Gun Control: Does it Really Work?

Does the Tucson tragedy reveal a need for increased gun control?

Before we jump to any conclusions, maybe we should first look at the facts about gun control.

Obviously, the point of gun control laws is to decrease violence in our communities. However, most people do not know that gun control does not necessarily decrease gun violence. There is no solid evidence that shows that gun control laws decrease gun accidents and crimes. Besides, if a criminal does not obey homicide or robbery laws, what incentive would they have to obey gun control laws? Guns are easily attainable on the black market or in other countries and we certainly have more than enough in circulation already. Who's to say the criminals would not have even more incentive to rob someone if they knew that the victim did not have a firearm?


We also have to ask ourselves if it's worth infringing upon our Second Amendment rights to possibly reduce firearm violence. First of all, (according to the article) there are 500,000 gun crimes per year in the United States. Americans own around 250 million guns. This means that no more than .2% of guns are used to commit a crime each year. Do we really want to infringe upon the rights of 98.8 % of responsible gun owners?


Jared Loughner attained a firearm through a licensed dealer. So, instead of gun control laws, we really need to focus on background checks (which are required when purchasing a firearm in most places) and mental illness outreach.

What do you think? Do you believe that gun control laws would help? Do you think that gun control laws would have prevented the Arizona tragedy?