The United States ranks 30th for gun-related homicides worldwide; this means that making firearms illegal wouldn’t necessarily deter the crime rate for homicides, but it might rather increase this rate because of the desire for an illegal firearm and having it on the black market. The United States has close to 4 million guns in circulation, which is the highest number globally, and increase in gun control laws has been a hot topic in recent years after a shocking number of mass shootings occurring in schools, nightclubs and other establishments. As far as firearms death rate goes, the United States is listed as 20th globally- the country only has 10.6 deaths per 100,000 people as of 2016, and that number is believed to go up if assault weapons and firearms go onto the black market. People believe that less guns would lead to less gun-related deaths, and not only would this is unconstitutional, but failure of these laws in other countries similar to the United States has proven that placing gun control laws wouldn’t necessarily deter crime.

A counterargument to saying that individual ownership of a gun is a legal human right would be to say that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is not an unlimited right for citizens of this country to individually own guns and that this amendment only protects the right for a militia to own guns. According to Justice Antonin Scalia, LLB, "The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home," (Supreme Court Syllabus, District Of Columbia Et Al. v. Heller). There are many practical and legitimate reasons for gun ownership, including hunting, self defense and collecting, which are all completely harmless and people who own firearms for these reasons have no intention of harming a human being. To create gun control laws trying to take away guns altogether would legally be an infringement of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Many people in favor of more gun control laws would argue that less guns would ultimately lead to less crime, and that other first world countries similar to the United States have placed these laws and their crime rates went down. In reality, a recent study shows that bans on firearms and assault weapons do not directly affect the homicide rates at a state level and "states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murders,” (Gius). Since 1990, the number of gun-related deaths in the United States have declined, despite the expiration of the assault weapons ban in 2004 that was originally set in place by Bill Clinton in 1994. In the years after the assault weapons ban expired, gun ownership doubled, but the homicide rate was cut in half. These statistics prove that even with gun control laws and assault weapon bans in place, gun-related crimes were still an issue and there are other actions that can take place to further reduce these numbers down to near zero.

One might say that banning assault weapons and outlawing guns altogether might help with the excess crime seen in America in recent years, but these laws won’t prevent criminals from breaking the law and obtaining illegal weaponry nonetheless. When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns- a statement that remains true when speaking in reference to the gun control debate, because it is inevitable that if a criminal wants to obtain an illegal or illicit weapon or substance, they will find a way to obtain it. In addition to finding new ways to obtain assault weapons via the black market, there is no way to guarantee that these criminals won’t already own or inherit one, considering that there are already 393 million civilian-owned firearms currently in circulation in the United States. These laws and bans would only take away the guns used for hunting and self defense by law-abiding citizens, and the criminals would ignore them and go to great lengths to somehow get ahold of the weapon they desire to cause harm. “Despite Chicago's ban on gun shops, shooting ranges, assault weapons, and high capacity magazines, in 2014 Chicago had 2,089 shooting victims including at least 390 murders,” (ProCon). Extensive gun control laws and bans has not worked in Illinois and will not work in the rest of the country, judging by their crime rate in Chicago alone.

Not only would gun control in the United States be unconstitutional, but it would clearly be ineffective and might even lead to more crime and bring up the homicide rate in certain cities. Owning a gun is a right as an American and is fundamental to the laws of liberty, similar to freedom of speech or freedom of press; the right to bear arms is extremely important and to take away this right could even result in government tyranny. Protecting our right to bear arms isn’t just protecting our guns, rather it is protecting our freedom of self defense.

Works Cited

Ali, Tanveer. “Though Chicago Murders Are Down, 'Gang Culture' Remains an Issue: Top Cop.” DNAinfo New York, DNAinfo New York, 29 Dec. 2014.

Chicago Tribune. “Tracking Chicago Shooting Victims.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 27 Dec. 2018.

Gius, Mark. “An Examination of the Effects of Concealed Weapons Laws and Assault Weapons Bans on State-Level Murder Rates.” Taylor and Francis Online, 26 Nov. 2013.

ProCon. "Gun Control ProCon." ProCon. 18 Dec. 2018.

Santhanam, Laura. “There's a New Global Ranking of Gun Deaths. Here's Where the U.S. Stands.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 28 Aug. 2018.

Sowell, Thomas. “The Great Gun Control Fallacy | Thomas Sowell.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 18 Dec. 2012.