Obama and Gun Control
Recently Obama participated in an event at George Mason
University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he answered questions regarding his ideas
for Gun Control. The president answered questions from a variety of Americans
with several different viewpoints and backgrounds. Some of his questioners went
as far as to suggest that Gun Control would inevitably lead to the confiscation
of the guns of all American citizens. Obama gracefully dismissed this idea,
calling it a conspiracy, and pointing out how unrealistic it is given his time
left in office. Many skeptics argued
that because Gun Control would realistically not be able to prevent every tragedy,
that it is ultimately not worth imposing on the American people. To this the
president urged the American public to accept gun control as a small step in
the right direction. Others supported Obama's actions, and thanked him for
attempting to address the public health issue that is gun violence. The event brought much needed attention to the
issue of gun violence and Obama's proposed solution.
I believe the idea that gun laws would be ineffective
because criminals would break them anyway, is pessimistic and counterproductive.
The principle suggests that we shouldn’t have any laws, because there’s no law that’s
ever completely followed. Similarly I believe the outrageous accusations, that
gun control leads to a dictatorship, are equally counterproductive because they
inspire fear and ultimately block the path to gun safety.
Although Ben Carson has made lose connections between gun
control and the beginning of Nazi Germany, I believe, due to the fact that gun violence is a public health issue, that these proposed safety measures more
closely relate to the advancements in seat belt legislature between 1983 and
1991. Currently seat belts save more than 2,000 lives annually in America. Obama's
proposed Gun control does not threaten mentally sound, law abiding citizens’
right to bear arms, it’s simply a safety measure, just like a seat belt.
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