10 Arguments For and Against Gun Control

8) Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.

Gun Rights Position:
Gun Control advocates wrongly assign the blame for violent crime on the tools used to perpetrate it. Remember our example of Great Britain? After enacting a ban on modern handguns, the country did see a decline in gun-related homicide. However, the intentional homicide rate itself climbed steadily for five years, and today it is still higher than before the gun control laws were in place. Evil exists, and people will keep killing people, whether or not they have access to guns. But while guns do nothing to influence the homicide rate, they do everything to keep carrying individuals safe from attack.

Gun Control Position:
Statistics in Australia suggest the contrary. While Australia saw a 59% drop in gun-related homicides after the passage of strict gun control laws, the non–firearm-related homicide rate remained level. This suggests that due to gun restrictions, Australian criminals didn’t merely find other ways to kill; they quit killing altogether.