Ethics Paper on Gun Control

Do citizens need to own guns?

Guns are responsible for killing and destroying lives across America. Each day the hospitals are filled up with young men and women admitted with severe gunshot injuries. The situations vary from accidents, self-defense, to cruel assaults. Now guns are becoming a large concern of a society. How to stop them from getting into the wrong hands? Do we need to increase the control of firearms? Is there a serious problem of gun violence in the United States or the situation is exaggerated?

Every year there are more than 26,000 victims of the gun-related situations in the United States. (1) Recently the issue has become even more important due to obtaining guns by children and bringing them to school. About 2 million American children live in homes with guns that are not stored properly. (2) This leads to serious injuries and unintentional kills of other people. The USA has one of the largest reported rates of children gun deaths in the world. As the number of incidents is considerably underreported, we can only imagine the real consequences of the firearm violence.

Most schools are looking for the ways to make it impossible to bring guns onto school grounds. They adopt various policies to discourage weapons in schools, such as installing metal detectors, locking all entrances to school except one, banning the use of lockers. Many schools consider implementing the uniforms as the long coats and baggy clothing let to bring weapons without being noticed. Those schools that have never had security guards are getting them now to ensure the student safety. Schools also decide to ban the backpacks that can be used for carrying guns. Instead, they provide students with a set of textbooks for school and materials for home. These efforts are aimed at lowering the chances to bring weapons to school.

There are many measures to prevent guns from entering the wrong hands, but the question is, why don’t they always work? The purchase of weapons in largely unregulated in the United States. The right to bear arms is the constitutional right. The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution says, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” (3) However, the original intent of the Amendment is usually perverted by guns enthusiasts who love to cite it as the defense to their right to carry any weapon. There has never been a successful attempt to amend the Constitution in this respect and it is not likely to be in the near future.

Currently, almost everyone in the United States has a gun. With such a great amount of firearms and so few means to control them, there is no way to keep these guns from the criminals. Therefore, citizens claim that they need more guns, not less, to protect themselves from the violent criminals. Guns are frequently used for the self-defense, and the gun owners use this fact to advocate the weapons ownership. A gun is a tool. Like any tool, it has many functions, including hunting, target shooting, and self-protection. It all depends on the person who has it whether it is used safely. After all, violence is not due to guns, it is due to the ethical culture of citizens. As a gun is just a tool, it is a matter of a gun owner to use it for the right purposes.

Should citizens own guns? Yes, people need weapons for self-defense. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. However, gun control laws are essential to restrict the purchase and ownership of guns. The step in the right direction is introducing gun education classes at schools. Parents should also be more involved in the lives of children and know their psychological state. The gun control laws, police, and schools should collaborate to keep children safe and stop gun violence at schools. Only the combination of efforts can solve the serious problems of shootings, unintentional injuries, and violent assaults that still remain in the United States.

References:

1. http://everytownresearch.org/notanaccident/
2. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34996604
3. http://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-ii