how to end an essay on gun control

Gun Control Essay: Important Topics, Examples, and More

how to end an essay on gun control

Gun Control Definition

Gun control refers to the regulation of firearms to reduce the risk of harm caused by their misuse. It is an important issue that has garnered much attention in recent years due to the increasing number of gun-related incidents, including mass shootings and homicides. Writing an essay about gun control is important because it allows one to explore the various aspects of this complex and controversial topic, including the impact of gun laws on public safety, the constitutional implications of gun control, and the social and cultural factors that contribute to gun violence.

In writing an essay on gun control, conducting thorough research, considering multiple perspectives, and developing a well-informed argument is important. This may involve analyzing existing gun control policies and their effectiveness, exploring the attitudes and beliefs of different groups towards firearms, and examining the historical and cultural context of gun ownership and use. Through this process, one can develop a nuanced understanding of the issue and propose effective solutions to address the problem of gun violence.

Further information on writing essays on gun control can be found in various sources, including academic journals, policy reports, and news articles. In the following paragraphs, our nursing essay writing services will provide tips and resources to help you write an effective and informative guns essay. Contact our custom writer and get your writing request satisfied in a short term.

Gun Control Essay Types

There are various types of essays about gun control, each with its own unique focus and approach. From analyzing the effectiveness of existing gun laws to exploring the cultural and historical context of firearms in society, the possibilities for exploring this topic are virtually endless.

Gun Control Essay Types

Let's look at the following types and examples from our essay writing service USA :

  • Argumentative Essay : This essay clearly argues for or against gun control laws. The writer must use evidence to support their position and refute opposing arguments.
  • Descriptive Essay: A descriptive essay on gun control aims to provide a detailed topic analysis. The writer must describe the history and evolution of gun laws, the different types of firearms, and their impact on society.
  • Cause and Effect Essay: This type of essay focuses on why gun control laws are necessary, the impact of gun violence on society, and the consequences of not having strict gun control laws.
  • Compare and Contrast Essay: In this type of essay, the writer compares and contrasts different countries' gun laws and their effectiveness. They can also compare and contrast different types of guns and their impact on society.
  • Expository Essay: This type of essay focuses on presenting facts and data on the topic of gun control. The writer must explain the different types of gun laws, their implementation, and their impact on society.
  • Persuasive Essay: The writer of a persuasive essay aims to persuade the reader to support their position on gun control. They use a combination of facts, opinions, and emotional appeals to convince the reader.
  • Narrative Essay: A narrative essay on gun control tells a story about an individual's experience with gun violence. It can be a personal story or a fictional one, but it should provide insight into the human impact of gun violence.

In the following paragraphs, we will provide an overview of the most common types of gun control essays and some tips and resources to help you write them effectively. Whether you are a student, a researcher, or simply someone interested in learning more about this important issue, these essays can provide valuable insight and perspective on the complex and often controversial topic of gun control.

Persuasive Essay on Gun Control

A persuasive essay on gun control is designed to convince the reader to support a specific stance on gun control policies. To write an effective persuasive essay, the writer must use a combination of facts, statistics, and emotional appeals to sway the reader's opinion. Here are some tips from our expert custom writer to help you write a persuasive essay on gun control:

How to Choose a Persuasive Essay on Gun Control

  • Research : Conduct thorough research on gun control policies, including their history, effectiveness, and societal impact. Use credible sources to back up your argument.
  • Develop a thesis statement: In your gun control essay introduction, the thesis statement should clearly state your position on gun control and provide a roadmap for your paper.
  • Use emotional appeals: Use emotional appeals to connect with your reader. For example, you could describe the impact of gun violence on families and communities.
  • Address opposing viewpoints: Address opposing viewpoints and provide counterarguments to strengthen your position.
  • Use statistics: Use statistics to back up your argument. For example, you could use statistics to show the correlation between gun control laws and reduced gun violence.
  • Use rhetorical devices: Use rhetorical devices, such as metaphors and analogies, to help the reader understand complex concepts.

Persuasive gun control essay examples include:

  • The Second Amendment does not guarantee an individual's right to own any firearm.
  • Stricter gun control laws are necessary to reduce gun violence in the United States.
  • The proliferation of guns in society leads to more violence and higher crime rates.
  • Gun control laws should be designed to protect public safety while respecting individual rights.

