The Miseducation Of Firearms The Issue Of Gun Control

Cole Natta SOC 2028 04/19/2016 The Miseducation of Firearms The issue of gun control is almost as old as the gun itself. There have been many well constructed arguments both for and against guns but the smart one do not always have the loudest voice, in fact I would argue that the loudest people lack the knowledge about firearms. Unfortunately this is true for most topics that are circling today s media. I often see an anti-gun person lose an argument about guns simply because they do not know what they are talking about. I also hear people compare the U.S. to the UK in terms of gun control without any context or factual information. An individual can not compare the United States to any other country because America is one of a†¦show more content†¦This lack of education can be found everywhere which is surprising considering it is our right to own firearms. We as American need a set amount of hours and schooling to be able to drive, a privilege most people do not realize they have. Now why is it that our government has focused more on controlling weapons than educating people about them? We are required to attend drivers education yet once you turn eighteen the only requirement for a firearms licence is a background check and no required education. Thankfully most states require a safety course to be takng before an individual can legally carry his or her firearm. This is a step in the right direction it is unlikely to happen any time soon because the people are arguing if we should be able to own guns not how can we teach people to use them safely. There are too many accidental deaths by a firearm per year yet nobody ever seems to acknowledge that this problem even exists. The category with the most deaths by a firearm is suicide with a shocking 60 percent of all gun deaths in 2015 (Sanger-Katz, 2015). A disheartening statistic that can not be reduced with gun control which is why I think it is often overlooked. The media often looks at the total number of gun rel ated deaths or just the murder percentile. Even in my search for the total amount of gun related death recorded in 2015, I was having trouble finding the total statistic because most records are specifically related gun