IN DEFENSE OF HANDGUNS (This is a 70)

     Considering how many people live (in) the world, it is no surprise that there exist conflicts between people. Unfortunately, guns might seem like an effective tool to solve such conflicts. Moreover, people use handguns for sport or hunting. I mean that guns have had a role in people's lives because of different reasons throughout the whole history of humankind. Nowadays, whether civilian possession of handguns should be banned has become a contentious issue. Some people think that guns should be banned immediately because they lead to the death of more people. However, anybody with a conscience must agree that guns are not the main reason for deaths and thus forbidding guns will not be a solution.

            To begin with, it has been argued that most violent crimes are committed with guns. In other words, restricting gun ownership will likely reduce the number of crimes. However; this approach is purely based on opinion with no  evidence to back up this argument. Only about 15% of guns used for crimes were stolen from legal markets, most of them are acquired illegally. This fact means guns are easily purchased behind closed doors.. Therefore, banning civilian possession of handguns will not help deal with crimes. To overcome crimes or reduce homicide rates, authorities should combat (the owners of) illegal gun markets..

            Furthermore, people who advocate the restriction of guns claim that suicides and crimes of passion are higher if guns are readily available. The justification of this idea is that committing  crimes are much easier when a gun is available. What is more, crimes that may have been less harmful can be made more dangerous due to the use of a gun. However, this approach is nothing but an oversimplification because it does not reflect the whole picture. First of all, guns are incapable of killing people, people kill people. Moreover, civilian possession of guns enables people to defend themselves/ provides people with the opportunity to defend themselves. For instance, women and weaker individuals may use guns to protect themselves from rape or similar crimes especially in the inner city. If people did not have a gun then who would defend them when they face a person who bought a gun illegally?

                To sum up, guns are used for serious crimes; it is an undeniable fact. However, the restriction of civilian possession of handguns and other non-hunting guns is not a real solution because it does not address the core issue of violence.

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