It has been much debated for years whether allowing civilians to carry firearms outside of their homes is a valid security measure against crime or if it actually encourages crime. Opponents say that allowing everybody to carry guns encourages crime by giving everyone the means to commit crimes. They say that one major reason why crime rates are high is people have easy access to guns. Proponents, however, feel that if everyone carried firearms, it equalizes the playing field. Their principle is that, since criminals are only a small minority, an armed public would mean that law-abiding citizens now have more guns than them, thus neutralizing crime.

Easy access to firearms leads to a high crime rate, some say. But this may be another good example of how media focuses on the negative side of something and paints a bad picture of it. News and even entertainment programs often show guns being used in crime. Yes, they are also shown as instruments of law enforcement, but whenever crimes are shown being committed with guns—complete with bloody images—it promotes the impression they are not only used for evil, but are evil themselves. Hence, some feel the only way to cut the crime rate is to limit the sale of firearms to civilians, or to institute rules that make it much harder for them to purchase guns. Others insist the only solution is banning altogether the sale of firearms to civilians. This will ensure that only law enforcers and soldiers are armed.

Guns are often used to protect lives, and probably save more lives than they take. While the use of guns in crime is the focus of newspapers every day, their extensive use in saving lives unfortunately is not. And in most defensive use just showing a gun has proven to be sufficient in stopping an attack, so usually no shots were even fired.

Making firearms more inaccessible to civilians ensures that more law-abiding people will be unarmed and defenseless against criminals who can acquire arms easily. Increased measures such as background checks for gun buyers will not deter criminals from acquiring guns since their arms are usually illegally acquired anyway.

But owning a gun should only go with thorough training in armed tactics. Otherwise you’re probably better off unarmed.

Monica Risam Nicklin's ApSense: http://www.apsense.com/user/monicanicklin