Editor:
The answer to gun violence is not gun control, but stricter enforcement of gun laws already in place. Stricter enforcement of the laws will do the job that is intended by gun control, without trying to strip citizens of their guns.
Australia passed one of the toughest gun control laws in effect to date in 1997, in an attempt to lower the rate of suicide in the country. In a 14-year study, it was not proven that the law had any effect on the rate of suicide in Australia.
In 1982, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a law banning handguns in the city of Chicago, Ill. With a 5-4 vote the Court agreed citing, "Americans in all 50 states have a constitutional right to possess firearms for self-defense." A Gallup poll taken in 1959 showed that 60 percent of Americans supported a handgun ban. The same poll was taken in 2011 and showed that only twenty-six percent of Americans supported a ban on hand guns.
It is not the lawful citizens the law is concerned with, but rather the criminals. It is illegal to purchase or possess alcohol under the age of 21, yet how many DUIs are there each year given to teens? Almost 21 percent of all DUIs are by teens. The point is that if gun control is passed into law, it will be the criminals who have guns, not the law-abiding citizen. If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
Kaan Clark
Cortez
Via CortezJournal.com