Argumentative Essay on Gun Control

A gun control argumentative essay is designed to present a clear argument for or against gun control policies. To write an effective argumentative essay, the writer must present a well-supported argument and refute opposing arguments. Here are some tips to help you write an argumentative essay on gun control:

an Argumentative Essay on Gun Control

  • Choose a clear stance: Choose a clear stance on gun control policies and develop a thesis statement that reflects your position.
  • Research : Conduct extensive research on gun control policies and use credible sources to back up your argument.
  • Refute opposing arguments: Anticipate opposing arguments and provide counterarguments to strengthen your position.
  • Use evidence: Use evidence to back up your argument. For example, you could use data to show the correlation between gun control laws and reduced gun violence.
  • Use logical reasoning: Use logical reasoning to explain why your argument is valid.

Examples of argumentative essay topics on gun control include:

  • Gun control laws infringe upon individuals' right to bear arms and protect themselves.
  • Gun control laws are ineffective and do not prevent gun violence.

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How to Choose a Good Gun Control Topic: Tips and Examples

Choosing a good gun control topic can be challenging, but with some careful consideration, you can select an interesting and relevant topic. Here are seven tips for choosing a good gun control topic with examples:

  • Consider current events: Choose a topic that is current and relevant. For example, the impact of the pandemic on gun control policies.
  • Narrow your focus: Choose a specific aspect of gun control to focus on, such as the impact of gun control laws on crime rates.
  • Consider your audience: Consider who your audience is and what they are interested in. For example, a topic that appeals to gun enthusiasts might be the ethics of owning firearms.
  • Research : Conduct extensive research on gun control policies and current events. For example, the impact of the Second Amendment on gun control laws.
  • Choose a controversial topic: Choose a controversial topic that will generate discussion. For example, the impact of the NRA on gun control policies.
  • Choose a topic that interests you: You can choose an opinion article on gun control that you are passionate about and interested in. For example, the impact of mass shootings on public opinion of gun control.
  • Consider different perspectives: Consider different perspectives on gun control and choose a topic that allows you to explore multiple viewpoints. For example, the effectiveness of background checks in preventing gun violence.

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Pro-Gun Control Essay Topics

Here are pro-gun control essay topics that can serve as a starting point for your research and writing, helping you to craft a strong and persuasive argument.

  • Stricter gun control laws are necessary to reduce gun violence in America.
  • The Second Amendment was written for a different time and should be updated to reflect modern society.
  • Gun control and gun safety laws can prevent mass shootings and other forms of gun violence.
  • Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right.
  • Universal background checks should be mandatory for all gun purchases.
  • The availability of assault weapons should be severely restricted.
  • Concealed carry permits should be harder to obtain and require more rigorous training.
  • The gun lobby has too much influence on government policy.
  • The mental health of gun owners should be considered when purchasing firearms.
  • Gun violence has a significant economic impact on communities and the nation as a whole.
  • There is a strong correlation between high gun ownership rates and higher gun violence rates.
  • Gun control policies can help prevent suicides and accidental shootings.
  • Gun control policies should be designed to protect public safety while respecting individual rights.
  • More research is needed on the impact of gun control policies on gun violence.
  • The impact of gun violence on children and young people is a significant public health issue.
  • Gun control policies should be designed to reduce the illegal gun trade and access to firearms by criminals.
  • The right to own firearms should not override the right to public safety.
  • The government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from gun violence.
  • Gun control policies are compatible with the Second Amendment.
  • International examples of successful gun control policies can be applied in America.

Anti-Gun Control Essay Topics

These topics against gun control essay can help you develop strong and persuasive arguments based on individual rights and the importance of personal freedom.

  • Gun control laws infringe on the Second Amendment and individual rights.
  • Stricter gun laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining firearms.
  • Gun control laws are unnecessary and will only burden law-abiding citizens.
  • Owning a gun is a fundamental right and essential for self-defense.
  • Gun-free zones create a false sense of security and leave people vulnerable.
  • A Gun control law will not stop mass school shootings, as these are often premeditated and planned.
  • The government cannot be trusted to enforce gun control laws fairly and justly.
  • Gun control laws unfairly target law-abiding gun owners and punish them for the actions of a few.
  • Gun ownership is a part of American culture and heritage and should not be restricted.
  • Gun control laws will not stop criminals from using firearms to commit crimes.
  • Gun control laws often ignore the root causes of gun violence, such as mental illness and poverty.
  • Gun control laws will not stop terrorists from using firearms to carry out attacks.
  • Gun control laws will only create a black market for firearms, making it easier for criminals to obtain them.
  • Gun control laws will not stop domestic violence, as abusers will find other ways to harm their victims.
  • Gun control laws will not stop drug cartels and organized crime from trafficking firearms.
  • Gun control laws will not stop gang violence and turf wars.
  • Gun control laws are an infringement on personal freedom and individual responsibility.
  • Gun control laws are often rooted in emotion rather than reason and evidence.
  • Gun control laws ignore the important role that firearms play in hunting and sport shooting.
  • More gun control laws will only give the government more power and control over its citizens.

