Essay/Term paper: Gun control is not crime control

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Gun Control

Gun Control is not Crime Control Americans are faced with an ever-increasing problem of violence. The streets of America are now a war zone. Teenage gangsters murder one another for drug territory, and innocent victims are caught in the crossfire. However, most recent and most abhorrent, is our children are killing one another. They are killing with extreme prejudice. Our children are killing, exhibiting little or no remorse for lives they have taken. We cannot ignore the carnage our society endures due to the criminal behavior of a minority, obviously lacking the basic moral behavior regarding human life. Nevertheless, we must not be misguided in our efforts to address the problem at hand. To eliminate the right of citizens to own firearms is not a solution. Violent crime is not an issue that has reared its ugly head in the nineties. The prohibition of alcohol was the beginning of what historians considered the most violent time in modern history. Prohibition sparked murderous wars between mob families for the black market alcohol trade. The government in their infinite wisdom made the ownership of fully automatic firearms illegal, as a solution to the increased violence. I do not see any need for anyone to own a machine gun, then, or now. Nevertheless, the ban on the firearms did not curb the violent behavior of the criminal element. The ban created a new black market. It was the repeal of the prohibition of alcohol that ended the massacre. This is a parallel to the drug trafficking gangs of today. An amendment to the 1994 Crime Bill, offered by Representative Charles Schumer, presented America with the "Assault Weapon Ban," with false promise that this would save the American people from the drug wars prevalent to the day. The infamous "Crime Bill," banned nineteen specified firearms, as well as foreign copies of the same. It has been five years since the ban, and the drug trade has flourished. The senseless killing for turf continues. We are at war with the drug cartels around the world. The country is now debating the legalization of drugs as a means to ending the madness. The restrictions on firearms did not have the intended affect on crime expected by millions of Americans. America is now turning to the real cause of the crime, the dealers, and the users of drugs. The failure of more firearm restrictions opened the door for the debate over the legalization of drugs. Kurt Schmoke states, " The violence brought about by the black market in drugs is attributable in large part to the fact that we have chosen to make criminals out of millions of people who have a disease." The idealism that "we" as a society have made criminals is flawed. The vast majority of Americans choose not to use drugs. The legalization of drugs will shift our resources from enforcement to treatment. This is only a shift in policy, not a solution to the problem. William Bennett points out, " Even limited experiments in drug legalization have shown that when drugs are more widely available, addiction sky rockets." Drug addiction and the black market drug trade has been, and will be with us for the reminder of our lifetime. Drugs such as heroin, and marijuana have been widespread since the fifties. At the same time, the availability of firearms was much less restricted. The indiscriminate killing in our streets is not due to drug addiction, disease, or gun availability. There seems to be a complete breakdown of the moral fabric of a society. Recently we have been witnesses to an alarming trend among our young people. In Colorado, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and small towns across America, children are committing the ultimate crime against humanity. Americas" children have become heartless, calculating assassins. In order to understand the unimaginable actions of other individuals, we clamor over one another to place causation to the fact that children have become killers. Something caused these children to commit the ultimate crime. If the guns were gone, this would not have happened. Tougher laws would have prevented the massacre at Columbine High. The gun shows made it easy for the killers to get guns. The fact that over eighteen firearms and explosives laws were violated seems to have escaped the American people. The two teens showed total disregard for the laws of man, and the laws of god. We, as a society, must look away from the tools chosen for destruction, and begin to focus on what has led us to our present state of chaos. It is not gun availability, drugs, or lack of law enforcement that has brought us to the place where children kill. The issue of the "right to bears arms" bears no relevance to the issue of crime in our country. Moreover, the "right to bear arms," bears no relevance to the fact that our children are killing. Unfortunately, the root causes are many. Violence is prevalent in every area of our lives. The news regularly greets us at the end of the day with tales of crime and corruption. Another youth killed, pictures of the body after this message. Music, movies, video games, all portray violence in a no consequences format. I believe it is the movement away from personal responsibility that led the way to our present dilemma. There seems to be an excuse for every criminal activity. His dad slapped him, they lived in a bad section of town, and their dad ran off when they were young. If the hardships of life are legitimate excuses to commit crimes, the people of the depression years should have all become killers. Guns were certainly readily available at that time.