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Lacie Jacobson
Alan Chandler
POLS 1100
12 November 2018
ePortfolio Signature Assignment

Gun Control

The debate over gun control in the United States is one of, if not the most, controversial

political issue that society faces today. These arguments have become a more common topic of

conversation following the increase in mass shootings in recent years including the Columbine

school shooting and the midnight movie massacre in Aurora, Colorado. Although many people

think differently about what gun control would entail, there are two sides to this issue: those who

support gun control, and those who do not.

A majority of those who support gun control are thought to be Democrats. Their

argument is that more gun control will lead to a lower amount of deaths at the hands of those

who wield a gun. When Barack Obama was President, he gave a speech about gun control in

2013 and explained some of his ideas for more restrictive gun laws. Some of those ideas

included strengthening the background check system, restoring a ban on military-style assault

weapons, and imposing a ten-round limit for magazines. Universal background checks are

supposed to make it harder for unfit people to gain possession of guns legally. At the time, “forty

percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check.” (Obama pg. 2). Even

though regular citizens are not allowed to own any fully-automatic assault rifles, they are still

allowed to have semi-automatic weapons. An argument that Obama was trying to make is that,
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combined with high capacity magazines, these semi-automatic assault rifles are designed to

inflict as much damage as possible in a short amount of time.

On the opposing side, support against gun control consists of mostly Republicans. They

believe that gun control is infringing on their right to bear arms that is expressed in the Second

Amendment. One argument being made by this side is that gun owners have the right to self-

defense, and by taking away guns from the good people it will allow bad people to take

advantage of law abiding citizens. We often hear gun rights activists say that “guns do not kill

people, people kill people.” With this statement, they are trying to enforce the idea that taking

away guns will not stop people from killing; if they really want to, they will.

After reading both articles, I found Jeffery Goldberg’s argument against gun control more

persuasive than Obama’s speech. Goldberg was able to bring up both sides of the issue while still

being able to strongly argue for his side. Obama, on the other hand, was very biased in his

message to the public. The President was also trying to play on the emotions of listeners by

reading letters from small children and addressing some family members of the deceased. In

Goldberg’s article, he used statistics and facts as well as quotes from interviewees on both sides

of the debate. Some of these stats may be a little outdated for our time, but when it was written in

2012, the results of these studies were more accurate.

In my opinion, I agree with Goldberg and think that strict gun control laws would not be

beneficial to society. Restricting gun access effects law abiding citizens, not criminals who are

willing to break laws; if they really want a gun, there are plenty of illegal ways of obtaining

them. Even though Obama did not talk about taking away guns and restricting concealed-carry

permits, I have heard others express those opinions. It is hard to protect yourself against someone

with a gun if you do not have equal means to protect yourself. Anti-gun activists say that more
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guns and concealed-carry permits lead to more violence, but as Goldberg points out, there are no

studies to prove these claims. Sheriff Alderden gives a quote in Goldberg’s article that

strengthens the argument of anti-gun control; it says:

Opponents of concealed carry “make an emotional argument rather than a logical one. No

one could show me any study that concealed carry leads to more crime and more

violence. My idea of self-defense is not those red rape phones on campus, where you et to

the phone and tell someone you’re getting raped. I have a daughter, and I’d rather have

her have the ability to defend herself. I’m not going to violate a citizen’s rights to self-

defense because someone else has an emotional feeling about guns.” (Goldberg pg. 6).

If I was in a situation where I was being targeted or if my life was at stake, I would want to be

armed with more than pencils and words. Strict gun control is not going to make society a safer

place.
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Works Cited

Barack Obama and Joe Biden, from “Gun Control,” Speech or Remarks (2013).

Jeffery Goldberg, from “The Case for More Guns (and More Gun Control),” The Atlantic

Magazine (2012).