Gun Control

Human’s technologies have been developing incredibly fast. However, levels of laws, morals, and human rights could not catch up our technologies. Humans have been avaricious in developing weapons to take over other countries or to protect themselves, and now simple trigger pulling can change the faith of a human. In October, 1987, a controversial "concealed- carry" law went into effect in the state of Florida. In a sharp break from the conventional wisdom of the time, that law allowed adult citizens to carry concealed firearms in public. Many people feared the law would quickly lead to disaster. The world is still debating over gun controls; if it is for personal safety or safer society. Are we having guns to protect ourselves or causing blood running in the streets? The two essays of Silko’s and Gopnik’s argues in different point of view of carrying firearms. ‘Shootings’ by Adam Gopnik argues that private possession of firearms should be illegal. Gopnik begins his essay with a horrible incident of Virginia Tech, which the mental disorder student, Cho Seung-Hui, kills thirty three innocent students including himself. Gopnik gives more of the evidences of firearm incident such as a gunman killing sixteen children and a teacher in Scotland in 1996. On the contrary, ‘In the Combat Zone’ by Leslie Marmon Silko denies the necessity of restrictions on gun use, because women feel protected from harm when a gun is in their possession. She claims that if people were subject to abuse because of the inability to own guns, illegalizing of guns cannot guarantee the safety of the society. Therefore, the arguments of two authors, Silko and Gopnik, oppose each other.
After reading both essays, I thought there were many arguments that are strong. However, there were also weaknesses of these arguments, which was not persuasive enough. Personal experiences could be made out by the writers, but Gopnik approved his argument by using history based incidents. These can persuade...