The Truth About Gun Control

What Is Gun Control: Gun control or firearms regulation refers to laws or policies that regulate the sale, manufacture, transfer, possession, modification or use of firearms.

Australian Gun Buyback:

• In 1996 and 2003 Australian Authorities bought back illegal guns. It cost the country around 500 million dollars.
• You can own certain guns in Australia but guns are heavily regulated and special permits are needed. Most AR's are illegal.
• The murder rate dropped significantly but than spiked to around the same level a year after.

Gun Sales In The US:

• Gun sales hit a record high in 2015 reaching 23.1 Million after Obama starting pushing gun control according to the Washington Post.
• In 2005 13% of US women owned guns, now 23% own guns, 77% of gun store owners have noticed an increase in female gun owners.

The Relationship Between Crime And Guns

• According to a Harvard study, gun control is counter productive
• Some anti gun arguments may say that as gun ownership increases so does gun deaths but that also includes suicide by gun which in 2013 accounted for 63% of firearm deaths. The overall number of gun deaths were 33,636 but 21,175 of those were suicides leaving 12,461 crime related gun deaths.

Mass Shootings

• The chances of being killed in a mass shooting are around the chances of being struck by lightning.
• According to Criminologist Grant Huwe mass shootings are not on the rise and the historical year with the most mass shootings in the U.S. was 1902
• The definition of a mass shooting is an incident involing multiple people and gun voilence.

Assault Weapon Usage In Mass Shootings

• A study found that Assault rifles were only used in 24.6% of mass shootings while handguns accounted for 47.9%.
• Most attacks are planned
• If you ban machine guns it would only have a small effect as you would need to ban handguns which are easily imported from poor countries like Mexico, Columbia, etc.
• Banning high capacity magazines would not really work either because they are simple to make and so many are already in circulation.
• Also we know criminals love following laws. An example of that is how easily felons buy guns from other counrties.

Mental Illness:

• I do not think there is a non controversial decision and there is no real way to decide eligibility to own a gun, that is a whole other issue.

Conceal And Carry

• The restrictions for CC permits are very strict and require a background check, shooting test and things qualifications like cannot be a felon, have mistomenor
• CC permits are given out by strict guidelines, applicants have to pass a written, mental and shooting test along with fit criteria like cannot have misdemeanor conviction,

CC Continued

• be a felon,commit any act of domestic violence, use any controlled substance unlawfully, been a juvenile delinquent, or be a convict.
• In Texas cc permit holders commited the same amount of gun crimes as Texas cops.

Public Knowledge Of Gun Safety:

• I gave our class my BHFSA, Basic Hunter And Firearm Safety Assessment. The average test score was 83.5, a passing grade but in gun safety you need to be safe 100% of the time.
• In most states you need to pass hunter ed to hunt. According to the blog the unlucky hunter your chances of being shot are 0.2 in 1000 while hunting.

Where Do Mass Shootings Mostly Happen?

• Mass Shootings usually happen in "gun free" in highly populated areas.
• It seems like a lot of mass shootings happen in California but California has the strictest gun laws in the U.S. That is what I will leave you with.

Gun Registration:

• There is no comprehensive national gun registry system
• There is a limited system of federal firearms registration for certain guns like machine guns, short barreled shotguns or rifles and guns with scilencers
• In 1986 congress banned the transfer and posession of machine guns not allready in lawfull ciculatiuon

Gun Registration Cont.

• Illegal unlicensed gun dealers can not legaly sell guns.
• According to the ATF illegal guns accounted for 46 percent of firearm investigations

Final Thoughts:

• Most crimes are done with illegal guns and not legal to own
• Responible firearm sellers are doing there job, you can't prevent all crime
• CC permit holders are responsible and not a problem

The End!