Hollow Point
...nt officers; it is still available to citizens meeting the qualifications. “ The right to carry law require law enforcement agencies to issue handgun permits to all qualified applicants. Qualifications include criteria such as age, a clean criminal record, and completing a firearm safety course.” Those who meet these criteria qualify to carry a firearm to defend themselves against crime. “When citizens use guns for protection from criminals, the criminal is wounded in about 1 out of every 100 instances, and the criminal is killed in about 1 out of every 1000 instances.” Taking the guns away from the people will only hurt law-abiding citizens. Once upon a time the government tried to ban alcohol in order to “protect the people.” This experiment was far from successful; alcohol was still present, and still causing problems. The ban on alcohol was short lived. If the government cannot control the consumption of alcohol what makes them think they can control firearms? “Washington D.C. enacted a virtual ban on handguns in 1976. Between 1976 and 1991, Washington D.C.’s homicide rate rose 200 percent while the U.S. rate rose 12 percent.” That is a two hundred percent increase in Washington D.C. alone. This study actually showed that banning guns actually increased crime. Just because a person carries a concealed weapon does not mean they will use it. The law gives a person the right to carry the weapon on them in case of attack. The law does not give them the right to fire under any other circumstance. It is better to have a gun and not need it then to not have one and need it. “It is the monopoly of guns by people with evil intentions that is dangerous. Some of the most dangerous places in America are places where strict gun-control laws provide assurance to violent criminals that their victims will not be able to defend themselves”(Sowell, 1). A firearm is a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands, but anything can be dangerous in the wrong hands. The guns that the police use are just as deadly as the ones civilians use. The guns are not the problem; it is the people who use them. The procedures followed when buying a gun are only in place for those obtaining them legally. The criminals that sell them on the street do not care what it is going to be used for. The only thing they care about is the money. No background check. No waiting period. Criminals do not follow the gun laws we have in place now, and certainly will not follow those of the future. The laws on gun control are fine now. There is nothing wrong with the laws, it is the people that enforce them that are the problem. The police do their jobs as well as they can. They put criminals in handcuffs and take them to jail where they await their trial. It does no good for the police to take them to jail if the judge is just going to let them out the next day. In a local case a young man shot another person. The victim survived the attack and was able to tell the police what had happen. The perpetrator was then picked up and taken to jail where he was then put on trial. Somehow his lawyer was able to get an acquittal. There was no way that he was not guil...