Gun Control

Luay Alghalibi
David Pearson
Gw:6
April 27, 2007
Gun Control

Deciding whether or not there is a need for more gun control in America is a difficult subject about which to write. However, I don’t think the question should be gun control or no gun control, but rather I think it should be better gun control than what is currently in place in the United States.

I think that gun store owners should be held more responsible for who they sell guns to. Gun owners should have to do background checks before selling someone a gun. For example, store owners should have to call police to see if the person that wants to buy the gun has a criminal record. There are a lot of people who say this wouldn’t make a difference though. As the article Washington diary: Virginia shootings reads, “Would John Markell, the owner of the Roanoke firearms shop really have wanted to sell Cho the 9mm Glock if he had read some of these pages? After all four guns sold from his shop had already been reportedly involved in other homicides” (Frei par. 17). I think that the store owner should be held responsible for who he sells guns to, and he should be held accountable for any crime that happens with a gun he has sold
.
I don’t agree that weakening the rules of gun control would help decrease the crime in the United States. Many people think that if everyone had guns, then no one would kill each other because they would be afraid of being shot themselves . I agree with Brendan Quirk who is quoted in the article Washington diary: Virginia shootings as saying, "You can't control guns with more guns for chrissake" (par. 15). Trying to control guns while giving people more guns will just cause more chaos and murders. There has to be some sort of control on who can or can not own and carry guns or else people will easily be able to commit crimes with guns.

Lastly, there are lots of people who argue that guns don’t kill people, but people kill people. This argument is no longer valid since obviously there are some people in America who are unable to control their mental states and keep themselves for harming other people. While people are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the murder, allowing people less access to guns would help decrease the chance for the murder in the first place.

Solving the issue of gun control in the United States is a problem that is not easily fixed. Many politicians try to stay neutral on the topic because so many people have different opinions about it. It is difficult to make the majority of the country happy with new legislation about guns. However, in the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, it is obvious that tightening the current legislation in place and adding some extra precautions that would make it harder for criminals to get guns would help the situation.

Works Cited

Frei, Matt. “Washington diary: Virginia shootings” BBC Washington. 18 Apr.2007.
23 Apr.2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6566763.stm