Gun Control1 Essay Example For Students

Gun Control1 Essay 6:35 p.m. : William Wallace had a very stressful day at work and is now driving home. As he is travelling along the I-10 freeway in Los Angeles, he suddenly comes to a complete stop. Gridlock traffic is not an unusual sight for any motorist that travels on this freeway, and William decides to exit the freeway in order to escape the madness. He exits on the next off ramp and comes to a red light at a busy intersection. As he patiently waits for the stoplight to change illumination he thinks about his wife and his two beautiful daughters. Suddenly the driver’s side window is shattered and glass disperses throughout the interior of the car. William looks over to find a brick resting on the passenger seat next to him. A hooded man runs up to the side of his car and violently opens the door. The man points a gun and shouts at William to get out before he gets hurt. As William struggles to unbuckle his seatbelt, the man hits him against the side of his head with the pistol. William is then forcefully pulled out of the car and thrown onto the asphalt in a manner of rage. William looks over and sees a man step out of the car behind him pointing a 9mm pistol with one hand and holding a police badge in the other hand. The off duty officer shouts for William’s attacker to stop. The hooded man panics and opens fire on the officer. William watches the officer take three bullets to his chest and fall to the ground. The hooded man then jumps into William’s car, slams on the accelerator and races straight into the busy intersection. The next sound that William hears is burning rubber, crushing metal to metal, and shattering glass. William is bleeding severely and barely conscious when the paramedics arrive several minutes later. The story above is fictitious, but these kinds of horrifying crimes occur everyday in America and innocent people are being killed. Crime in America has become as common as a cold. Television, movies, and music have contributed tow ards desensitizing our outlook on violence. The children of today are growing up in a society that is full of violent crimes and other such atrocities. People are being killed while just taking a walk, driving on freeways, going to school, and even in their own homes with stray bullets from drive-by shootings. It should not be this way. Innocent people should not be persecuted by the hands of unstable arm-bearing people on angry power trips. Something terrible has happened in our society and the citizens of this once ‘great country’ have greatly lowered their moral and ethical values. The fact is that people are no longer taking responsibility for their own behavior. What once used to end with a harmless bloody nose is now resulting in blood baths. â€Å"With two hundred million guns in circulation and another fifteen thousand manufactured everyday, there are enough firearms to arm every man, woman, and child in the United States†(Bender Leone 16). Any ethical A merican would agree that gun related violence is a major problem in today’s society, and that gun control looks like a serious solution. The constitution states that every citizen in the United States has the right to own a gun. The second amendment in the Bill of Rights states, â€Å"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed† (Miller 28). This bill was written over 200 years ago in 1791, and has been debated ever since. When our forefathers wrote the constitution, every man in every state was part of the U.S. militia and could be called upon at any time to help protect the country in a case of emergency or national threat. This is no longer relevant in today’s society. Today there are varied branches of the military that are separate from the citizens of the United States. Militant Monks EssayGottfried, Ted. Gun Control : Public Safety and the Right to Bear Arms. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook, 1993. Kelly, Raymond W. â€Å"Gun Control Will Reduce Violent Crime.† Opposing Viewpoints.Ed. David L. Bender and Bruno Leone. San Diego, Ca: Greenhaven Press, 1997. 139-44. Miller, Maryann. Working Together Against Gun Violence. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 1994. Safran, Claire. â€Å"Private Ownership of Handguns Leads to Higher Rates of Gun Violence.† Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. David L. Bender and Bruno Leone. San Diego, Ca: Greenhaven Press, 1997. 17-25.