Guns Put People In Danger, and Do Not Protect Them
WHS Lions Pride Original Story:
by Miranda Secula
People who have guns in their homes tend to say they’re there to protect themselves and their families. What they don’t know is that they’re putting themselves in more danger.
“A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used to kill or injure in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting than to be used in self-defense.” (slate.com) Now accidents do happen, but once you pull the trigger on a gun, that’s it. There’s no going back.
Let’s say you hear a strange noise and you think someone is breaking in to your house. Of course the logical thing to do would be to grab your gun, right? So you fire. Then you realize that you accidentally shot your wife who was just trying to bring the groceries inside. Incidents like this have happened multiple times.
Not only do accidents happen but you hear all the time about children getting a hold of these guns and accidentally shooting themselves or others. So, is it really worth putting everyone at risk by having a gun in your home?
“Unfortunately, our current background check system only applies to about 60% of gun sales, leaving 40% (online sales, purchases at gun shows, etc.) without a background check.” (slate.com) While background checks sound like a great compromise in theory, a lot of gun owners are able to skip this background check.
With all of the public shootings that have happened AND 40% of gun owners not having to go through background checks, what are we doing? Are we, as a society, saying that we don’t care if people shoot other people because this is America and we should be able to have guns?
Keep in mind, I am someone who is all for changing with the times. I don’t understand why people are so rooted in old-fashioned ways. In my opinion, nobody should have guns. I do however, understand why people have them who go hunting. At least that’s a legitimate reason. Having them for safety though? There’s so much evidence that proves they’re not worth having for self-defensive because they cause more bad than they do good.
“I think there should be a test just like a driving test to have guns, know what I mean? There should be restrictions.” says Cody Strange, sophomore.
“I think the government should allow people to have guns but should control what types of guns the people are allowed to own. Like I don’t think people should be allowed to have automatic or semiautomatic guns because lately people have been using them for bad reasons,” sophomore Faith Gordon said.
On Gun Appreciation Day, at a gun show, five people were injured accidentally. I think that says it all.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/about-gun-violence
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