Gun Control Laws and Violent Crime Rates do not Correlate - Research Paper Example

Gun Control Laws and Violent Crime Rates do not Correlate Crime is universally perceived by general public as the most crucial problems facing in the United States today, and violent crimes are considered as the most severe crime. While violence is frequently noted as an unmanageable problem, which is very challenging to lessen through intentional efforts of government, many people have contended that despite the contrary, this is likely to be lowered through the control of weapons most especially firearms (Kleck and Patterson 249).

Hence, this paper aims to discuss the notion that gun control laws do not have positive effects on violent crime rates in the U.S. Gun Control in the U.S.: A Controversial Issue Global evidences have long been presented as reason of the statement, “more guns mean more deaths” (Kates and Mauser 650). Countries like Britain, where gun control laws are implemented, violent crime rates are low. Unluckily, this notion is not true to all countries. In fact, the United State’s crime violence rates intensified throughout 1980s and 1990s.

After the undertaken assassination of President Reagan, gun control bill became the agenda of the Congress. Further, Brady Law decrees a period of 72 hours of waiting to buy handguns and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which bans the production, sale, or ownership of 19 types of semi-automatic weapons. The justification of gun control consists of arguments that ownership or availability of guns is correlated with high violence rates. Thus, gun control laws would be the solution in reducing crimes.

This resulted to serious debates (Moorhouse and Wanner 104). The Controversy Advocates of gun control strongly believe that gun control laws do enough in reducing crimes in the U.S. (Krause 2). Nevertheless, since private ownership of guns among Americans is higher, many opponents contended that Americans have the right to carry firearms to protect themselves and their properties appropriately. These people cited the second Amendment of the U.S. constitution stating “the right of the people to keep and bear firearms shall not be infringed” (Chemerinsky 484).

This implies that individuals have the right to possess weapons as assured by constitution. Further, the study of Kleck and Patterson among 170 cities in the U.S. with 100,000 population revealed that the predominance of guns do not have any quantitative positive effect on levels of violence other than suicides. Also, majority of gun control laws do not lessen the crime violence rates. Gun control laws failed to reduce violent crime rates because they failed to reduce gun ownership. As millions of people who already owned firearms, it is difficult for the government to take those guns away from the owners.

Accordingly, gun control laws do not reduce crime rates (Kleck and Patterson 278). Moreover, until now there is no precise evidence that gun laws significantly reduced the violent crimes in the U.S. (Moorhouse and Wanner 106). Thus, if the U.S. cannot embrace better gun control laws, Americans may adopt secure methods of using guns. Conclusion Gun control laws did not significantly reduce crimes in the U.S. except suicides because the laws failed to reduce the gun ownership. Citizens already owned firearms before the laws are being implemented, and it is hard for the states to take them away from owners.

At present, there is insufficient proof that would hold people to conclude that gun control laws are effective in reducing violent crimes. Thus, if these laws are not yet carefully imposed, then it is better for the Americans to adopt safer ways of using guns. Works Cited Chemerinsky, Erwin. “Putting the Gun Control Debate in Social Perspective.” Fordham Law Review 73.2 (2004): 478-485. Print. Kates, Don and Gary Mauser. “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?: A review of International and Some Evidences.

” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 30.2 (1999): 650-685. Print. Kleck, Gary and Brett Patterson. “The Impact of Gun Control and Gun Ownership Levels on Violence Rates.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 9.1 (1993): 249-287. Print. Krause, William. Gun Control Legislation. USA: Congressional Research Service, 2012. Print. Moorhouse, John and Brent Wanner. “Does Gun Control Reduce Crime or Does Crime Increase Gun Control?” Cato Journal 26.1 (2006): 103-124. Print.