Every day gun violence has become part of every news channels headlines, yet there are people who are against gun control who believe laws wouldn’t make a difference to the increasing number of deaths caused by gun violence. An article written in the Times called, A Criminologist’s Case against Gun Control, published by Jacob Davidson: interviews James Jacobs, a law professor who talks about his concerns regarding the new approach to gun violence in America where he opposes gun control.
According to Jacobs, the number of firearms has increased by 10 million per year but there is no correlation between the amounts of firearms people own compared to the amount of gun violence. He believes that people always assume that gun violence is getting worse when in reality the fatality caused by gun violence has decreased. Jacobs states, “That most gun-related deaths are suicides, not murders. There are twice as many suicides in the U.S. by guns as there are homicides.” And “30,000 people have been killed with guns, but what’s not said is that 20,000 of them took their own lives.” Jacobs justifies his argument of being against gun control by stating that suicidal gun violence isn’t equally important compared to killing others with guns. Whether a life was taken by others or themselves we need to remember that every life matters because that means someone lost a loved one, a friend, a colleague to gun violence. The main point is that a precious life was lost by gun violence and that needs to stop! According to Jacobs, politicians on both sides of the gun control debate, support the idea of focusing more to keep firearms away from the mentally ill. The problem with only focusing on the issue of the mentally ill would require us to clearly and comprehensively define as to who would be considered mentally ill. And the fact is that defining who is mentally ill is almost an impossible task. If the government did indeed get as far as defining who the mentally ill is, the government would have a difficult time making their database public because of people’s privacy issues. Another question is how does a person get officially designated as mentally ill and be identified before he or she tries to buy a gun. “Jacobs also believes the law enforcement should aim at the people who are more likely to commit crimes with firearms such as: drug dealers, gang members, people who have engaged in violent crimes in the past, and the areas in which they operate. Again only focusing on people who are most likely to commit a gun crime isn’t a good idea because gun violence in the past has proved that the people who have committed crimes with firearms don’t have obvious records unless you dig deep. Therefore creating laws which apply to everyone will gradually keep people safe.
Gun Control is Out of Control 