Does Gun Control work?

Does Gun Control Help To Reduce The Crime Rate?

United States is burdened by a horrible amount of crime. The Crime rate is very high in the United States, and it is a very serious problem in our society. Here are the statistics for the crime situation in the United States:
1.    In 1992, an estimated 6.6 million Americans were victims of violent crimes.
2.    In that year, 1.2 million Americans were robbed, and nearly one-half million of
      the robbery victims were injured.
3. A murder is reported to the police every 21 minutes, a forcible rape every 5
minutes, a robbery every 48 seconds and an aggravated (serious) assault every    28 seconds. (NCPA)

When the crime rate is so high in the United States, many people will blame the government for not having a strict gun control policy to prevent crime. They think most of the serious crimes relate to gun violence, so they believe strict gun control will be very effective to prevent crime. However, will strict gun control really help to prevent crime in the United States?

Why do people support gun control?
Gun control is a controversial topic nowadays, and more people will demand strict gun control after each shocking shooting tragedy, such as the shooting massacres at Columbine High School in Colorado in April 1999 and Xerox Company in Hawaii in November 1999. Both massacres caused 13 and 7 deaths respectively. Advocates in gun control believe that strict gun control will be the best way to prevent violent crimes, because people, especially teenagers, will no longer access gun, the tools for killing. In their views, there will be less crime when there is less gun.
There are some more reasons to explain why people support gun control. According to Glen Otero, he states, "‘it’s true that there is a great deal of gun-related violent crime in this country, including homicide, robbery and assault. Additionally, the proliferation of firearms in this country has been steadily increasing"’ (Claremont Institute). Because of these two facts, they led many to believe the gun is the major cause of crime. Therefore, more and more people will support the idea of strict gun control when they believe in the dangers of gun.

Gun Control doesn’t help to prevent crime
It seems that gun control is a very good solution to prevent crime, because it can prevent people from accessing guns and reduce the number of gun-related crimes. This is the main argument cried out by the advocates in strict gun control. Actually, "‘Congress used the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy to push through the 1968 Gun Control Act"’ (Ragavan, 1999), but why crime rates didn’t drop and why did guns still exist in our society? Therefore, gun control doesn’t work, because it is not the best method to prevent or reduce crime. There are several examples to explain why gun control is not the way to prevent and reduce crime.
First, passing strict gun control laws doesn’t mean people will no longer use guns. When people, especially criminals, want to get a gun, they can still find other ways to get a gun despite strict gun control. "‘Restrictions on sales at gun shows will do little good since criminals obtain their guns through black-market deals and thefts’" (NPCA). It shows that gun control is extremely useless to fight against criminals. Will criminals care about the meaning of the law? Therefore, gun control cannot keep people stay away from guns due to the existence of the black market. Even though strict gun control prevents people from using guns, those notorious criminals can still use other weapons to create trouble. "There is a lot of violent crime in America relative to other industrial nations, an overwhelming majority of the violence involves knives, hammers, sticks, broken bottles, hands and feet and other weapons besides firearms" (NCPA). Therefore Gun control may only reduce the number of deaths, not crime itself.
Secondly, the high guns/high crime rate in the United States may show the cause of crime is gun. However, it doesn’t mean that less guns will cause a low crime rate in the United States. Gun control is not absolutely effective to reduce the crime rate. According to "Ten Myths about Guns" by Glen Otero, we learn that the number of guns doesn’t relate to the rate of crime. In England, Canada and Japan, crime rate is low when not so many people use guns due to the strict gun control. However, there is very strict gun control in Mexico, but the crime rate there is high. In Switzerland and Israel, there is no strict gun control, and many people have their own guns, but the crime rate is very low in both countries. Here are some gun-related death statistics of the countries I mention before:
Gun-related deaths per 100,000 people
United States: 14.24
England: 0.41
Canada: 4.31
Japan: 0.05
Switzerland: 5.31
Israel: 2.91
Mexico: 12.69 (Nando Times)

Advocates in gun control argue that more guns cause more crimes, but in Switzerland, "‘there is local shooting contests for boys and girls ages 12 to 16, [but] there have been no school massacres in the country"’ (NCPA). Therefore, the high crime rate in the United States is not caused by the guns, but other factors. The number of guns cannot explain the outcome of the high crime rate, and strict gun control is not the answer for reducing the crime rate. The crime reports in different countries have shown that gun control is not the factor for affecting the crime rate, so the advocates in gun control should not say that the high crime rate in the United States is caused by the loose gun control.
Thirdly, the most powerful evidence to show strict gun control is not the solution for preventing crime in the United States are statistics. The statistics show that strict gun control doesn’t help to reduce crime rate, but increase the crime rate. Here are the statistics:
     1. New Jersey adopted what sponsors described as
    "the most stringent gun law" in the nation in 1966;
     two years later, the murder rate was up 46 percent
     and the reported robbery rate had nearly doubled.

    2. In 1968, Hawaii imposed a series of increasingly
     harsh measures and its murder rate, then a low 2.4
     per 100,000 per year, tripled to 7.2 by 1977.

     3. In 1976, Washington, D.C., enacted one of the
     most restrictive gun control laws in the nation.
     Since then, the city's murder rate has risen 134
     percent while the national murder rate has dropped 2 percent.
                                                                                 (NCPA)

These statistics shows gun control could not help us to prevent and reduce crime.
Finally, when strict gun control legislation outlaws the use of guns, people who obey the law will never touch the guns, because they are afraid of punishments. However, as I mentioned before, criminals can still acquire guns from the black market. As a result, according to a famous slogan, "if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." Once again, it shows that gun control cannot restrict the criminals from using guns, and it will be very dangerous for those innocence who does not have a gun for self-protection; then, there will be more and more innocent victims dying from violent crimes. The Crime rate will not drop but increase because of strict gun control.

Conclusion
In conclusion, gun control is not the best solution for preventing crimes. If we want to prevent crime, the first thing we need to do is to find out the roots of violence. In fact, most high-rate offenders are likely to come from homes that are cold, discordant, and inconsistent with respect to management of discipline (Farrington, 1986, p.4). Poor economic background and family values are probably the causes of these cold and discordant families. Because economic distress can cause parental distress, offenders who committed crimes may suffered from child abuse during their childhood. The bad temperament of the parents only set up a bad model for their children. As a result, the children become violent when they cannot feel the family warmth. When they become violent, they are likely to commit crimes and bring destruction to the society.
Remember, guns don’t kill, people do. We cannot only blame the existence of gun increases the crime rates. In stead of it, we must pay attention to common social problems, such as economic burden on family, family value and general education.

Bibliography:

Farrington, Ohlin, and Wilson. Understanding and Controlling Crime.
Springer-Verlag: New York Berlin Heidelberg London Paris Tokyo, 1986.

Nando Times News, 1998:
http://www.business-server.com/newsroom/ntn/world/041698/world8_14325.html

National Centre for Policies Analysis (NCPA), 1997: http://www.ncpa.org/

Ragavan, Chitra. "Once again, a quick-draw debate in the gun wars"
Newsweek 10 May. 1999.

The Claremont Institute, 10 myths about gun control, 1999: http://www.claremont.org/gsp/gsp60.cfm