Brian+Y’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech

=Title of Speech=

Gun Control =Text of Speech=

Bullets kill thousands of innocent people every year. They penetrate the soft tissue of the human body ripping the flesh, bone and organs apart. Moreover, they rip out the hearts of the family members left behind. These bullets are bought in a box, and to launch them a killing machine is needed, a gun. The Second Amendment gives citizens of the United States the right to bear arms. This amendment was enacted more than 200 years ago, when this country’s police force was not large enough to patrol all parts of the country so it was left up to the common man to have the responsibility of owning a gun. We pay and train police to do this job in the current day and age. It is quite arrogant of us to think we can do the job ourselves. If you leave a dangerous tool in the hands of an emotionally volatile or disturbed individual, tragedy will more often than not be the direct result as seen in the incidences at Virginia Tech, Columbine, the movie theater in Agoura Colorado, Sandy Hook, UCSB, and countless other incidents that should have never occurred. It is puzzling to me that people flocked to gun shops soon after the shooting in Connecticut to stock pile their load of fire arms because they felt that their second amendment right was going to be revoked. It is quite a paradox that gun owners feel so “threatened” when gun safety becomes a political hot topic. Nevertheless, there are still programs trying to reduce the number of guns in the hands of private citizen’s. and in return people were given cash. Having programs with these services will only continue to help make our streets safer. Changing people’s opinions about guns and gun control is a slow and arduous process, but it can be done. Producer Michael Moore illustrated this in his documentary Bowling for Columbine in which he persuaded a major retailer to stop selling weapons. It is a small success story for those supporting gun control, but a most definite start in the right direction. We have highly trained professionals to use these sophisticated weapons called guns. Let us let them do their job. Our job as citizens of this country is to make this country powerful through communication, not annihilation. The only thing a gun knows how to do is destroy. In the future, I would like to see the absence of guns around both the United States and the globe in an attempt to make the world a safer place. Without guns the amount of violence and death in the world would be reduced significantly. Some people argue that having guns in their homes will greatly protect them if an intruder breaks into their house, but logically speaking how would they even get to their gun in time to avoid being a victim, unless of course they literally have the gun sitting in their front entry way which is highly improbable. Clearly the events in Santa Barbara support my position that gun ownership needs to be regulated and taken away from the hands of people that are mentally unstable. Had there been more censorship with gun ownership, I suspect there may have been only one victim in Santa Barbara rather than 6 innocent victims. On all of the stations the media seemed to play into gun violence, and it appears to me that this violence created by gun use has almost become a media business, and it doesn't seem to be creating a dialogue that leads to constructive results. I would like to see a grass roots movement in which gun ownership is reduced by a minimum of 90% or more within my lifetime. Restricting guns to government officials and the military in the United States would be a benefit to all of society and result in fewer homicides. Guns are now a staple within the system of the United Kingdom due to the increase of violent activity. According to a statistic done in 2010 about the United Kingdom there were only 0.04 intentional homicides committed with a firearm per 100,000 inhabitants. To support my position, you have to see and understand what the United States is facing with the gun regulation crisis. In 2008, Japan had only 11 homicides due to gun use and the United States had 11,000 homicides due to gun use. Clearly, one has to understand that guns are not necessarily the problem. It’s the people who put a gun in their hand that cannot be trusted because guns do not necessarily create violence, people do. We will continue to hear about violence due to gun usage and until the discussion turns to action, the only thing we will continue to be faced with are more sad statistics. In the future of America that I want to raise my family in, I hope to see better regulation with control gun purchasing and a better dialogue amongst our government officials on dealing with problems without the use of guns. We are a complex and advanced society, but it remains to be seen whether we can overcome our sick dependency on our false sense of security with gun ownership.

=Cite Your Sources= http://heedinggodscall.org/content/pfctoolkit-10 http://smartgunlaws.org/gun-law-statistics-and-research/ http://americablog.com/2012/12/its-time-to-ban-guns-completely.html http://www.rulen.com/gunban/ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/745071/posts