Recent studies have concluded extended use of guns in numerous suicide and homicide cases. The world community has raised its concern in individual countries’ gun control. America has witnessed the fatal outcome of its plain gun laws in the form of several deaths with mass shooting becoming a breaking news every other day.
Gun control, a set of rules or laws that regulates the possession and use of firearms by civilians, gained widespread attention across the globe following the shooting attacks. The international community is considering both positive and negative effects of gun control through multilateral conventions.
Merits of Gun Control:
- Safe environment: Effective policies make it harder for a civilian to procure a gun or any such weapon that might prove destructive someday. With gun control, the government fulfills its key role in providing safety to the citizens.
- Crime rate reduction: No access to guns limits heinous crimes undertaken by the offenders. Gun control brings down the number of firearms in circulation and thus, reduces the gun deaths.
- Diminishes illegal trafficking: Most human trafficking takes place in war-torn areas and disputed territories or regions. Effective gun control decreases such inhumane practices. Along with restrictions, the international welfare organizations’ support can contribute to minimizing trafficking in vulnerable countries.
- Elimination of criminal organization: Terrorists use different means to procure weapons that include middlemen, who seem ‘loyal’ citizens of a country. Implementation of acts such as National Firearms Act, limits deliveries of arms to the terrorists by these middlemen. As the act requires background checks, fingerprints, and registration, a person with a criminal record can’t possess firearms. In turn, reduces the effective functioning of a terrorist organization.
- Suicide rate reduction: Nowadays, stress is common among youngsters. The eagerness to achieve success and competition limits their ability to make a fair decision. In the present scenario, owning a firearm is dangerous for the young generation. Gun control keeps such weapons from their reach and lowers the suicide incidents.
- Protects vulnerable people: Strict gun laws protect the lives of children, women and old. Most of the massacres involve the usage of licensed guns by sane individuals, who go berserk and downgrade innocent lives.
- Provides order: Fewer guns mean minimal opportunity for criminals to get a hold of them. This reduces the usage of guns in a society and hence, brings peace and order in a country.
Demerits of Gun Control:
- Shrunken gun market: The severe policies in some countries have hit the gun market, which has confirmed consistent declining production rate and marketing. Gun control displays a significant impact on a country’s economy and thus, deteriorates development of a nation.
- Insecurity among citizens: History tells that a common man becomes the ultimate victim of every policy, a welfare one or against crime. People in countries with high crime rate desire such weapon to defend themselves. Gun control limits their sense of security and hence, affecting their quality of living.
- Violates constitutional right: In US, gun ownership is a basic right of every citizen. Gun control violates this privilege provided by the constitution. Any such restriction is unconstitutional that hurt legal gun owners, at most. Also, statistics show that firearms differ in their use during violent crimes. Therefore, extensive gun control laws seem excessive and unfair to the citizens who own them legally.
- Encourages miscreants: In real terms, strict gun control applies to citizens instead of wrongdoers as they can source it through dubious means. The desire to commit crime increases when a criminal knows that an ordinary citizen is indefensible.
- A threat to legal owners’ lives: Gun control restricts the firearms possession among civilians and culprits. In extreme cases, a criminal might attack a legal owner to obtain a gun. Therefore, severe gun law confirms risk to innocent lives.
- Undirected laws: The prime objective of gun control is to prevent crimes in a society. But no measures ensure that criminals, who fearlessly break laws, will stop committing such barbaric activities. Thus, gun control contradicts crimes reduction and influences it to occur to a great extent.
Countries like Brazil with strict gun control saw no improvement in crime rates. Gun policies along with strict laws against crimes such as robbery, murder, rape among others will prove effectual. All the provisions of law must include its implementation on different levels of the government. Proper regulation and governance are some effective means that can bring fruitful results of gun control in the life of a common man.