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Nolan Coburn
Professor Jerri A. Harwell
ENGL 1010-007 (Synthesis Exploration)
11 December 2015
The Great Gun Control Debate
With violent crimes and mass shootings occurring more and more frequently and with
more devastating results, the people of the United States of America look for a way to stop all the
violence. Many believe that gun control is the obvious solution. Others disagree and argue that it
infringes on their right to bear arms and protect themselves. Some people do not believe gun
control is a very good solution to the problem; they reason that violent people who want to hurt
and kill people will always find a way to do it and that gun control simply leaves the innocent
people of America defenseless. My search is to look at the various arguments for and against gun
control. Is gun control an effective way to stop violence in America?
Gary Mauser wrote the review "Gun Control On Trial By Brian Doherty. Mauser starts
out by discussing the Supreme Court case of DC v. Heller, this case resolved that individual
citizens do indeed have the constitutional right to possess guns (95) under the Second
Amendment. Mauser writes that many Americans consider the right to have guns to be as
important as the freedom of religion or free speech (95). Mauser argues that the early
Americans who wrote the Second Amendment wrote it to protect both individuals and the
republican government. Robert L. Young who wrote the review "The Politics Of Gun Control
(Book) disagrees. Young claims that the second amendment was only intended to ensure
federalism and was not intended to guarantee individual citizens the right to bear arms. Young
also writes that the primary reasons gun control has proven to be so controversial has little to do
with interpreting the Constitution (463). I agree with this statement, more than either of the

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other arguments. I do not think that anyone can really tell what our founding fathers thought over
two hundred years ago. It does not really matter what they meant because along with the laws
they originally developed they also knew that the laws would need to adapt as time went on so
they provided us ways to amend what they wrote for situations just like this. The controversy
over gun control is not a constitutional problem, so why has it been so hard to resolve?
Michael J. Hogan wrote the academic journal Rhetorical Studies And The Gun Debate:
A Public Policy Perspective. In this journal, Hogan writes about true believers (360) or the
extremists on both sides of the argument. Robert L. Young writes that he thinks that the
extremists who oppose gun control oppose it because they have a strong ideological aversion to
any government regulation of individual behavior (463). Hogan writes There are true
believers on the other side as well, of course. Dwelling on the horrors of gun violence, they
sidestep the issues of rights and causation raised by gun rights activists, and they assume rather
than prove the effcacy of various plans for restricting gun ownership. (360) Hogan claims these
extremists are drawing out the gun debate and argues that instead using of sound arguments they
use propaganda and demagoguery (361). He writes, Fortunately, the vast majority of
Americans are neither gun nuts nor gun haters, and therein lies a glimmer of hope that
something might be done about the epidemic of gun violence in America.(360) Hogan argues
that the only way to solve the issue of gun control is to get rid of the extremists and compromise.
Young agrees here and says that we need to work to balance the rights of those who own
firearms for recreational and defensive purposes with the need of communities (464). Both
Hogan and Young concur that to solve the problem more research is needed to see how we came
to our present impasse and come to the right balance. I agree with Hogan and Young on this, I do
not think that the correct answer to the gun debate lies in the extremes but I believe it falls
somewhere in the middle. I agree with Hogan that the extremists are simply distracting us from

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finding a legitimate solution and that in order to find the right balance we need to look away
from the extremes, do some more research, have discussions that are not polarized and then we
will be able to find good solutions.
In Dana Bittos and Elisa Julianos article, "Pro/Con: Gun Legislation," they give reasons
why gun control is a good idea and reasons why it is not. Juliano argues in the con section of the
article that taking guns away from people turns them into defenseless victims and targets for
killers. He writes, With just one exception, every public mass shooting in the USA since, at
least 1950 has taken place where citizens are banned from carrying guns." (1) Juliano argues that
because of this gun control will do more harm than good. I somewhat agree to this. I still concur
with Hogan and Young that there needs to be some gun control because it is important to make
sure that dangerous people do not have easy access to guns. I also think like Juliano does that too
much gun control can create dangerous situations where people will not be able to defend
themselves. In Carolyn Reinach Wolfs and Jamie A. Rosens academic journal "Missing The
Mark: Gun Control Is Not The Cure For What Ails The U.S. Mental Health System" they concur
that while some gun control can be good, too much can be harmful, especially for the mentally
ill. Wolf and Rosen argue that excessive gun control will harm the ability of the mentally ill to
get treatment and that that could in turn make there be more dangerous people in America. Wolf
and Rosen claim that gun control laws create an untrue stigma that the mentally ill are prone to
violence. They write, The truth is that individuals falling into the category of mentally ill only
account for a small fraction of all violent conduct (853) and argue that this stigma alienates the
mentally ill and makes them less likely to seek treatment. Wolf and Rossen also assert that gun
control laws take away the confidentiality between doctor and patient. They claim that this may
discourage the mentally ill from getting treatment because they are worried about being reported.
They also claim that removing the confidentiality can break the trust between the doctor and

