Gun Control In America Analysis

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Fear drives opposition to gun control By David Frum (CNN) -- There will be no new gun laws after the Aurora shooting for the basic reason that the American people do not want them. Over the past 20 years, support for gun control has collapsed in the United States. Three-quarters of Americans want to keep the right to own handguns, weapons whose only function is to kill human beings at close range. In 1959, 60% of Americans wanted handguns banned outright for all but police officers. Little to gain, lots to lose for Obama and Romney on guns Responding to public opinion, states have loosened gun laws to allow citizens to carry weapons with them almost anywhere they go. In Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee and Virginia, it's legal to carry a gun…show more content…
In the mid-2000s, when crime rates were declining fast, almost 70% of Americans wrongly said that crime rates had risen over the past year. Analysis: Why gun controls are off the agenda in America What force on earth could convince Americans that down is up? The most powerful force of all: television. TV news -- and especially local TV news -- is dominated by news of violent crime, the more spectacular and murderous the better. TV news creates a false picture of a country under attack by rampaging criminals, and especially nonwhite criminals. The people who watch the most TV news, Americans older than 50, also happen to be the group most likely to own a gun. Only one-fifth of young Americans own a gun; one-third of over-50 Americans do. Republicans are twice as likely to own a gun as Democrats. Maybe not so coincidentally, Republicans are more likely to watch the scariest news channel of them all: Fox. Whites are twice as likely to own a gun as nonwhites -- and it may also not be a coincidence that gun purchases have suddenly spiked since November 2008. Proponents of gun control are baffled that horrific massacres such as the one in Aurora, Colorado, do not lead to stricter gun control. They have their causation…show more content…
One very strong one is that fear drives people to be against gun control. Just like in the play, when people get afraid that they will be hurt or torn from their families, they blame others out of fear. One strong counterpoint that the argument has is that due to the second amendment,” nobody will take your guns away.” Just like in “The Crucible,” families do not want to be torn apart because of false accusations and safety precautions. People with the most knowledge about guns make up the highest percentage of people that own guns. Unlike in the play where kids start the blame-fest and everybody believes

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