Summary: The Great Gun Debate

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Hager 1. Beth Hager Professor: Brian Young English M01C 6 October 2013 The Great Gun Debate: To Cease Fire or not to Cease Fire Firearms have been a matter of political interest since 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. The recent and cumulative incidents of public shootings have put gun control into the forefront of the political arena. The issue of gun control has become a hallmark of modern society much like the abortion issue. As such it brings with it an essence of emotional fervor. Those in favor of gun control advocate that reducing the occurrence of fire arm related crime may only be achieved through the passing of stricter gun laws. This belief has been proven to be counterproductive in that the results of stricter…show more content…
This study was published on September 13. 2010 and later revised on February 11. 2013. This study was intended to be non- bias and contains footnotes with numbers that meticulously document every fact. In the Hager 2. introduction the two authors state that, it is usually imperative to conduct surveys in order to accurately measure every facet of the gun control issue.[ 1 Agresti ,Smith] How valid a given survey is depends upon the honesty of those taking the survey. There may or may not be reluc- tance on the part of the participants to render truthful answers do to fear of what the informa- tion may or may not be used for. [ 2 Agresti, Smith].For the purpose of presenting the facts in an un-bias manner the authors cite only the most credible surveys, with footnotes that provide insight into their construction and how the results are interpreted. In this study the authors document that in 1920, Britain passed a gun law severely restricting gun ownership. This law required the applicant to obtain a certificate from Scotland Yard, pay a fee and obtain the appr- val of the chief of police relating to their need for protection and the state of their…show more content…
The title 43-1 statistic reflects the authors’ belief that for every justified shooting there are forty-three of which are unjustified. Included in these shooting statistics are suicides, accidents, and crime related shootings [ 9 Heumer]. Kellerman and Raey feel that stricter gun laws are consistent with a decrease in the number of unjustified shootings. The 43-1 statistic fails to acknowledge the crimes which are prevented because of the citizens use of firearms [ 10 Heumer ]. One effect of this is an inaccurate ratio relating to self-defense. In the 43-1 statistic all but six of the deaths in their ratio were due to suicide. Including deaths due to suicide to the ratio is misleading in that the ways in which suicide may be accomplished without the use of firearms by far outweigh the presumption that these lives would have been saved had these firearms not been available to these people. In relation to the international comparison illustrated in the 43-1 statistic the authors do not account for the unfairness of the comparison based on the contrast of other countries due to the fact that consistent laws govern these nations . In the United States there are

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