Mandatory background checks and waiting periods should be enforced to ensure that the person purchasing the weapon isn't straight out of prison or previously convicted of a felony. Trigger locks should be in use whenever the gun is not being used to prevent accidental firing of any kind. If these simple rules are followed people can still own a gun and feel protected. .
The key to positively controlling the distribution and usage of firearms is keeping them legal to own, purchase, and carry. If guns are outlawed in the United States the result will be similar to America's drug problem because the fact that it is illegal to own or carry a gun, like it is illegal to sell or posses illegal substances, will not stop criminals from doing either. Many illegal substances are sold to people in the United States and will continue to be whether or not a law says it is illegal. The same result will occur if guns are banned. Innocent people will be without proper protection and at the mercy of criminals who use guns illegally. Making guns illegal will not get rid of them or the crimes that are committed with the use of them. Instead it will take guns away from the people whose right it is to bear them for reasons of self defense. .
It is a fact that guns do save lives, as ironic as that might sound. In an article in The Washington Times, John R. Lott Jr. explains that in major American cities where crime rates are above average such as Chicago, Illinois, murder rates dropped from 27 to 22 for every 100,000 people in five years before a law that banned carrying guns was put into effect. After the law was established the murder rates rose dramatically. Chicago's murder rate fell from being 8.1 times greater than its neighbors in 1977 to 5.5 times in 1982, and then went way up to 12 times greater in 1987 when the law was in effect (Lott). According to a similar survey conducted by Gary Kleck on Guncite.
