Gun control: separating fact from fiction

Guns are a never-ending topic of argument all over America, and the halls of Samo are no exception. With all the theories, points of view, facts and statistics thrown around, I decided to take a closer look at five of the pro-gun side’s favorite arguments and dismantle them.PRO GUN ARGUMENT: Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.People who live in states with higher gun ownership rates have higher chances of being the victim of a gun homicide. In fact, according to “Pediatrics,” a publication documenting pediatric medicine developments in the United States, the states with the highest gun ownership rates have a 114 percent higher rate of murder by guns than the states with the lowest gun ownership. While an actual person needs to pull the trigger, decreasing the number of guns leads to a corresponding decrease in the number of gun deaths. Therefore, the number of guns available contributes to mortality rate. Also, there are hundreds of gun deaths that are caused by accident, many of which involve children who find guns that aren’t stored safely in their homes. In fact, from 2005-2010, nearly 3,800 people died from accidental gun deaths in the U.S. For example, the staff of “The New York Times” conducted research into accidental child deaths by guns. The youngest victim was only nine months old, shot accidentally in his crib by his 2-year-old brother. The shooting was the result of the 2-year-old finding a gun in the drawer next to his play area and accidentally pulling the trigger. This boy did not have any intent to kill and, had the gun not existed, his brother might still be alive.PRO GUN ARGUMENT: Keeping guns at home can be good protection.While guns can be used as protection if they are in the right hands at the right time, they present a extraordinary danger to the gun owners themselves. According to a Harvard study done by researchers Lisa Hepburn and David Hemenway, homes with guns are 12 times more likely to have a family or household member injured by his own weapon than by a burglar or criminal. Additionally, according to the organization New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (NYAGV), guns are 22 times more likely to be used in accidental shootings, homicides or suicides than in self-defense. In essence, limiting gun usage results in a smaller possibility of danger.PRO GUN ARGUMENT: Guns sales contribute to the economy, helping consumers.While the 310 million firearms bought and owned by Americans certainly generate revenue, guns are also responsible for an incredible amount of spending on emergency room visits and doctor’s bills that drives up healthcare costs. A 2013 study by the American Public Health Association indicates that it costs $2 billion a year for hospital bills relating to firearm injuries and the average cost for medical treatment per hospitalization is $75,884. According to the “Journal of the American Medical Association,” most medical bills from gun-related injuries are paid for by private insurers. As these insurers pay more money, they also charge more money. This cycle drives up the cost of healthcare and affects even those who don’t have firearm-related injuries or even own guns. Dr. Eric Fleegler, an emergency pediatric physician at Boston Children’s Hospital who has published extensive research on firearm injuries and mortality, said, “These are not just problems for an individual but also an incredible burden on our healthcare system.”PRO GUN ARGUMENT: Gun ownership is a constitutional right.The interpretation of the Second Amendment is up for much debate. While other amendments are pretty clear-cut in terms of meaning, the second is difficult to completely clarify. It states “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.” The amendment is much more than just “the right to bear arms.” It does not necessarily mean that every household in the United States should be able to have a semiautomatic weapon for recreational use at its disposal. Former Supreme Court Head Justice Warren Burger believes that special interest groups, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), have deceived the American people by reinterpreting the amendment. In 1991, he said, “[The Second Amendment] has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.” This statement reflects the NRA’s stance on the amendment. Since the organization’s creation after the Civil War, the NRA stood for recreational, safe and proper shooting techniques. Until the 70s, the NRA was focused on hunting rather than gun ownership. This all changed in 1977 when the NRA made claims that the Second Amendment makes it so that everyone has the right to bear arms. Also, this amendment could be repealed. Just because it is part of the Constitution doesn’t mean that it can’t go away. It is a difficult process to repeal it, but it is possible. For example, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution banned alcohol; however, it was repealed soon afterwards. The standards and rules instituted in the 1700s are not the same ones we should be following. When the Bill of Rights was passed, slavery was legal. Women couldn’t vote. The principles most people think of as atrocious or outrageous today were common practice back then. Guns in that time were not as murderous and not as destructive. As society has changed, shouldn’t the laws we use to govern our society change as well?PRO GUN ARGUMENT: There is little harm in using guns for recreational purposes.Hunting, a recreational firearm sport, usually claims about 100 deaths each year, most of which are from accidents involving guns. Shooting in a range can also provide extreme danger. In August of 2014, a 9-year-old girl in Arizona shot and killed her instructor after accidentally pulling her hand the wrong way. Another death at a shooting range occurred in November 2012 at a shooting range in Tennessee, where a 13-year-old boy was shot dead after a family member nudged a loaded gun, which was sitting on a table next to the boy. The ease with which one mistake could take a life is the frightening reality of using guns and is still evident, even in the monitored environments of ranges. Beyond this, using guns for recreational purposes desensitizes the American public to gun use and paints these devastating weapons as play things. This may not directly allow the greater use of guns, but it makes gun use an easier-to-swallow activity and promotes violence among inexperienced gun users.