Example Essays

Whether you have been assigned to write a gun control research paper or essay, the tips provided above should help you grasp the general idea of how to cope with this task. Now, to give you an even better understanding of the task and set you on the right track, here are a few excellent examples of well-written papers on this topic:

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Final Words

In conclusion, writing a sample rhetorical analysis essay requires careful analysis and effective use of persuasive techniques. Whether you are a high school student or a college student, mastering the art of rhetorical analysis can help you become a more effective communicator and critical thinker. With practice and perseverance, anyone can become a skilled writer and excel in their academic pursuits.

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Gun Control Essay: Goals, Topics, And How to Write

13 October, 2020

14 minutes read

Author:  Mathieu Johnson

The issue of gun control is yet one of the top topics for heated debates. Some people have rather a negative opinion regarding gun control; others support it and believe that loose gun control rules lead to violence and devastation. And since the topic of gun control is represented by a multitude of contrasting opinions, it might be the topic for your next college paper.

gun control essay

The subject of gun control is an ongoing question, that is why many students either get assigned  a gun control essay or do so for personal motives. What to include in your gun control essay and how to outline your ideas? You can find the answers to your questions in this guide.

gun control argumentative essay sample

Gun Control Essay: Definitions, Goals & Topics

Once you get assigned a gun control essay, you first need to make sure that you fully understand what a paper’s main idea is. As you can tell from the name ‘gun control essay’, such an essay asks you to indicate your opinion regarding restrictive regulations of gun use and production. While most countries have been limiting gun possession to minimize the risk of innocent people dying, the USA hasn’t. On the contrary, the US has persuasive gun control, meaning that almost anyone can buy and hold a gun. Many people share an idea that gun possession should be limited and permitted only to particular categories of people, that is why the question is very ongoing.  So the most critical goal of a gun control essay is to present reasonable ideas about why people need or don’t need gun control. 

Some of the compelling and relevant topics for a gun control essay may be:

  • Gun ownership promotes violence among young people
  • Gun ownership is unlikely to prevent some people from murdering 
  • Gun possession as the only way to protect oneself
  • The wide accessibility of guns is the reason for suicides in the US

Gun Control Essay Titles

When writing a pro gun control essay, your initial task is to pick an intriguing, catchy title. You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of such a step if your goal is to attract the reader’s attention and make them aware of a topic. The thing to keep in mind is intriguing the audience and making them willing to take a deep dive into the subject. If you have no precise vision of which title to choose, take a look at a few tips we prepared for you.

First and foremost, you need to have a precise position regarding gun control in America. Are you a supporter, or are you firmly against gun control? Since there is yet a heated debate on this issue in the USA, you can decide to write either a for or against essay on gun control. 

Titles supporting gun control: 

  • Violence has never solved any problem
  • Guns out of control: why should innocent people die?
  • Youth violence as the result of no gun control

Titles opposing gun control:

  • Gun control won’t prevent people from killing 
  • Gun control: why should we sacrifice our lives just because we can’t defend ourselves?
  • Illegal weapons trade as the only guaranteed outcome of gun control.

Gun Control Essay Structure

Most likely, you already know that a good structure largely predicts the success of a gun control argumentative essay. Whenever you are willing to present your opinion on a specific issue and want to convince the audience that your arguments are valid, you should sound logical. The ultimate way to make your gun control essay structure coherent and comprehensive is to draw an outline and plan the essay thoroughly. To assure that your argumentative essay on gun control communicates your idea to the reader, make sure to follow the structure that includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Introduction 

It would help if you organized your gun control essay introduction in a way that serves as an attention grabber. Namely, you can feel free to include some rhetorical question at the beginning or literally any good essay hook. To grab the reader’s attention, you may also outline some background information so that a reader grasps the idea of your gun control persuasive essay. And last but not least, don’t forget to introduce the most important part of a gun control essay outline – a thesis statement. A sound thesis statement gives a reader a general understanding of what you will cover in your essay.

Main body paragraphs’ role is to reveal what you mentioned in the thesis statement. Since your gun control essay will most likely be argumentative, you need to devote one paragraph to one argument. In each and every body paragraph, your main task is to build on some solid evidence and refer to numbers or facts to protect your position. It is better to include 3-5 body paragraphs so that the gun control essay doesn’t look messy. 

