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Jun Yoon
Professor Marsh
English 114B
28 February 2016
Keep Gun for Safety or Hurting?
A debate over whether to legalize the control of gun or not is still one of the most
mentioned topics in the United States. As everyone should know, a gun is an object that should
be handled and managed with extra care and responsibility. Unfortunately it seems like guns are
not being used for their best purpose and it is causing many hazardous problems in this society.
The main and only purpose of having a gun should be to either protect ourselves or keep those
menacing people under the control. As clearly presented in media such as internet, news, and
more, it is certain that guns are definitely becoming threatening objects when they really are not
made for such reason. The control over guns should not be given to citizens of the United States
not only because they require excessive responsibility that many people would not be able to
endure but also because of its possible causes for many dangerous situations.
It is almost the tradition of the United States to be equipped and armed in order to protect
oneself and his or her family. Many of the households in the U.S actually possess guns for many
possibilities and reasons. Guns have been treated as something that would protect people from
many of dangerous circumstances and many people in the U.S have been keeping that thought
for a long period of time. The question of why the people have started relying on guns cannot be
avoided. Guns have been the most powerful weapons out of all and its power would have given

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people the feeling of relief and safety due to the human instinct. I believe it is humans nature to
have the need to have something or someone to rely on such as religion for an example. Guns for
an instance seem to take huge portion in giving people the feeling of safety and protection.
There has been voice raised against having the guns legalized for people to use as long as
they are licensed. Douglas Weil, a research director at the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence
stated that, This system enables many ill-tempered, poorly trained, and unstable people to carry
guns. (Page 63) Douglas Weil is stating his point that letting anyone to have gun control is very
dangerous because not everyone would try to achieve gun under the same condition and purpose.
When people are asked about the purpose of possessing guns, many of them might answer that it
is for protection. It is true that guns do work well in terms of protection and safety but what if
that purpose is abused and that purpose no longer stays? The real purpose of having guns could
be easily terminated under ones careless decision. What is so sad about this is that many of
people in the U.S are abusing the usage of guns and are taking many harmful actions that not
only affect community but even country as a whole. Not every state but some states in the U.S
allow the possession of guns. Which means people have an easy access to getting guns and what
that means is that it definitely could be one of the causes of the tragedy and crimes that are
happening right now in this country.
Our generation is very familiar with guns due to many reasons such as media and violent
FPS games. That means that people are more exposed to guns and it is possible for them to have
a thought that guns would be easy to deal with. As soon as one loses to notice that responsibility
and care it takes upon possessing guns, it could possibly lead to many dangerous outcomes. I feel
like how guns are portrayed and displayed on media and other areas are very light and less
serious than it really should be. I think it is important to think about the worst scenario meaning

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that we should be considering for a chance of guns being used to harm and hurt instead of
protecting. In terms of crimes, having a gun or not could make a huge difference in the outcome.
What I am saying is that having a gun for protection could turn the situation bad where one
actually falls in a situation with less protection. In my opinion it is almost irony to say that guns
should be allowed for protection purposes. Honestly guns are causing more and more problems
that it would not be wrong to say that more crimes occurred ever since guns were allowed in this
country.
It is impossible for human being to make no mistake whether it is big or small.
Considering that human behavior consist of making mistakes it could be concluded that there
could be a mistake made with guns as well as others. There are many of incidents where guns
have been used by mistake and resulted in tragedy. Guns could be fired by mistake or failure and
take innocent lives. People might say that under good care and attention such tragedy would not
happen but the truth is different. If we have a look at media, we could hear many accidents
related to guns. Yet some people still deny what is happening as the reality and think that guns
are not the cause for those tragic outcomes. Guns are some of the main weapons used in terms of
crimes for its deadly ability to kill someone instantly. Even though people know how deadly
guns are, some still continue to think it is safe to keep guns near and guns are the best way to be
protective.
There was this one accident caused by ones careless mistake that killed an innocent
person. This accident happened from this 23-year old man trying to pull a prank on his friend
with an air rifle which turned out to be the real rifle with bullets loaded. According to a daily
mail reporter, The victim, 24-year old Jeffery Charbonneau, died at the scene in a second-story
bedroom with a gunshot wound.(Man Accidently Kills Best Friend 1) Even though the guy

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had no intention of killing, his careless mistake with a gun caused a tragedy. If guns were not
allowed in the first place, people would not attempt any of those careless and irresponsible
actions. Yes it is the mans fault for his best friends death but I also blame free control of gun
over people for such a tragedy. This is not the only case where guns are misused by mistake. If
the control over guns stays alive, more accidents like the following will continue to happen and
harm or even take lives of innocent people.
There are many reasons that people want guns to be allowed and with no doubt the
protection is the number one reason why. As mentioned earlier, people think guns could be used
to save not only themselves but their beloved ones such as family and friends from possible
dangers. Also those people that are supporting possession of guns believe that restriction on
guns possessions is high enough that people would manage and handle them with no problem.
Not only that some believe that the government is not doing well on protecting citizens that they
decide to protect themselves without only relying on others for help. Not everyone thinks that
guns are the cause for the increase in cases of murders. Don B. Kates Jr. a criminological policy
analyst with the Pacific Research Institute stated that The Fact is that a mere correlation
between increases in gun buying and in homicide does not and cannot prove guns cause murder.
(Page 25) Kates Jr is one of those people that think guns did not cause the increase in murders
but increased murder rates actually caused people to buy more guns to protect themselves.
It is understandable why some people are supporting the possession of guns but it is hard
to deny the fact that it is causing too much trouble. You might own guns for protection purpose
but that does not mean everyone would use the gun for the same purpose. There is even a statistic
about guns being used the most in actions of crimes compared to other weapons. According to
Jeffrey A. Roth, a research director at the University of Pennsylvania, The overall fatality rate in

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gun robberies is an estimated 4 per 1,000- about 3 times the rate for knife robberies, 10 times the
rate for robberies with other weapons, and 20 times the rate for robberies by unarmed offenders.
(Page 65) Just by looking at the following statistic it can be said that guns have become weapons
more for crimes not protection. Also the restriction on guns is very poor. I feel like an access to
guns is very easy that everyone is able to get one no matter if they are responsible or careful
about what they are doing. It is true that there are benefits of owning guns but the problem is that
negative sides outweigh its benefits.
Guns have been mentioned a lot in this country for many reasons. One of the main and
most mentioned topics is about the control over guns. The control over guns should not be given
to citizens of the United States not only because they require excessive responsibility that many
people would not be able to endure and its possible causes for many dangerous situations. Later
in time perspective on owning guns might possibly change but not until improvements are made.
At this rate the control over guns should not be given for our and everyones benefits.

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Works Cited
Cothran, Helen, ed. Gun Control. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven, n.d. Print. Opposing
Viewpoints.
Kim, Henny H. Guns and Violence. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1999. Print.
Reporter, Daily Mail. "Man Accidentally Kills Best Friend in Misfired Gun Prank." Mail
Online. Associated Newspapers, 26 Nov. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
Torr, James D. Gun Violence: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 2002.
Print.