With the recent Virgina Tech massacre surely we are to learn from the constant gun violence in America. If one denies that the easy accessibility of guns in the US is not to blame then how can one justify the increased number of killings in America compared with other Nations.
Whilst I accept that a ban on hand guns in the states wouldn’t necessarily stop gun crime overnight, it would at least stop the production of guns. Whilst most guns used in crime may be illegally owned/purchased they must surely be legally made.
The argument that sport is a good enough reason to keep guns legal is mistaken as a very small percentage of crime is committed by sporting weapons. I refer to the use of subautomatic machine guns, automatic shotguns and the like, which have no sporting merit at all.
By banning most weapons if not all the production of these weapons would slow down thereby reducing the ease of access to these weapons and the number of them, this has to be the first step in reducing gun crime and gun death.
In the US, we have seen an extremely pervasive violent gunculture, leading to the inevitable higher deaths. The right for an American to bear arms surely has helped this culture to gain footing (although not ignoring other factors such as social exclusion and widespread poverty).
We are constantly reminded by Charles Heston (NRA) who portrays guns as a form of protection.
The culture of ‘the right to protect yourself’ in America won’t just go away. However many people instinctively protect themselves because so many have guns. Making guns illegal however would certainly reduce the number of lawabiding house owners who keep a gun in the bottom drawer of their desk ‘for protection’. I believe that these people are among the causers of gunrelated deaths (through either loosing control of their anger, or through kids picking the guns up and playing with them).
The solution is complicated; tackling social problems and asking which are the safer streets, the ones where the public are allowed to own guns or the ones where the sale of guns to the public is banned?
I’m an idealistic (you may even say naive), but ultimately, and in the longrun, the overwhelming majority of the public have no right to carry or own weapons designed to kill.