When writing a gun control essay conclusion, you should avoid adding any extra information. Try to be very precise and make sure you restate the arguments you have indicated before. All in all, your gun control essay should logically end up with a summary of all the points. The reader has to be 100% sure that he or she fully comprehended your idea. 

Best Tips For Writing Gun Control Essay

An outline is everything.

Create an outline even if you think that this step isn’t indeed necessary. Even when you have all those sparkling ideas and structure in your mind, it requires no effort to confuse them. And if we talk about an argumentative essay, it is fundamental for you as a writer to sound convincing and confident. An outline helps you to sound so. Hence, don’t neglect dedicating a few minutes to creating a helpful essay plan.  

Find some convincing evidence 

The goal of any gun control essay is to communicate an idea of why strict gun control is necessary or should be abandoned. After reading your essay, the audience will form an exact opinion: gun control is either good or bad. Try to search for some substantial evidence, numbers, particular cases that you find helpful while supporting your arguments. Otherwise, you undermine the chances of being heard. 

Write about the topic that bothers you 

Don’t try to figure up titles and topics that aren’t interesting for you. The point of a gun control essay is to make your voice heard and to be sincere while presenting your ideas. Try to give some ideas the way you see them, discuss only those topics that cannot let you stay indifferent. Only in this way will you end up with an excellent essay. 

Edit and proofread

Once your essay is ready, don’t forget to proofread it and check it at least twice. So many excellent essays get a terrible score just because some minor mistakes spoiled the general impression! You can use a wide array of means to make sure your paper is polished: ask your friends to check it, use online tools, or ask a professional essay writing and editing service to get your paper checked by an expert.

Gun Control Essay Examples

If you feel like you need to refer to an example to get a profound insight into an idea of a gun control essay, here is one for you.  

Strict gun control deprives people of their legal rights

The US is the country in which the share of people who own a gun is impressively high. Besides, there is no single country in the world that can be compared to the US by the number of firearms in the citizen’s hands. According to the official statistics, 80 percent of adults own a gun, meaning that the likelihood of  a stranger you come across in the street possessing one are unbelievably significant. Recently, several regulations attempted to restrict gun possession to impose gun control. However, gun control is not only unjustifiable, but it also deprives people of their right for self-defence and peaceful life.

First and foremost, gun control, unfortunately, does not reduce the murder and crime rates in the US. Although it should generally hold true, the statistics contradict the misbelief that limiting gun possession minimizes the number of crimes committed. The research on weapon ban which was carried out during the past twenty years demonstrates that there is no correlation between reducing gun ownership and a falling number of murder cases. The research also indicated that the states that imposed strict gun control have witnessed a larger number of crimes.

This all leads to the conclusion that imposing a ban on gun possession is not a way to fight crime. Also, as the evidence shows, the number of guns in the US had been steadily growing in the last century, and this coincided with a decrease in the number of crimes committed. Essentially, gun control is unlikely to resolve the issue of crimes, since some people are likely to commit crimes even when they have no gun at their disposal.

Another argument against gun control is that the first inevitably infringe the citizen’s rights, Namely, banning weapons contradicts the right that the constitution of the US guarantees. According to the second amendment, under no circumstances should the citizen’s rights to possess a gun  be infringed. The right to own a gun had already existed long before many countries appeared on the map. That is why many people deem gun control as a crime against humanity. Even though there is yet some logical explanation to an attempt to control gun usage and manufacturing, it still deprives US citizens of their inviolable right.

What is even more, the supreme court together with the constitution considers gun ownership as one of the liberties that all the US citizens have. Just like the freedom of speech, the space to protect oneself is crucial, and it should remain untouchable. Introducing gun control, therefore, leads to violating people’s freedom and liberties since people become incapable of even defending themselves in their property.

Gun control robs people of the right for safety and self-defence. Imposing strict gun regulations will inevitably make millions of people incapable of defending themselves if something threatens their and their close ones’ lives. According to the data represented by the National Rifle Association, the number of cases of gun usage solely for self-defence purposes equals 2.5 million times annually. People use guns to protect their families and property, but, apparently, the states find the self-defence motive weak enough. If they impose strict gun control, it means that these 2.5 million people may literally sacrifice their lives and die just because they couldn’t hold a gun legally.

The truth is, the Police are physically incapable of protecting all the people who need protection, so these people are bound to defend themselves on their own. But how to protect yourself  if you cannot even possess a gun? So far, using a weapon for self-defence has proved to be the most effective way . Therefore, depriving people of the right for self-defence or for saving other people in trouble is inhumane and unjustified.

