According to Kates and Don (2000), a gun is defined as a cannon that fires projectiles from a long tube known as the barrel at high velocities and in a low, flat trajectory. The fired projectile usually carries a charge that explodes when it hits its target. Some guns use ammunition that can pierce an armor and as stated, they are widely used on warships, armored combat vehicles, and tanks. History of Guns As Kates and Don (2000) state, the history of guns can be traced back to the ancient times when the Romans used devices such as catapults to hurl rocks and other projectiles at enemy fortifications.
However, Dastrup and Boyd L (1993) state that the first gunpowder weapons appeared in Europe in the early 1300s in the form of firing rocks, iron balls, and large arrow-shaped bolts. The fi
...rst guns and mortars were used primarily against fortified cities because their great weight prevented them from being used in mobile warfare. It is also important to note that the invention of cannon is generally credited to a German monk, Berthold Schwarz who lived in the 14th century. It was not until later that guns fired ammunition that released shards of metal, called shrapnel.
These early guns were loaded from the muzzle, the hole the front of the barrel unlike modern guns that are loaded from the side, which increases the speed and ease by which they may be fired. Currently, there exists a big gun problem in the United States. According to statistics written by Kates and Don (2000), about 200 million guns would remain in circulation in America even if all gun manufacturing and sales
ceased today. He adds that this means that there is nearly one gun for every man, woman and child in America.
Statistics Supporting Gun Possession According to Kates and Don (2000), a survey that was carried out by the national Justice Department in 1983 showed statistics that supported the idea that guns should not be banned. The statistics was from a survey of two thousand inmates in state prison all around the nation.
In addition to overwhelmingly endorsing the views listed above, 39 per cent of the criminals in this survey said they had aborted at least one crime because they believed the intended victim was armed, 8 per cent had aborted crimes very many times because of this belief while 34 per cent had been shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim. This survey also noted that 69 per cent of these inmates knew at least one acquaintance that had undergone such an experience.
Also in this survey, 34 percent of these criminals said that in contemplating a crime they regularly worried that they might get shot at by the victim. When asked about a criminal’s behavior in situations where there is a ban on guns or there is no ban on guns, 56 per cent of them responded that a criminal will never attack a victim he knows is armed with a gun while 57 per cent agreed that most criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.
This research among criminals also discovered that 58 per cent of these criminals agreed that an owner of a store who is known to keep a gun on
the premises is not going to get robbed as often as that one who does not have a gun. A stunning number of 74 per cent also agreed that the reason why burglars avoid houses when people are in their homes is because they fear being shot at the time of the crime. The inmates unanimously agreed that Gun control is not the answer since they all said that they anticipated no difficulty obtaining an illegal gun.
According to Kates and Don (2000), a newspaper in Syracuse also found similar opinions when combined a survey performed by two separate groups on the inmates in a nearby maximum-security prison with a survey of police officers from the local department. The two groups concurred that tougher gun laws would have no effect on crime. Conclusion In conclusion, I would like to state that it's possible that the cops, the criminals, and the criminologists are mistaken about gun control and it is thus a time that we should reconsider the casual assumption that weapons cause crime.
To this effect, I would like to draw your attention to the words of one criminal as stated by Kates and Don (2000), who talks of a letter from an inmate in a Florida prison that was written to the editor of a local newspaper. This inmate says that, “If guns are banned, then I as a criminal feel a lot safer. When a thief breaks into someone's house or property, the first thing to worry about is getting shot by the owner. But now, it seems we won't have to worry about that anymore.
The inmate Branded it as a fantasy and also went
ahead to state that “Just because guns are outlawed, it is absurd to think that we, the crooks, can't get guns, the only people who can't are the ones we victimize… Drugs are against the law. Does that stop us? It's also against the law to rob and steal. But does a law stop us? One more thing: I thank you, the public, for giving me this fine opportunity to further my criminal career. ” Therefore, I fully support the idea that guns should not be banned.
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