Why Gun Control Is Important

Words: 504
Pages: 3

Abundance of guns puts the police at risk. Firearms offer criminals several advantages over other weapons. Armed criminals increase the chance that police officers will get injured or killed when they make traffic stops, while chasing to catch criminals, responding to 911 calls, and patrolling at night. Lane claims in his book Gun Control, “Law enforcement officers were killed [by guns] in the line of duty between 2003 and 2012. Of the 535 officers were killed over the course of the decade, 124 were killed in arrest situations, and 115 were killed in ambush situations. Another 96 were killed in traffic stops”… (68). A police officer’s job is dangerous by its nature, but it is made more dangerous when criminals can get numerous powerful guns easily. Police officers have dedicated their lives to protect citizens from harm. Firearms contribute to high suicide rates. Firearms are different than other suicide methods in one key aspect: attempts are much more likely to be fatal. Other means of attempting suicide take time and are less reliable, and people are more likely to survive and get counseling. Lanes explains in his book Gun Control, “Harvard Injury Control Research Center finds that the …show more content…
For example, Lane claims in his book Gun Control “Every year in America more than 100,000 people are shot and 31,537 of them die, including 11,583 who are murdered” (113). Far from keeping us safe, the rate of firearm violence in America exceeds that of other industrialized nations, where gun ownership is strictly