Document Type
Argument Essay
Publication Date
1994
Excerpt
It's amazing what people see when they flip on the six o'clock news; in Chicago, Illinois, a six-month old child is shot in the head by an angry driver with a gun (WABC 4-6). In Detroit, Michigan, a three-vear old boy is shot to death in a random drive-by shooting (WFLD). In La Porte, Indiana, a sixteen-year old girl and an eighteen-year old boy are tortured, stabbed, and shot to death in the boy's home (WABC 4-13). In fact, in America firearms kill more people ages 15-24 than all natural causes combined. Gun deaths and suicides total 37,000 plus a year, with homicides claiming 13,000 a year (Morganthau 33). It is evident America is in a crisis. In the midst of this crisis are two prominent groups, both agreeing there is a grave problem and both with their own very different solutions to the crisis. The gun advocates are comprised of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Rifle Association (NRA); while the gun control advocates are made up of concerned Americans, and headed by James Brady and his foundation, The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV). The gun advocates, who defend Americans' rights to own guns, say that protection is the only way to curb and prevent crime, while the opposing view of control advocates is that fewer guns is the only way to reduce crime. Gun control laws in themselves will do little. If any problems connected to crime and violence are to be solved, society needs to understand the complex issues behind the misuse of guns.
Recommended Citation
Witte, Teresa, "The Issue of Gun Control: My Big Bang Theory (1994)" (1994). The Valpo Core Reader. 292.
http://scholar.valpo.edu/core_reader/292