Should the Sale of Handguns and Automatic Rifles be Banned (Essay Sample)

"Should the Sale of Handguns and Automatic Rifles be banned?”
Introduction
The incidences of mass shooting in public places and schools are increasing day by day, not only in the United States but also many other countries of the world. The so-called "lone wolves" commonly use guns in the act of violence CITATION Dan12 \l 1033 (Daniel, Katherine and Stephen). There are hundreds of people die every day in the gunshot incidences. Many scholars and analyst considers gun as a root cause of violence, but the fact is; gun is the only weapon that every citizen of any country can buy easily. Mostly, the gun is considered as the weapon of police, law enforcement agencies and military, but the reality is that there are almost 875 million guns are circulating on the earth planet from which 74% are owned by the civilians and other non-states actors. The majority of the guns is owned by the civilians, in which 56% use gun for the purpose of homicide, 14% for the purpose of doing suicide and only 5% civilian gun owners use guns for their personal security CITATION IAN12 \l 1033 (IANSA ). The rising gunshot incidences and high number of civilians with the gun ownership show that many countries have weak laws of regulating the sales and possession of the guns. Thus, the debate about controlling the sales and possession of guns is one of the controversial issues of this global world. Even, it is one of the biggest issues for the super power of the world and other big economies of the global world. In this essay, we will critically analyze this controversial issue and we will conclude that whether the ban on the sale of handguns and rifles is justified or not.
The decision of banning the sales of handguns and automatic rifles is a controversial debate. The majority of the countries and its people favoring the decision, while there are also some people who are against this decision and opposing the ban. This debate raises three important questions that can rightly explain and justify the decision of banning the sale of handguns and automatic rifles. The questions are;
1 Are such steps enough to control the gunshot incidences?
2 Will this ban strengthen the gun policy?
3 Is ban more effective than the strict and regulated gun policy?
These three questions are mostly asked by the members that are against the ban. These can be easily answered by analyzing the case studies of such a country that have reduced the number incidences of gunshot by banning the sales of guns. Gun control is not the new initiative, it has been adopted by the various countries like the Great Britain, Australia, Brazil, Philippines and many others. In 1996, when a man came up with the gun and shot many students in the Dunblane Primary School in the central Scotland. He had two automatic rifles in his hand. When he entered in a school and opened fire on the school children. In the Dunblane Primary school incidence 4 children were killed and many teachers and children were injured. Immediately after the attack, the British government introduced some amendments in their firearm legislatures and banned various guns like handguns CITATION Mic00 \l 1033 (North). The results of such a banning proved fruitful for the United Kingdom because no such an incident has repeated till now. Similarly, when a disturbed man came at the Port Arthur in Tasmania and shot almost 35 people in 1996. After the attack on the tourist, the whole nation and government were on the same page on introducing strict gun policy. Therefore, immediately after the attack, the Prime of Australia called the Australian police Minister’s Council (APMC) and demanded the plan of imposing strict restrictions on the sale and possession of guns. A long plan had been introduced by the National Firearm Regulatory Agency of Australia, which was known as "National Firearm Agreement of Australia (1996)”. The plan prominent features of the agreement were; a ban on the automatic and semi-automatic guns, strict scrutiny and registration of the guns, categorization of guns and weapons and setting an age limit for possessing the guns and other firearms CITATION Mou99 \l 1033 (Mouzos and Jenny). These gun policy reforms gained huge success. A National Rifle Association of Australia gave prominent evidence that showed the success of the Australian Government on not only decrease the gunshot incidences but also minimizing the overall crime rate due to strict and banning of handgun and rifles in Australia. Many studies showed that the main cause of decreasing the gunshot incidences including suicide was the restriction that had been imposed on different handguns for the civilians CITATION She01 \l 1033 (Sherman and Lawrence).
Likewise, Brazil is also one of the prominent country that reduced the firearms death from thirty-nine thousand to thirty-four thousand in the year of 2010 by controlling the production and sales of various guns. According to the estimation, almost 16 million of the guns were in circulation by the end of the year 2010 and from which half of the guns were illegal and non-registered. Such a number of illegal gun possession had also increased the gun shot incidences and causalities CITATION Ban12 \l 1033 (Antonio). The situation of gun policy was deplorable till the end of 2010. It was very difficult for the Brazilian government to register such a high number of illegal guns. But recently, Brazil has also introduced some significant reforms in its firearm policy which has dramatically decreased the domestic sales of guns. When the law enforcement agencies were formulating the new firearm policy, they had done extensive research on the type of gun and its usage in the crime. It has been concluded that, it was all myth that mostly criminals use large caliber guns like machine guns as the weapon, but the reality is a bit different. The results were shocking because almost 83% of the criminals use handguns, revolvers and automatic and semi-automatic guns for shooting. Thus, the government of Brazil considered this fact and banning the sales of rifles and revolvers in its domestic market, which has not only reduced the crime rate of Brazil, but has also significantly reduced the number of gunshot incidence CITATION Ban12 \l 1033 (Antonio). Thus, the case studies of Brazil, Australia and the United Kingdom are the prominent examples of successfully managing the ban on the sales of handguns and automatic rifles to control and minimize the crime rate and gunshot incidences CITATION MIC13 \l 1033 (BLOOMBERG).
On the other hand, right to carry (RTC) law of firearm states that the state does not impose any ban on the sale of any kind of gun. It comes under the fundamental right of the citizen that he can purchase any gun through the legal process of authorization. This law allows the citizen of the state to carry a weapon anywhere in the country. At the same time, right to carry law shows a contradictory relationship with the violence in the society. Such a law, provides the justifications of possessing illegal guns to the illegal owners and lone wolves. Moreover, it can also increase the crime and violence rate in the society. It has been carefully reviewed by the National Council of Research of the United States that Right to carry law is associated with an increase in aggravated assault CITATION Nat05 \l 1033 (National Research Council). It not only increases the crime rate but also weaken the overall security conditions o...