Some Gun Facts for the Average person

Here are some facts about guns and shooters in America

According to the CDC 2013 63% of deaths by firearms were suicides, 33.3% were from homicides, and 3.7% were from accidents and unknown causes (CDC, 2013). According to the Bureau of Justice statistics from 1976-2004 a majority of homicides by guns were from handguns NOT from rifles, handguns made anywhere from 8,000 to over 14,000 deaths throughout the study whereas rifles made a consistent 4,000 deaths and under. At some points in the same study knives and blunt objects made the same or more deaths by homicide (Bjs.gov, 2004). This is still true today according to the FBI in 2016 where a majority of homicides were by handguns and 364 out of the 10854 fire arm deaths were by rifles. This number could vary depending on the number of unknown firearms being rifles (FBI, 2016). You are still more likely to be stabbed or beaten to death than killed with a rifle according to the FBI. It is important to note that banning “assault rifles” would have minimal effect here if a small minority of murders were done by rifle and that California, Illinois, and New York have the highest rates of murders by firearms and have the tightest gun regulations in the U.S.

Next it would take a full repeal of the second amendment to make ownership of a firearm illegal it would take a vote of 67 senators and 290 representatives to complete (US Constitution). It would also require 38 state legislatures to ratify a repeal and replacement of the second amendment. It is also very important to note that the 2nd Amendment was created as a resistance to government tyranny as so that citizens can protect themselves. There are 88 guns owned per hundred people in the United States (Guardian, 2017). This means there are around 300+ million firearms owned by private citizens. If we were to try something like Australia’s buy back program still left around 60-80% of firearms left in the private ownership of Australians which means that 105 million firearms are still in the ownership of Australians (The Federalist, 2015). It is also important to note that the “buy back” was a ban because it was mandatory.

There is some terminology and action types that are commonly spread around about guns. For instance, "assault rifle" is the most widely spread lie about rifles. The technical definition of an "assault rifle" according to the ATF is solely a rifle capable of fully automatic fire meaning you cock the gun once and hold down the trigger. Next there are action types for firearms that need clear definitions. First is Semi-automatic, this means that every trigger pulls fires one bullet this is most handguns and rifles. Next, Lever action which is done by pushing a lever forward and back to chamber a round. Bolt action which is done by pulling a bolt back and pushing it forward to chamber a round.

Some states like California and New Jersey have banned them out right but ownership of a fully automatic rifle is extremely difficult in states that allow it with the process taking over a year and costing $20,000, it requires a class 3 license and authorization from a class 3 federally licensed dealer (Quora, 2014). The gun as well has to be made before May 19th 1986 which is when Reagans regulation on fully automatic weapons was put into place. If you want to do a legal conversion you need to find the part that was made before that date as well which will still cost, you an average of $5,000. Semi-automatic weapons do not fire a stream of bullets it requires one trigger pull for one shot. Every handgun except for single-action revolvers are semi-automatic and are not talked about in “gun-control” debates. The Ar-15's .223 caliber is only designed to be light weight and is used in several other guns like the Ruger mini-14 and the Smith and Wesson M&P-15 which both act the same as an Ar-15.

Also there are lever action rifles that fire calibers like the .357 magnum that do far more damage than the .223. It is also important to note that on ballistic gel tests buck shot and other shot gun shots do far more damage to the gel than .223. There is no gun show loop-hole a comedian and political commentator named Steven Crowder proved this by going to the exact Indiana gun show that Barack Obama talked about and when he asked they said that he had to fill out a background check (YouTube, Steven Crowder, 2016). Every state in the United States of America requires every federally licensed dealer to give a mandatory background check. If you are convicted of a felony you cannot purchase a firearm at all. You have to be 18 years old to buy a firearm. There would have been no gun law to stop the murderers from completing their fantasy.

According to Scientific American shooters have had a fascination with violence and have suffered from depression. All of the school shooters since Columbine have worshiped the murderers of Columbine in their journals or have mentioned them while being arrested. It has been noted that these murderers have all had an obsession with seeing the other murderers on the news. The FBI and the police were called 39 times to the Parkland Murderers house in the past 6 years for questionable behavior. It also is important to note that there were at least one to four deputies on site of the school while it was happening and they did nothing. This has become a new problem as all mainstream media plasters the face and name of the shooter with some dramatic title instead of doing the proper thing and calling them MURDERERS.

My conclusion is now a collection of my opinions. I don’t believe that “common sense” gun control is the correct way to approach this issue. If we want to see a reduction of school shootings there can be two ways we approach this: 1. We increase our mental health funding so that these people cannot be able to buy guns and 2. We add hired security to the schools, as the threat of another gun especially by trained professionals or veteran is enough to deter some one, as there is a reason why these massacres occur in gun free zones. I also pose the question as the end of When ever some one gets in a DUI we blame the driver, when someone bombs a building we blame the bomber, but for some reason when some one shoots a person we blame the gun. Why is this?

Works Cited

Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Crime Rates of 2016”. Fbi.gov. 2016. Web. Feb.20.2018

Bureau of Justice Statistics. “Homicide Trends in the United States”. Bjs.gov.2004.Web.Feb.20.2018

McCarthy, Tom. “Americas passion for guns”. The Guardian. 2017. Web. Feb.20.2018

Mehta, Varad. “Australia Gun control Fallacy”. The Federalist. 2015. Web. Feb.20.2018

Pickering, Matt. “Automatic Rifle Ownership in the US”. Quora. 2014. Web. Feb.20.2018

Kraft, Sheryl. “Inside the mind of Nikolas Cruz and other mass school shooters”. CNBC. 2018. Web. Feb.20.2018

Crowder, Steven. “Gun Show Loophole Debunked”. YouTube. 2016. Web. Feb.20.2018

The Constitution of the United States of America from the Library of Congress.

Robertz, Frank. “Deadly Dreams: What motivates School Shootings?”. Scientific American. August 1, 2007. Web. March 13, 2018