunCite. 1 March 2005. 15 April 2006. http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcassaul.html.

“Crime Characteristics”. U.S. Department of Justice. 15 February 2006. 15 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict_c.htm.

“Criminal Offender Statistics.” U.S. Department of Justice. 15 February 2006. 15 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm.

“Firearms and Crime Statistics.” U.S. Department of Justice. 15 February. 2006. 15 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/guns.htm.

“Firearms and Crimes of Violence.” U.S. Department of Justice. 12 August 1998. 19 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/facov.pr.

“Gun Law — European Style.” TIME. 13 May 2002. 16 April 2006. http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2002/0513/guns/laws.html.

“Homicide Trends in the U.S.” US Department of Justice. 28 September 2004. 15 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/hmrt.htm.

Kangas, Steven R. “Gun ownership is not the cause of America's high murder rate.” Unpublished essay. 25 April 2006. http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-gunownership.htm.

“Key Crime & Justice Facts at a Glance.” U.S. Department of Justice. 15 February 2006. 15 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance.htm.

Montaldo, Charles. “Gun Laws by State.” About. 15 April 2006. http://crime.about.com/od/gunlawsbystate/.

Mori, Jeff. Personal interview. 25 April 2006.

“Murder Rates 1995 - 2004.” Death Penalty Information Center. 16 April 2006. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=12&did=169.

O'Connor, Tom. “Poverty, Inequality, and Crime.” Unpublished essay. North Carolina Wesleyan College. 28 February 2006. 15 April 2006. http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/301/301lect07.htm.

United States. National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. October 1994. 19 April 2006. http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/billfs.txt.

United States. National Institute of Justice. Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms. By Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig. May 1997. 19 April 2006. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/165476.pdf.

United States. National Institute of Justice. Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994-96. By Jeffrey A. Roth and Christopher S. Koper. March 1999. 19 April 2006. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/173405.pdf.

United States. U.S. Department of Justice. Cross-National Studies in Crime and Justice. 16 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cnscj.pdf.

United States. U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Firearms-Related Offenses. By Ken Carlson and Tanutda Pittayathikun. May 1995. 18 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ffro.pdf.

United States. U.S. Department of Justice. Firearm Use by Offenders. By Caroline Wolf Harlow, Ph.D. November 2001. 4 February 2002. 19 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fuo.pdf.

United States. U.S. Department of Justice. Firearm Injury from Crime. By Marianne W. Zawitz. April 1996. 19 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fifc.pdf

United States. U.S. Department of Justice. Guns and Crime: Handgun Victimization, Firearm Self-Defense, and Firearm Theft. 15 May 1994. 16 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/hvfsdaft.pr.

United States. U.S. Department of Justice. Guns Used in Crime. By Marianne W. Zawitz. July 1995. 18 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/guic.pdf.

United States. U.S. Department of Justice. Violent Crime. April 1994. 18 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/viocrm.pdf.

United States. U.S. Department of Justice. Weapon Use and Violent Crime. By Craig Perkins. September 2003. 18 April 2006. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/wuvc01.pdf.

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