ers, gun manufacturers, hunters, and sports shooters (Miller 31). The NRA claims that gun control would set restrictions that would interfere with legitimate sports and hobbies. In America, there are 33 million people who use guns for hunting, 7 million for target shooting, and 2.5 million gun collectors (Gottfried 55). The NRA has been very successful with lobbying and persuading politicians to vote against gun control legislature. Gun advocates firmly believe that American citizens have the right to own guns as a method of self-defense. A study conducted by a professor at Florida State University found that handguns used in self-defense kills 1,500 criminals annually (Gottfried 48). With the mass uprising in crime over the last few decades, gun advocates believe that owning guns reduces crime. Another key position for those opposed to gun control is that guns reduce violence, and that guns are also used to stop criminals from causing any violence (Gottfried 54). Gun advocates also believe that by putting restrictions on gun purchases would only hurt the honest citizen, as criminals could still purchase them on the black market. They say that anti-gun laws would be a spur to the black market in firearms. If guns were to be banned, gun advocates believe that the same thing that happened in the 1920’s with the prohibition of alcohol would just happen again. Honest law abiding citizens would find themselves buying guns from the black market to protect themselves. Gun control sounds like a very wise step towards ending gun related violence and crime in our country. “Every year, more than 24,000 Americans are killed with handguns in homicides, suicides, and accidents” (Safran 22). But the fact is that in America, no matter how many great ideas that gun control advocates come up with, gun advocates will always come up with just as many justifiable opposing viewpoints. Many other countries do not share the sam...