Overall, gun control has lately become a hot topic that has both its advocates and opponents. So far, the evidence against gun control is very reasonable and convincing. Gun control robs the citizens of their exceptional right – the right to protect themselves and those in danger. Besides, gun control contradicts the second amendment, which guarantees the right to possess a gun for adult US citizens. Finally, it is unlikely to reduce the crime rate as the science hasn’t yet found any valid proof for that.

Write a Gun Control Essay with HandmadeWriting

Composing a brilliant essay about gun control is somewhat challenging due to the peculiarity of this topic. But this is not something above your capacity. Keeping all the tips in mind as well as following a precise gun control essay structure will significantly facilitate the writing process. And if you need help with writing or editing – HandmadeWriting will have you covered! At any time of day and night, essay writers at HandmadeWriting work hard to deliver top-quality papers and support students from all over the world. So if you’re struggling with your essay, feel free to get in touch with us. 

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Gun Control Argumentative Essay: 160 Topics + How-to Guide [2024]

After the recent heartbreaking mass shootings, the gun control debate has reached its boiling point.

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Do we need stricter gun control laws ? Should everyone get a weapon to oppose crime? Or should guns be banned overall? You have the opportunity to air your opinion in a gun control argumentative essay.

Below, you’ll find everything you need to write a great paper in no time. Check weighty arguments, catchy gun control essay titles, and the latest sources on the subject.

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🔝 Top 10 Gun Control Essay Titles

💥 take a stand in the gun control debate.

  • 👍 Pro Gun Control Essay Topics

👎 Against Gun Control Essay Topics

⚡ gun violence essay titles, ⚖️ gun laws essay topics to explore, 🔫 gun control controversial topics for a research paper, 🔰 pros and cons of gun control, ✍️ 5 steps in writing a gun control essay.

  • 🤔 Frequent Questions
  • Does gun ownership deter crime?
  • Ethics of owning guns for sport.
  • Gun control laws and suicide rate.
  • Do weapons bring a sense of safety?
  • Guns and domestic abuse protection.
  • Do gun control laws reduce gun deaths?
  • Gun control laws and government tyranny.
  • Are gun control laws invasion of privacy?
  • Should high-capacity magazines be banned?
  • Gun control as a way to reduce the crime rate.

Did you know that 33 people are killed with guns every day in America? This is one of the numbers you can use in your essay on gun control. Are you ready to learn more reasons both for and against gun control? Here they are, in a nutshell:

Have you chosen which side you’re on? Great! Now you already have solid background knowledge on the issue.

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The information above will help you write an outstanding essay on gun control. Moreover, you can easily proofread it using Grammarly and avoid common grammar mistakes.

👀 150 Catchy Gun Control Topics

Do you want to know the next step toward your A+ gun control essay? It’s a catchy title that expresses your standpoint and grabs your readers’ interest.

Here are some examples.

👍 Pro-Gun Control Essay Topics

Arms possession is a right enshrined in the US constitution. Yet, more and more people voice their concerns about owning firearms. Mass shootings, suicides, and abuse are among the top arguments for stricter laws. Here, we’ve collected plenty of insightful pro-gun control topics for you to explore.

