Opinion: Ban on guns will negatively affect America

Opinion: Ban on guns will negatively affect America

There has been a lot of talk about guns recently and it seems like it’s all about restricting them. This is very bad for Americans especially if it gets to the point where there is a total gun ban. People will always be able to produce guns, so they will always be available even if the government bans them. If a total ban happens, law abiding citizens will give up their guns and have no way to defend themselves against criminals.

These gun talks really seemed to take off after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14th. This also brought up the issue of school safety. How are we going to protect the most important thing in the world: the children. There is only one idea that I have heard that would actually work. Have someone in every school with a gun that is trained to handle dangerous situations. I have heard people say schools are and need to be a safe haven for kids and putting a gun in every school would change that. How can it be safe if people can come in and slaughter these kids? How many lives could have been saved if there was an armed security guard in the building?

Many schools already have security guards so it wouldn’t cost much more to arm them and train them. Isn’t it worth the extra cost anyway? There are armed guards for money and many important/wealthy people. Who or what is more important than your children? Nothing. So why shouldn’t they be protected too? Putting a gun in every school can even be used as a teaching moment. Many kids don’t know what a gun is and how dangerous they can be if they are not handled properly. Kids would be able to learn gun safety, so if they ever come across a gun they won’t hurt themselves or others. We cannot pretend like guns don’t exist because they always will, so the best thing to do is to teach kids that they are dangerous and need to be handled with care.

Limiting or banning guns can also hurt the American economy. If fewer guns are being produced, then less people have to work to produce them. They can also get the job done in fewer hours so companies will be forced to not only fire people but to cut back on hours. If guns are banned then there is no need for gun shops. There would also be no need for gun ranges either. This would cause a huge loss of jobs. The December 2012 Employment Situation Summary showed that 12.2 million Americans were out of work. Can America really afford to lose more jobs?

Let’s get to a few facts about guns. I was on Facebook one day and came across a picture that listed a few facts about guns with the Cato Institute and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the sources of information. The facts are: “99.9% of all guns in America are not used in violent crimes. 99.8% of all guns are not used in a crime at all. Guns are used 4 times as often in self-defense as in crime and 98% of the time, it is not even fired. Only 1% of the time when a gun is being used in defense, does the criminal take the gun from the defender. After guns were banned in the UK, the armed robbery rate spiked over 40% and 44% in Australia. Now in Britain, most robberies happen when people are home (50% vs. America’s 30%). Only 4% of guns used in crimes were obtained legally.” So if gun restrictions or bans are put into place, it could hurt more then it could help.

According to skylighters.org, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass,” during WWII. So, American citizens owning guns might have stopped the Japanese from bringing the war to our home. This could stop other countries from invading us in the future, unless laws are passed to restrict or ban guns.

One of the greatest philosophers ever, Plato, once said, “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” So if new laws are passed, criminals will find a way around them. I am not saying that nothing needs to be done because something does but restricting or banning guns is not the answer. I recently heard that the government is considering passing a law that requires criminal background checks on all gun sales. Why hasn’t this already happened? That could help keep weapons out of criminal’s hands with out taking them away from law-abiding citizens. Restrictions or bans on gun will only hurt the law-abiding citizens that deserve the right to protect themselves.

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