Why Do Gun Control Laws Do More Harm Than Good

In recent years, gun control has been one of the most controversial and debated subjects around. My stance is that heavy gun control laws do more harm than good. Now, today more than ever it seems impossible to pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV without seeing some tragic event being reported by the media in relation to gun violence. Unfortunately, to grab as much viewership as possible, facts are often skewed or ignored, and gun control is blamed. Contrary to what the media would have you believe, stern gun control laws will not prevent mass shootings, detour criminals, nor will it make our neighborhoods any safer. After the Sandy Hook and San Bernardino shootings where 20 first-graders and 14 county workers lost their lives, victims and the media painted a picture that stiffer gun control laws would have averted such a massacre. However, this could not be further from the truth. Being that both weapons were …show more content…
Of the 372 reported mass shootings in 2015, only a small handful is prevented due to armed citizens. (Mass shooting involves 4 or more victims either wounded or killed, including the gunman). If stricter gun control laws were already on the books, these mass murderers would not have had access to such guns, and the results would be less mass shootings. While this argument cannot be completely discredited, and it does have some ground to stand on; it is important to understand that the majority of mass shootings are creations stemming from criminals. Stricter gun control laws could only help prevent such occasions where a mentally ill shooter has access to a gun and should not. The majority of the 372 registered mass shootings where done by career criminals, not law abiding citizens. No gun law would have the ability to prevent such tragic events as long as criminals are the ones at fault. This is even more evident in cities that ban handguns all