Gun Control Gre Sample Essay

Gun Control Gre Sample EssayIn the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, there has been a renewed call for gun control in America. An American Association of Law Enforcement is now calling for an increase in the number of armed officers to protect the public, while police chiefs have complained about the shootings and killings on the streets.On the other hand, some American gun owners are arguing that gun control laws should be made more lax to allow law-abiding citizens to protect themselves against criminals. This is a valid point. The people who have access to guns are better able to protect themselves than those who do not have firearms.As far as the overall safety of the people of America, there is much debate about whether the U.S. has too many guns or too few. The current restrictions are not enough to adequately deal with the problem. When it comes to firearm safety, however, I think it is safe to say that the argument is not so much about the number of guns as it is about the quality of the firearms.When I first began hearing the term 'gun control,' I was certainly very supportive of a common sense approach to keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable. As time went on, however, I became more skeptical. The gun control advocates argued that if you outlaw the possession of guns, people will simply go underground, or to other countries, where these guns are available and easily procured.The fact is that gun control does not ban guns but makes it harder for them to be purchased. For example, a person would have to go through a rigorous licensing process, such as obtaining a Firearms Identification Card (FID), before being allowed to purchase a handgun. For those who might not know what an FID is, it is simply a card issued by the government that certifies the owner's possession of a firearm.And if the gun control advocate is correct, then a good and well thought out universal background check system could also go a long way toward pre venting the mentally unstable from buying guns. The problem with this, of course, is that such a system would probably require such a comprehensive database of personal information that criminals could use it to their advantage. That is why I was quite skeptical when I first heard the term 'gun control.' However, after studying the issue, I now believe that it is better to have a universal database of all gun owners than to have no system at all.If we truly wish to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them, then it would behoove us to focus our efforts on making the guns more dangerous rather than focusing on trying to ban the guns. The Second Amendment states clearly that the right to bear arms shall not be infringed.