The problem with guns is fairly obvious: they decrease the difficulty of killing or injuring a person. In Jeffrey A. Roth's Firearms and Violence (NIJ Research in Brief, February 1994), he points out the obvious dangers. About 60 percent of all murder victims in the United States in 1989 (about 12,000 people) were killed with firearms. Firearm attacks injured another 70,000 victims, some of whom were left permanently disabled. In 1985, the cost of shootings was an estimated $14 billion nationwide for medical care, long-term disability, and premature death. In robberies and assaults, victims are far more likely to die when the perpetrator is armed with a gun than when he or she has another weapon or is unarmed. I believe that there are a few solutions that can be used to solve this problem at both a community and national level. The first course of action is to establish a national system for registering guns and ammunition. Anyone can obtain a gun by going to a state with less restrictive laws or by getting a friend who lives in the state to buy the guns for them. A national system would prevent this by scaring those "friends" into not buying the guns legally and selling them illegally, for if the guns are used in an illegal crime, that person can be held accountable. Secondly, a national system would be more helpful in tracking crimes after they have happened, to bring the perpetrators to justice. Instant background checks, on people attempting to buy guns or ammunition, are the next step in gun control. Brady system is still limited, and does have its flaws in tracking felons. This has been the position of the NRA for quite some time, and it is certainly one with which I agree; Felons and ex-cons should not have access to weapons, and many misdemeanors and juvenile crimes should also count against a person's adult record. Stiffer sentences for gun crimes would be effective in using fear of reprimand as a crime deterrent. National a...