  • Pro-gun radicalism and American fears. Guns and fear often go hand in hand. Studies suggest that gun owners are more prone to phobias and distrust. The topic requires showing the irrational essence of gun ownership .
  • Being pro-gun equals being anti-women. Firearms make domestic violence a lot more likely to end in death. Prohibiting gun access for abusers could save women’s lives.
  • Why background checks don’t always work. Background checks are essential. Yet, they don’t always prevent ineligible individuals from acquiring a firearm . This “why we need gun control” essay shines a light on the procedure’s flaws.
  • The economic burden of firearms. This topic concerns the costs linked to gun-related injuries and deaths. These preventable expenditures strain the US economy. You can underline the necessity of gun control to alleviate the problem.
  • Gun control to protect schools from firearms. Schools are at the heart of the anti-gun movement. Meanwhile, gun control plays a vital role in preserving safety in educational facilities. An essay could communicate the intricate connection between the two.
  • Kids are not ok: pediatric gun-related injuries and deaths. Children often become victims of gun violence. The number of pediatric firearm-related injuries and deaths is disproportionate. Should parents remove all guns from their households to protect their kids?
  • Rising gun deaths: a call for action. The high firearm-related death rate is a notorious problem. In the United States, the number is consistently above average. In this gun control argumentative essay, it becomes a reason for stricter gun policies.
  • Reducing firearm ownership is not decreasing civil liberties . The topic handles primary gun control opponents’ counterarguments. The key reasoning is that gun ownership is not a universal human right. In this essay, you can explore the notion of civil liberties .
  • Suicide and the availability of guns. Gun control topics are rarely concerned with suicide. It’s an essential yet underexplored and part of it. You can show how stricter gun control would help reduce suicide rates .
  • More guns, more shootings : understanding gun control. This topic requires exploring the link between firearms and shootings. You can use gun ownership and mass shooting rates to prove your point. In this pro-gun control essay, statistical information is instrumental.
  • Gun control as an answer to violent murders.
  • Do firearm restrictions harm democracy?
  • The perverseness of being pro-life and pro-gun.
  • Do guns in households cause more accidental deaths?
  • Why are some people scared of stricter gun control ?
  • Debunking “guns for self-defense ” myths.
  • Gun control’s positive impact on hospitalization rates.
  • Does better gun control improve life quality?
  • Firearms and suicidal behavior : another case for restrictions.
  • What fears drive opponents of gun laws ?
  • Do firearms restrictions increase the value of life?
  • Do gun laws reduce societal costs?
  • Restricting the carry of firearms for societal benefit.
  • Does pro-gun activism favor domestic abusers?
  • Firearms: used far less for defense than for attacks.
  • More guns – more violence
  • Stop the wrong people from getting guns
  • Revision of the Second Amendment to prevent human tragedies
  • The Second Amendment and gun control can co-exist
  • The thin line between self-defense and deadly force

Stricter laws can’t solve every problem. In cases such as prostitution and drug use, they are even detrimental. But does this reasoning also apply to gun control? Find it out by discussing its disadvantages with one of the following engaging prompts:

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  • Gun control laws : a waste of taxpayers’ money. Firearm restrictions have economic consequences. Additional gun control measures are not free— they require more monetary resources. Besides, stricter gun control deprives many citizens of firearm-related jobs.
  • Firearm regulations deny the right to self-defense . Self-defense is a constitutional right granted by the Founding Fathers. When an attacker is armed, defensive gun use remains the only option. Gun control diminishes the capacity of citizens to protect themselves.
  • Guns don’t breed crime—society does. Crime is a colossal social challenge. It is vital to direct resources for crime prevention and management. Yet, gun control is not the ultimate solution to this problem.
  • Gun control laws are not fruitful . One of the purposes of gun control is to curb the gun violence epidemic. Yet, whether it works or not is debatable. This “is greater gun control a great idea” essay demonstrates gun control’s ineffectiveness.
  • Gun control : limiting citizens’ freedoms. Gun control is not only fruitless, but it’s also unconstitutional. The right to possess and carry guns is civil liberty. Firearm restrictions violate the essence of the country’s constitution.
  • Gun ownership increases the sense of security. Besides, firearms perform an important psychological function. They give their owners a sense of safety, bringing emotional comfort. Gun control takes away the knowledge that one can protect oneself.
  • Firearms black market: a bigger problem. Gun control will not prevent determined individuals from obtaining firearms. Restricting access to legal guns could prompt people to buy weapons from black markets.
  • Knives, hardware, and vehicles are lethal weapons , too. Firearms are only a small part of a criminal’s arsenal. For instance, they frequently use cars as deadly weapons. Firearm control can’t always prevent those determined to harm someone from doing it.
  • Eliminating guns: an oversimplified approach. Gun control proponents often oversimplify the problem. Access to firearms is not the root cause of gun-related deaths and violence. The phenomenon has multiple origins that you could examine.
  • Disarming Americans kills their national identity. Guns are deeply ingrained in American culture and national identity. The right to bear them has a profound symbolic notion. This “against gun control” essay covers the meaning of firearms in American nationhood.
  • Gun control hinders African American emancipation.
  • How does gun control incite government tyranny?
  • Gun control doesn’t prevent violent behavior.
  • The racist history behind firearm restrictions .
  • The Second Amendment: the cornerstone of gun rights .
  • Firearms as an answer to domestic violence .
  • Would gun control make the country safer ?
  • Firearm ownership : gaining control over life.
  • Gun control and the demise of democracy.
  • The empowering role of firearms .
  • Gun control as a method of disabling citizens.
  • What’s your position on the statement: “ Assault is not a weapon but a behavior”?
  • Why gun control laws should be scrapped .
  • Is there a link between firearm ownership and crime ?
  • Banning guns means more black markets.
  • Gun control is not the answer – education is
  • Gun culture propaganda starts with cartoons
  • Mass media is to blame: murder is an easy route to fame
  • Gun control : why not ban everything that poses a potential threat?
  • Criminals don’t obey gun control laws

Firearm violence has developed into a significant human rights issue. It affects our right to life and health. Not only that, but it can also limit our access to education. Gun violence disrupts school processes and endangers student safety. An essay on this issue gives you many different directions to explore.

