Guns save lives! At the current homicide rate, roughly one in every 240 Americans will be murdered; and 16,272 murders were committed in the United States during 2008. Of these, about 10,886 or 67% were committed with firearms. Thus, in order to protect oneself, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed! Taking guns away only keep them in the hand of criminals. But if criminal suspect you have a gun they might tend to avoid you. As I see it, keeping guns not only saves you or your family’s lives and it also prevents the property damage from the thieves and robbers.
“More criminals are killed by citizens defending themselves than by law enforcement” . We should definitely have the power to defend ourselves. Criminals would not follow the law, if guns were banned, then only the bad guys would have them. Although having a gun will not help all the time, being defenseless will never help. Therefore it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it. Because the police cannot always protect you from crime, they usually investigate the crime after it happened.
Guns are necessary when someone breaks into your house and steal. Four years ago, I had a friend who was an exchange student from Thailand. She lived with her host family. One night, two guys broke in their house and ordered them to hand over their valuables. Being helpless is scary. Fortunately they didn't get hurt. But in most cases, your home invader will not just thank you for not shooting him and take your possession and leave peacefully, they usually do a severe beating, raping or just kill people to protect him from being caught.
Some people think banning guns may avoid school shooting and other gun shooting events. But the truth is no one can assure our safety in the school gun free zone. David Burnett reports that Gun-free zones are supposed to be safe areas, but statistics show that campuses are not always safe; and the fact is the only people who truly benefit from such designated zones are criminals and killers. “The mass murder that occurred in April 2007 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is just one example of the many college shooting sprees in which students and teachers were unable to defend themselves because their campuses were mandated gun-free zones.”
If you believe you are safe because the laws of the state and government say you are, you will be safe right up until the moment you are victim. Gun control is not the solution to this problem, the solution to this problem lies in the people who use these guns. The public should be educated in terms of how to properly handle such weapon. Furthermore, counseling should be offered at a lower cost or be free of charge on college campuses to prevent mass murders such as the one that occurred at Virginia Tech.