Many people may argue that the good uses of guns extremely outweigh the bad uses. But, the only good uses of guns are for hunting and self-defense, while the bad uses of guns are suicide, depression, school violence, family fights, anger, and gang fights. This list proves that there are many more bad uses vs. good uses, when compared. So why do people still argue that gun control is a thing maybe it’s because the crime rates in the cities have gone down since the concealed carry law came out. Well, although crime rates have gone down, school shooting rates have gone up. All the way up to one every other day. Maybe people still go against gun control because the recreational uses of guns are very fun and an easy way to pass time. However, over 600 thousand young children come home to an empty house with an unprotected “Hunting” gun and can access if they wanted to. Yet, even that can’t convince people that guns are dangerous and need to be gotten rid of.

Self-defense is still quite a debate throughout the gun control debate. Using a gun for self-defense against a robber does seem to be quite a smart idea. I mean, the robber sees you standing there aiming a gun, they’re going to stop everything and so you can call the police and before you know it, you have a safe family again. But what if you don’t hear the robber? Then the intruder finds the gun and leaves you defenseless. Well this will never happen, you might think to yourself, my gun is in my bedroom and very safe from everybody. Well, Most of Americans do keep their gun in a closet and/or bedroom; so really, it won’t be hard to find. And that’s not all. Even if you turn around for two seconds to pick up the gun, the robber might be wrestling it out of your hands to use your only weapon against you. So it’s now clear that guns might not be your best protection against intruders, they may still have a chance to stop an attack on the streets, right? Think again. You see, if you’re not very skilled with a gun, any stray bullets put others at risk. Also, if the shot misses, the attacker runs, and you kill somebody else, you’re going to jail, not the attacker. If you are skilled with a gun though, most people who attempt an attack go straight for the purse or bag and that will immediately cut of any attempt at protection from a gun. So guns aren’t the best form of protection, are they?

Guns used as protection aren’t the only bad parts of guns in the home. There are, in fact, many more. But one of the most outstanding statistics is the number of homes that have loaded guns around children every day. 1.2 million families have a child come home to a loaded gun all alone every day. Every year, 606 of the guns in homes with youth in the house alone have accidently killed a person, which adds up to nearly two accidental deaths every day. But people continue to keep guns in their homes. Also, 360,000 of the “secret” guns are kept loaded, and 144,000 are kept in a bedroom or closet, which would be very simple to uncover from a young child. The simplicity in finding a gun in the home puts everybody at risk, including the parents. However, it’s not just the inhibitors of the house at risk, but also the nearby schools. In fact, nearly 100% of all school shootings have come from children. These shootings have jumped to a whopping 1 school shooting every other day. But for some reason, after Jonesboro, Arkansas shooting that killed five, after the Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32, after the University of Texas shooting that killed 14, after the Littleton, Colorado shooting that killed 15 and wounded others, and even after the famous Sandy Hook Connecticut shooting that stole 27 lives from parents in that area, all committed by students, people refuse to even consider guns as any problem at all.

Now, at this point, I’ve brought up many uses for guns that harm others, but nothing about harming themselves. For one, 57% (19,392) of suicides are from guns compared to the other 43% (11,078). Also, 85% of all gun related suicide attempts end in death. Clearly, gun suicides are the most common way of suicide. But why? Well, unlike any other form of suicide, there is no way to stop once the trigger is pulled, unlike hanging or car smoke inhalation that allows the killer to think about what he or she is doing.

Now, there are ways to solve, or help, this increasing problem. One simple way is to increase the waiting time in between the buying and time that the buyer can legally have the gun. The time should be changed from one day to five, or even seven days. The five day waiting period would be used as a “cool down period” for the buyer so that he or she didn’t buy the gun out of anger, or to let the anger blow off. This waiting period could save many people from domestic violence charges. Also, the background checks could become more in depth than before. Another way to help some of the gun related problems is to make punishments for buying or selling guns off the street and without legal license harsher, such as jail for longer than periods (five to ten years in jail) of time or higher fines ($500-$1500)

So yes, many people will still fight against gun control. Even though the bad uses outweigh the good reasons. Even though there is a school shooting every other day. Even though there are up to 1.2 million children who walk into an empty house and have a potential accidental killing every day. Well, all I hope is that everybody who reads walks away from this article understands all the truths and dangers of guns throughout America.