  • Firearm violence as a racial equity challenge. Studies have shown that some ethnicities are more likely to experience gun violence than others. African Americans , in particular, are affected by the issue. Your essay can investigate how firearm violence reflects and aggravates discrimination.
  • The relationship between mental health and mass shootings. Mental illness is the prime suspect as the root of gun violence. Researchers often consider it a determiner for mass shootings . For this topic, it’s vital to analyze literature regarding the correlation.
  • Preventing and responding to firearm-related deaths. Each year, thousands of US citizens die due to gun violence . As the rate of firearm death rises, the issue becomes exponentially troubling. Decreasing the gun-related mortality rate is a topic of high priority.
  • The socio-economic roots of firearm violence . Gun violence has pronounced socio-economic causes. Low income and life in a deprived neighborhood are among the most significant risk factors. Examining how certain circumstances prompt gun violence is instrumental in alleviating the issue.
  • Long-term psychological effects of gun violence . Survivors and witnesses of gun violence experience grave psychological consequences, including PTSD and depression. Your essay can present gun violence as an extremely traumatic event.
  • The contagion effect in mass shootings . The contagion effect describes the spread of behavior. You can use it to explain the epidemic of gun violence. The topic requires you to look into the phenomenon.
  • Intimate partner violence : the role of firearms. The severity of intimate partner violence is related to how accessible guns are to abusers. Many domestic homicides involve the use of weapons. This gun ownership essay prompts to explain how firearms contribute to the phenomenon.
  • Mass shootings and weapon availability. This topic prompts you to investigate the mass shootings aspect of gun violence. In particular, it’s concerned with the link between gun accessibility and mass murder . You could use quotes and statistics regarding gun laws to establish the connection.
  • Gun violence : A poignant human rights issue. Firearm violence causes psychological, social, and financial harm. Its victims suffer from long-term consequences in the form of mental disorders. It’s unwise to overestimate the issue’s global burden.
  • Gun violence against women and girls. Firearms violence negatively impacts the life quality of women. Women and girls frequently become victims of gun attacks. Here, you could discuss how deep-seated misogyny contributes to the problem.

Stephen King quote.

  • The global burden of guns .
  • Firearms violence: A community health problem .
  • The reasons behind gun violence in the United States .
  • A gender profile of firearm violence .
  • School shootings : portrayal in media.
  • What are the economic consequences of firearm violence?
  • Preventing gun violence in vulnerable neighborhoods.
  • The role of toxic masculinity in gun violence .
  • Discuss the effect of firearm ownership regulations .
  • How can the government reduce firearm violence in low-income neighborhoods?
  • Psychological consequences of school shootings.
  • Supporting school shooting survivors.
  • What are the effects of gun ownership on violence?
  • The epidemiology of mass shootings .
  • Mass shootings from a sociological perspective.
  • Fighting against gun violence: social activism .
  • Gun violence : the primary cause of premature death.
  • What ethical problems occur regarding mass shootings ?
  • How does the media promote gun violence?
  • The health implications of gun violence .

Gun laws are vital to ensure the safe handling and purchase of firearms. Regulations come from the federal as well the state level. It makes gun laws confusing for many. If you’d like to entangle the issue, this section is for you.