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patient can make treatment very difficult. I can definitely see the validity of Wolf and Rossens
points. I agree with them and with Juliano that too much gun control could actually create a more
dangerous society. Garry Mauser wrote, The homicide rate in the US fell 17% between 1997
and 2007.At the same time, most other countries, despite tightening legislation, saw rising
homicide rates (95). Mauser wrote that at that time 3.5 million people in the USA had a license
enabling them to have a gun. I think that this is proof that more gun control does not mean less
murder, it could possibly lead to more.
In their writings, both Juliano and Wolf and Rossen claim that there are better ways to
help stop the violence than taking away peoples guns. Wolf and Rossen take the standpoint that
aiding the mentally should be the top priority in stopping these shootings. They write that while
gun control has been a big issue the last few years, funding to help the mentally ill has gone
down. Referring to many of the recent mass shootings Wolf and Rosen write, These tragedies
repeatedly renew the debate over gun regulations as the appropriate response to gun violence,
instead of raising awareness that these incidents may have been prevented if the perpetrator had
received timely treatment (853). Juliaio and Wolf and Rossen also write about giving people
like teachers and managers preventive training to help stop gun violence. Juliano writes in his
article about elementary school teachers right here in Utah getting trained with fire arms and
preventive strategies to stop gun violence. He writes, Banning guns isn't just the only option as
well as there can be numerous gun education programs and services that could be enacted in its
place. (1) I agree that some of these other options could be part of the solution in preventing
gun violence in America.
The research I have done has exposed me to a wide variety of opinions on the issues of
gun control, public safety, the right to bear arms, and many other related topics. My question
was: is gun control an effective way to stop violence in America? I think that I have found some

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valuable insights that will help answer this question. First I have found that the answer is not in
the extremes, some gun control, to make it harder to for dangerous people to obtain a gun, is
good, but too much gun control I believe would do more harm than good. I have found that it is
important to look beyond the propaganda and to do more research to find the right balance with
gun control. I have also found that there are other important preventive methods that need to be
implemented. I think that less time and money needs to be spent on gun control and more time
and money needs to be spent on recognizing dangerous people and helping them to deal with the
issues that make them a threat to themselves and society at large. Another important preventive
method I have found is gun education and preventive training for people like managers and
teachers. I believe that as we look away from the extremes, into the middle ground and do more
research to find the correct balance and that as we also focus on the other methods of preventing
violent crime, not only will both sides find a solution they can support, but gun violence in
America will actually decline. As we work do to these things, we will create a safer, nation for
everyone.

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Works Cited
Bitto, Dana, and Elisa Juliano. "Pro/Con: Gun Legislation." University Wire. 16 Jan. 2015: n.p.
SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.
Hogan, J. Michael. "Rhetorical Studies And The Gun Debate: A Public Policy Perspective."
Rhetoric And Public Affairs 18.2 (2015): 359-371. MLA International Bibliography. Web.
4 Nov. 2015.
Mauser, Gary. "Gun Control On Trial By Brian Doherty. Rev. of Gun Control on Trial, by
Brian Doherty. Economic Affairs 29 Feb. 2009: 94. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
Wolf, Carolyn Reinach, and Jamie A. Rosen. "Missing The Mark: Gun Control Is Not The Cure
For What Ails The U.S. Mental Health System." Journal Of Criminal Law &
Criminology 104.4 (2015): 851-878. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
Young, Robert L. "The Politics Of Gun Control (Book)." Rev. of The Politics of Gun Control, by
Robert J. Spitzer. Social Science Quarterly (University Of Texas Press) June 1996 463464. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.