John Teunis

Dagher, Debra
UWRT 1102-092
27 April 2015

Extended Inquiry Project Reflection

There were a few changes in my subject from beginning to end; most of them being
minor changes. My inquiry question remained the same throughout the project, being: would
stricter gun-control laws in North Carolina, reduce violence? At first I wanted to focus on other
towns and cities that have strict gun laws, but my research opposed that angle of attack. Through
research I gained the realization that there are too many other factors that can affect violence
rates besides the availability of firearms. There was not enough research conducted after a city or
a town increased gun-control laws, to use them as accurate examples. This turned my focus
towards the people who are using guns for violent reasons, criminals (for the most part).
For the first time, I used a library page to conduct some of my research (UNCC Library
page). This turned out to be very successful, presenting me with three useful and reliable peerreviewed articles. Two of the articles were extremely long, so I did a heavy skim for useful
information. When I found that useful information I conducted deeper reading to get a better
understanding of the information. The length of the articles definitely made it harder and more
time consuming to find the useful information within the article. After I chose my topic, I
remembered a documentary I saw on the National Geographic channel titled Underworld Inc,
Ghost Gun. I knew this source would be useful in explaining how criminals get their guns. This
helped me form my conclusion on aiming gun-control laws at criminals and how to do so. I

found this source the best, because the video made it more interesting and Im a huge fan of
National Geographic documentaries. Also, Merriam-Websters online dictionary provided me
with basic definitions for my paper.
As I mentioned earlier in the reflection, I found out that using examples of other cities
and towns was not a reliable example. This surprised me a lot. I figured that more research would
be conducted after these stricter gun-laws were enacted to see if they even work. That narrowed
the focus of my project significantly. Instead of applying gun-control laws that affect the general
public, aim gun-control laws towards criminals and the illegal firearm trade. I found a lot of
research pertaining to criminals and how they get their guns, which I expected. Another thing
that surprised me was how many elderly people own guns, and how that is an added risk to
suicide at that age.
Writing has always been one of my stronger subjects, so writing the essay was the easy
part. Im a very opinionated person and because of this I have used I in other research papers
(against my teachers advice). Addressing the audience helped me explain my stance on the topic
before I dove into the research, which enhanced my paper. I like how we were allowed to do this.
I didnt have a hard time writing that part, it just felt weird being encouraged to include it.
Whenever I complete an essay I never feel like it is enough, so I got that feeling with this paper.
My peer-review edits showed that I had a pretty good paper, but to me it never is. It felt good to
complete it and arrive at a thesis, since that isnt done until the end of the paper. Forming a thesis
at the end of my paper, was definitely the most rewarding part.
The format of the exploratory essay was the main thing different from other research
papers I have written. The research part was familiar to me, but waiting till the end to form my
thesis was different. One thing new that I did was use the UNCC Library page to find sources.

Also, I had never used a documentary as one of the main resources for a major research paper. I
knew a lot about gun laws in North Carolina already, since Im a legal gun owner; but there were
some specifics that I was unaware of. I also learned about the danger of an elderly person owning
a firearm. This goes hand in hand with young people using guns. I was aware of the dangers of
younger people owning guns previous to this project, but that is why I was taught proper gun
safety. Before this essay my stance was that gun-control laws would not reduce violence and was
pointless. After this essay, I learned that gun-control laws could reduce violence, if they were
aimed at the right people.