  • Major loopholes in gun laws . Federal and state laws are vulnerable to exploitation. It means they contain gaps endangering public safety. The “Charleston loophole” is the most notorious example. You can inspect it along with other deficiencies.
  • Gun laws : too strict or too weak? The harshness of gun laws is a debatable issue. Given the present gun violence epidemic, the answer might appear evident. Still, this topic encourages viewing the problem from multiple perspectives.
  • Prohibiting the possession of assault weapons. Assault weapons are another intriguing facet of America’s gun problem. Currently, there is no federal law prohibiting their ownership. Using such a weapon in a shooting increases mortality and traumatism.
  • The problem with private gun sales. Private firearms trade results in excessive gun accessibility. Private sellers are allowed to bypass crucial standards such as sales recordkeeping. The situation poses a threat to communal well-being.
  • Mental illness in the context of firearms control legislation. In the context of gun laws, mental illness is a prominent notion. The term and its usage in state and federal laws have nuances. You can interpret them in your essay.
  • Using deadly force to defend property. Firearms constitute a part of the “deadly force” notion. Regarding the defense of private property, its use is not always justifiable. This gun law essay proposes to reflect on the norms of firearm use.
  • Nuances and limitations of the stand-your-ground law. The stand-your-ground law is the subject of heated debate. It’s easy to misinterpret it. It most notably concerns the boundaries of gun use. Yet, knowing what is allowed is essential in self-defense .
  • The need for federal registration laws. Although there is no national gun registry, its introduction could be beneficial. It would allow law enforcement agencies to track firearms more efficiently. In your essay, you could research other advantages of federal registration as well.
  • Differences in gun laws at the state level . Besides federal laws, each state has its own firearms policies. Federal and state regulations tend to vary considerably. It could be interesting to analyze how gun use and possession regulations differ from state to state.
  • Buying guns without a background check: a dangerous loophole. Background checks are indispensable under federal law . Still, a loophole makes it possible to sell firearms to incompetent and dangerous individuals. Say what could be done to make background checks more efficient.
  • Are tougher gun laws a solution?
  • Politically polarizing firearm policies .
  • What are the public’s views of federal firearms laws?
  • Gun licenses and political affiliation.
  • Firearm registration and accessibility of guns to criminals .
  • Gun laws : State vs. Federal.
  • How are state gun laws and firearm mortality connected?
  • Gun laws from the constitutional point of view .
  • Understanding the duty to retreat in US legislation.
  • Gun-friendly state laws and criminality.

22% of gun owners in America haven't passed a background check.

  • Open carry and concealed carry laws.
  • The extent of federal gun laws .
  • Concealed carry: not covered by the Second Amendment .
  • Should the US government enforce firearm registration?
  • Limiting concealed carry under the influence.
  • Weaker gun laws equal less public safety.
  • Gun control policies: Democrats vs. Republicans.
  • The benefits of a universal background check.
  • Analyze gun laws in the state of Missouri .
  • Restoring the federal assault weapons ban.

There are few topics more controversial than gun control. That’s why it’s the perfect base for a good debate. Controversies surrounding gun control include questions of race, gender, and ethics.

  • Gun ownership: gender, ethnicity, and class . The demographic portrait of a gun owner is a politically loaded subject. Despite the possible implications, it necessitates in-depth research. This topic suggests considering gun owners’ social class, gender, and ethnicity.
  • The racial element in American gun culture . Racism and gun control are more connected than might appear. A range of opinions exists. Evaluating their interconnection might yield compelling results. In your essay, investigate American gun culture through the prism of racial inequality.
  • Firearms ownership: do we need incentives or fees? Gun ownership has several advantages, such as a sense of security . Nevertheless, its less positive effects could eclipse them. Discussing whether gun ownership should be discouraged or encouraged could help you write an engaging paper.
  • The usage of firearms in self-defense. The efficacy and frequency of self-defense weapon use are essential for the gun control debate . Analyzing these factors could help establish the validity of the argument.
  • Gun ownership regulation: the Swiss example. In terms of firearm possession, Switzerland is a liberal country. It has lax laws regarding the acquisition and usage of guns. What can Switzerland teach the US about gun control ?
  • The ethicality of firearm ownership. It is common to examine whether gun ownership is constitutional. Looking at its ethicality is a rarer approach. This controversial gun control essay topic helps to bridge the knowledge gap.
  • Constitutional contradictions regarding gun rights . The Constitution’s meaning is not as self-evident as it may appear. Whether gun rights are constitutional or unconstitutional is at the core of the debate.
  • Do gun rights promote vigilantism? Vigilante violence is a severe community challenge. A vengeful armed vigilante is a threat to their society. In your paper, investigate the role of gun rights in contributing to the problem.
  • Preventing criminals from accessing guns. How effective is gun control in stopping gun violence? Contradictory opinions denying or supporting its productiveness need scrutiny. For this paper, you can use statistics and facts to clarify the situation.
  • The ideology behind gun control and rights. The gun control debate has long gone beyond objective arguments. By now, the problem entails larger political implications. Gun ownership or its absence strongly correlates with political behavior.
  • Interpretations of the Second Amendment regarding gun control .
  • Does unrestricted gun ownership lead to more shootings ?
  • The effectiveness of firearm restrictions.
  • Multiple origins of gun-related crime .
  • Are gun restrictions instrumental for public safety?
  • Gun control as a measure against crime and gun violence .
  • Firearm control rhetoric: an analysis.
  • Should the public use of guns remain legal?
  • Gun control : creating optimal policies.
  • Presidential elections and gun control rhetoric.
  • