Now we must look at the other side of this debate as there are always two valid sides to ever argument. If we are able to successfully remove the usage of handguns from the ecosystem we live in today what will the effects be. How will we be able to cope with the change and what will the reaction be of the general population? These are all valid questions that must be answered before any preventive measures to handguns are taken into place.
Gary Kleck, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida State University argues that selective bans on less lethal varieties of guns encourage the substitution of more lethal types of guns. Since handguns are very cheap and inexpensive they are ideal for lethal crimes (as stated in entry #1 - Homocide) but if they were to be removed the general population would adapt a new form of gun. This may work in a similar way of natural selection where if one item is taken away from a population, another item will replace it to fill the "niche" that was lost. In this case the "niche" that will be lost is a small, cheap, and easy to use firearm that is perfect for committing a lethal crime. The real scare here is that criminals will NOT switch to a firearm that is similar in lethality to a handgun, but instead purchase a much more fatal gun like a sawed-off shotgun or other long guns. This means they are likely to produce an increase in the fraction of gun assaults resulting in greater number of deaths. On top of all this a sawed-off would be perfectly concealable and almost takes the place of a handgun. Thus, we can conclude that a institution of a law to permanently ban the usage of handguns would have little or even increased damaging effects on the general population if implemented. Looking at the article this way is very confounding to me. On one side I want handguns to be banished after the discussion had in entry #1 - Homicides, but after looking at the causation it would have on the population I can not see what a reasonable solution to the issue is. Further entries will need to be made to test this issue and maybe try to find a creative way to find a way to destroy the usage of handguns while keeping criminals from purchasing other types of weaponry. Sources: http://www15.uta.fi/arkisto/aktk/projects/sta/Kleck_2009_Mass_Shootings_in_Schools.pdf Entry #1 - Homicides
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The deaths due to handguns pertains to each and every person. Measures must be taken to reduce the homicide rates. This is in efforts to raise national security and increase awareness of such a dangerous weapon. According to a study from Alma College the United States takes the lead for handgun ownership and handgun homicide rates per 100,000 people in comparison to Australia, Canada, Israel, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, because of the cheapness, conceivability , ease of use, and lethality, handguns are ideally suited to commit deadly crimes in comparison to alternative weapons like a full rifle. This is crazy! Why does the United States need such a high percent of the population to carry a such a deadly weapon that is ideally suited for killing? Does Martin Killias' study which found a 74.6% correlation that prevalence of firearms is strongly correlated with the firearms homicide rate not deter the United States government from enacting any laws to stop this madness?
After researching and finding such astonishing numbers it became interesting to see why the United States government would not crack down on this maddening issue. Study after study showed a strong trend towards the increase of handgun related crimes. I personally cannot make any claims to how it feels to own a handgun and if it gives any sense of security because I have never actually owned such a weapon and do not plan to in the future. After looking into this ongoing dilemma it became clear to me that the amount of crimes committed due to handguns far outweighs the need of self security. The United States must introduce a law to help alleviate this issue promptly for the security of every person in this nation. Sources: http://philpapers.org/rec/DIXHPA https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8 |
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March 2017
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