Title: Gun Control - Pros & Cons - ProCon.org
Headings: Should More Gun Control Laws Be Enacted?
Should More Gun Control Laws Be Enacted?
Pro & Con Arguments
Pro 1
The Second Amendment is not an unlimited right to own guns.
Pro 2
More gun control laws would reduce gun deaths.
Pro 3
High-capacity magazines should be banned because they too often turn murder into mass murder.
Pro 4
More gun control laws are needed to protect women from domestic abusers and stalkers.
Pro 5
Guns are rarely used in self-defense.
Pro 6
Legally owned guns are frequently stolen and used by criminals.
Pro 7
Gun control laws would reduce the societal costs associated with gun violence.
Pro 8
A majority of adults, including gun owners, support common sense gun control such as background checks, bans on assault weapons, and bans on high-capacity magazines.
Pro 9
More gun control leads to fewer suicides.
Pro 10
Enacting gun control laws such as mandatory safety features would reduce the number of accidental gun deaths.
Pro 11
The presence of a gun makes a conflict more likely to become violent.
Pro 12
Armed civilians are unlikely to stop crimes and are more likely to make dangerous situations, including mass shootings, more deadly.
Pro 13
Countries with restrictive gun control laws have lower gun homicide and suicide rates than the United States.
Pro 14
The Second Amendment was intended to protect the right of militias to own guns, not the right of individuals.
Pro 15
Civilians, including hunters, should not own military-grade firearms or firearm accessories.
Con 1
The Second Amendment of the US Constitution protects individual gun ownership.
Con 2
Gun control laws do not deter crime; gun ownership deters crime.
Con 3
Gun control laws infringe upon the right to self-defense and deny people a sense of safety.
Con 4
Gun control laws, especially those that try to ban “assault weapons,” infringe upon the right to own guns for hunting and sport.
Con 5
Gun control laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns or breaking laws.
Con 6
Gun control laws give too much power to the government and may result in government tyranny and the government taking away all guns from citizens.
Con 7
Gun control laws such as background checks and micro-stamping are an invasion of privacy.
Con 8
More gun control is unnecessary because relatively few people are killed by guns.
Con 9
Gun control laws and lower gun ownership rates do not prevent suicides.
Con 10
More gun control is not needed; education about guns and gun safety is needed to prevent accidental gun deaths.
Con 11
Gun control laws would prevent citizens from protecting themselves from foreign invaders.
Con 12
Strict gun control laws do not work in Mexico, and will not work in the United States.
Con 13
Gun control laws are racist.
Con 14
The Second Amendment was intended to protect gun ownership of all able-bodied men so that they could participate in the militia to keep the peace and defend the country if needed.
Con 15
Gun control efforts have proved ineffective.
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Content: Gun Control - Pros & Cons - ProCon.org
Should More Gun Control Laws Be Enacted? Last updated on: 8/7/2020 | Author: ProCon.org
The United States has 120.5 guns per 100 people, or about 393,347,000 guns, which is the highest total and per capita number in the world. 22% of Americans own one or more guns (35% of men and 12% of women). America’s pervasive gun culture stems in part from its colonial history, revolutionary roots, frontier expansion, and the Second Amendment, which states: “ A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Proponents of more gun control laws state that the Second Amendment was intended for militias; that gun violence would be reduced; that gun restrictions have always existed;