One of the hotly debated issues in the United States over the past fifty years has been gun control. Should the average American be allowed to own a gun and keep it in his or her home? By gun, I mean all handguns. There are many factors that one must take into account in order to decide what side one is on. Someone can say that it should be allowed to own your own gun. But then, someone, who is looking at it differently, can say that it is a danger to keep a gun at home because of the possibility it can get into the wrong hands such as kids and criminals. I believe that kids and criminals should not be allowed to possess guns for the simple fact that it will be used for the wrong reasons. Another argument can be that it should be allowed because it is a Constitutional right. The opposition will then say that if that were to happen and anyone would be allowed to acquire a gun, then crime would go up considerably. There are many debates and arguments that are endless. There have been gun control laws passed in every state, but that will not stop pro-control organizations, such as Handgun Control, Inc. and the National Coalition to Ban Handguns, from trying to successfully eliminate all firearms from American homes. In response to all of the debate on gun control and the push by gun activists to ban all guns from households, I believe that the general public, with a few exceptions, should be allowed to own a gun and keep it in their houses.
"Any realistic evaluation of the gun issue must take into account several indisputable facts. First, according to a December 1993 report by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, there are at least 211 million guns, including 71 million handguns, in private hands in this country. Second, thanks to the frequent use of lethal weapons in the commission of crimes, retail sales of guns purchased for personal protection are on the rise.
