MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- The issue of stricter gun-control laws has become a very hot topic for Americans over the past few months.
One of the biggest arguments used against gun control is the misconception, “If you outlaw guns, then only the outlaws will have guns.”
According to americansforgunsafety.com,“...guns start out legal. Then they enter the black market one way or the other. So if you have less legal guns then there will be fewer guns entering the black market and consequently fewer outlaws owning guns. Nations with very strict gun-control laws, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan have much lower gun crime rates than the U.S. The most probable explanation for this is criminals in the U.S. have much greater access to guns due to less gun control.
Saying ‘If you outlaw guns only the outlaws will have guns’ is very misleading and completely absurd.
People who are against gun control laws often use the statistics that Washington D.C. has very strict handgun control laws, but has failed to serve their purpose.
According to Colin Loftin, Ph.D., David McDowall, Ph.D., Brian Wiersema, and Talbert J. Cottey, M.S. of the New England Journal of Medicine, In Washington D.C., the adoption of the gun-licensing law coincided with an abrupt decline in homicides by firearms (a reduction of 3.3 per month, or 25 percent) and suicides by firearms (reduction, 0.6 per month, or 23 percent).
No similar reductions were observed in the number of homicides or suicides committed by other means, nor were there similar reductions in the adjacent metropolitan areas in Maryland and Virginia.
There were also no increases in homicides or suicides by other methods, as would be expected if equally lethal means were substituted for handguns.
In a world wrought with increasing violence and senseless slaughter, the opportunity to help stop such tragedies by enacting gun control laws is an obvious choice.
Americans should be allowed the freedom to feel safe and protected in their homes, schools and everywhere else in their community, a freedom that will be brought to fruition through stricter gun control laws.