Explain whether or not gun control is actually possible. Support your argument. Please respond as of you are talking directly to Stace. Her post is not bold. A few sentences and a question backed by facts!

Please keep the discussion civil!

Arguments should be based in factual research.

This is perhaps one of the most heated and often conflicted topics to discuss to date, in the academic settings I've been involved in, not so much because of debating what guns are capable of doing in the hands of the wrong person, but because of the polar opposites in the political arena about whether or not gun control actually works. Obviously the conservatives feel guns deter crime, while the liberals believe that removing guns from society as a whole is the only answer. The arguments over the topic are debatable from whichever side of the issue you stand. For the sake of fostering a healthy debate I'm maintaining my political stance that gun control isn't the answer, human control is. What I mean by human control is to begin punishing the criminal, not the inanimate object or the people who mind the laws.

Stiffer penalties for crimes committed with a firearm regardless of physical harm upon a victim. The removal of guns from the good people of society will only foster an era of victims who cannot protect themselves, as poorly suggested in research done in Australia they reported that mass shootings and gun deaths plummeted (Chapman, Alpers, Agho & Jones, 2006), but what they don't tell you is that certain property crimes and physical crimes increased with the use of edged weapons or strong arm types of crime (Jacobs, 2002). In America where there is a larger culture of guns and criminals who would take advantage of gun control, anarchy would possibly be the result.

Gun crimes since the early 1970's has steadily decreased until the last year or so, the deaths by firearm rates were lower in 2016 than they ever were. That statistic has changed with what many are calling the political killings phenomenon. People who are anti-gun using guns against others to prove their political stance, though it can be argued not to be a phenomenon, the statistics can be argued the opposite (Lewis, 2018).

According to Bureau of Justice Statistics (2017) the actual number of gun related deaths during a crime has increased in 2018, but not as some might imagine. The category of the most increase is deaths or injuries of suspects during the commission of crimes against persons who are legally armed. The second largest increase was shootings in areas where the strictest gun control is active, such as Chicago (BJS, 2018). These statistics are argued to be somewhat inaccurate due to the reporting systems to the FBI, but the variance at most is about .3%, which according to some researchers is enough to be considered significant (Brown & Goodin, 2018).

As a firearms instructor in the State of Oklahoma, a self defense instructor who's been teaching since 2008, I've found that education is the most important tool for gun control. Educating people when and how they're supposed to act or react to a crime while using a firearm. Avoiding actions unless absolutely necessary is a standard which all SDA instructors teach, and as such Oklahoma has seen a decrease in both gun related deaths by victim or suspect, per capita. Other states with similar gun education standards report similar results that an educated and armed general public has been more of a deterrent than areas like Chicago who have the highest gun related crimes per capita than anywhere in the United States (Brown & Goodin, 2018).

The support of my opinions are offered through not only statistics as previously stated, but also my experiences as not only a police official in Oklahoma, but also as a gun rights supporter who has taught many courses to even the most novice of gun owner, only to have them become not only more informed, but more comfortable with the idea of protecting themselves or their loved ones from an aggressor by using a firearm.

References:

Brown, J. D., & Goodin, A. J. (2018). Mass Casualty Shooting Venues, Types of Firearms, and Age of Perpetrators in the United States, 1982–2018. American journal of public health, 108(10), 1385-1387.

Chapman, S., Alpers, P., Agho, K., & Jones, M. (2006). Australia’s 1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides, and a decade without mass shootings. Injury Prevention, 12(6), 365-372.

Jacobs, J. B. (2002). Can gun control work?. Oxford University Press.

Lewis, J. S. (2018). The Relationship between Gun Control Strictness and Mass Murder in the United States: A National Study 2009-2015. International Social Science Review, 94(2), 4.