Do you want your loved ones to get killed by guns? Many people all over the world lose their precious loved ones to guns every day. Nobody should have to go through the pain of losing someone they care about. However, with the lack of gun control today in the United States, that is just the case. For insistence, in 2002 May Booker lost two of her sons to guns (Clark, Rachael). Booker woke up one morning and got a phone call that her son died. Another more recent incident is the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. There were twenty innocent kids who went to school that morning but did not make it back home. Those twenty kids who died should not have been killed. With gun control, these types of deaths and tragedies can be prevented. Therefore, there should be gun control because it can prevent innocent deaths, violent crimes, and make our nation a better country.

Americans can easily get their hands on weapons by going into a gun shop and asking for a gun. To stop the violent crime rates associated with guns, there needs to be a mandatory background check before a person can buy a gun. A background check enables that a person is qualified to own a gun. In this case “qualified” means that a person will not try to shoot or harm anyone. A background check can also show if a person is mentally stable to own a gun. Many crimes are committed by a mentally ill person who has got their hands on a gun. James Holmes was a mentally ill criminal who went into a movie theater, in Colorado, and killed twelve people (Zakaria). These people could have lived to see another day if the criminal James Holmes had to go through a background check before he got the gun. Background checks have worked for many cities throughout the United States. California runs background checks before a person can buy a gun, and this put California among the lowest states with gun violence (Clark, Rachael). Another state that currently runs background checks is New Jersey and it also has low gun violence. Background checks have worked for these two states, so it is sure to work throughout the United States.

Furthermore, violent crimes are committed with guns. Guns give people an easy way to kill themselves, or others. Therefore, they are used in most violent crimes and are a weapon that takes millions of lives every day. The National Institution of Justice stated, “According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, 467,321 persons were victims of a crime committed with a firearm in 2011. In the same year, data collected by the FBI show that firearms were used in 68 percent of murders…” ("Gun Violence"). Another FBI Crime report shows that there were 15,517 crimes committed in 2000, 66% of these crimes were committed with a gun. ("Firearms and Crime Statistics"). This is about two thirds of the percent of crimes that were committed in 2000. Stronger gun control can reduce the number of violent crimes associated with guns, and thus make people safer.

In addition guns also lead the chance of a child getting their hands on a gun. Having unsecured guns and little curious kids in a house is not a good combination. Guns can get into the hands of a child and that can cause a lot of danger. A child might think that the gun they found is a toy gun, and accidently kill themselves or others. There have been many types of incidents where this was the case, where many kids died because of this. New York Daily News reported, “In February, another Memphis boy, 4-year-old Joshua Johnson, shot himself and died while playing with a handgun he found in a shoebox” (Goldstein). Another incident of a fatal death with a gun is with a boy named Dalton Taylor. He was ten years old and one of his friends shot a 12-gauge shotgun at Dalton, which killed him. These dreadful events can be prevented with gun control.

The other side to this argument says that “Guns don’t kill people, people do” (Avlon). The NRA and anti gun control supporters say that the guns are merely weapons like, a knife or ax, that just assist in murdering someone. However, even though this acquisition might be true that, people kill people, guns allow people to kill someone quickly and efficiently. People can get a gun easily today by going to a private seller and they can get it for a low price. Guns are also more efficient because they are easy to use and not as gruesome as a weapon like a knife. Hence, guns are used in a lot of violent crimes and they give people an effortless way to kill someone.

Guns cause violent crimes, kill innocent people, and destroy many lives. There should be gun control to end all of this violence in America. People need to stand up for gun control and try to reduce the percentage of gun related crimes. The nation as a whole needs to come together on this topic and decide to end the large number of deaths occurring in the Unites States. After all, do you want to wake up and hear about another tragic crime that took the lives of innocent people?