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PUBLISHED: 04/25/2006
Last week marked the sixth anniversary of the Columbine school shootings. Along with it, two high school students in Kansas soon will face charges for planning a similar attack. Shootings in Minneapolis also have been surprisingly common lately. The occurrence of these violent acts can be lessened by one thing for sure: gun control.
Shooting after shooting, it becomes clear the problem is that too many people are able to legally acquire handguns in America. Too many people who do legally own handguns aren't keeping them safe from their children.
What do people even need handguns for? Protection, right? However, if no one could buy or carry a handgun legally, no one would need a handgun to protect themselves. Also, it is a lie for anyone to say he or she needs a handgun in case of being shot at. The shooter would pull out a gun and shoot before the victim ever could get a gun out of his or her pants and shoot back to protect him- or herself. People who buy handguns likely are people who will use them in ways that affect others' safety.
Minnesota's Personal Protection Act, also known as the conceal-carry law, is very controversial legislation that allows people to carry a handgun in public with a permit. This permit is given to anyone who has not been convicted of certain violent crimes or those who have finished a prison sentence 10 years prior to applying for a permit.
This means that someone who killed someone and served time potentially could be given a gun to carry in public legally 10 years later and that the state says this is perfectly fine.
There always will be those who think guns are cool to own, but there is a distinct difference between those who carry a gun in public and those that keep their guns locked up at home. The only way these violent shooting occurrences will decrease is if the amount of guns out there decreases.
3 Comments
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Boy oh Boy
First, let me ask who wrote this article. The writing style seems to be that of a teenager's and there is zero statistical data to back up any claims present.
"Shooting after shooting, it becomes clear the problem is that too many people are able to legally acquire handguns in America. Too many people who do legally own handguns aren't keeping them safe from their children."
Shooting after shooting it becomes clear that the people committing violent crimes... are violent criminals. These people do not care if their fire arms are purchased legally or not. Has outlawing marijuana taken it out of the hands of those willing to pay for it? No. Will outlawing firearms take them out of the hands of criminals? No. The key here is education and gun safety. Every single c/c owner I know is a responsible gun owner.
Let's look at some statistics:
States with right-to-carry laws have lower overall violent crime rates, compared to states without right-to-carry laws. In states whose laws respect the citizen's right-to-carry guns for self defense the total violent crime is 13% lower, homicide is 3% lower, robbery is 26% lower and aggravated assault is 7% lower. (Data: Crime in the United States, FBI Uniform Crime Reports)
In Florida, for example, the firearm crime rate among license holders, annually averaging only several crimes per 100,000 licensees, is a fraction of the rate for the state as a whole. Since the carry law went into effect in 1987, less than 0.02% of Florida carry permits have been revoked because of gun crimes committed by license holders. (Florida Dept. of State)
These are just SOME of the freely available statistics. So please, instead of being a closed minded reactionary responding to your own, or someone else's irrational fears, in the future, please try to be more educated.
No criminal would dare violate a gun law
"However, if no one could buy or carry a handgun legally, no one would need a handgun to protect themselves."
Who knew that to stop bad behavior all we had to do was make it illegal? It's such a simple solution. Why hasn't anyone ever thought of this before? I'm with you -- murderers and rapists wouldn't dare carry a gun if we simply tell them not to. I mean, they might obtain and carry guns now, but once those murderers and rapists understand that they could go to jail for violating a gun law, they won't do it, right?
um....
Published in 2006? Where did this come from?
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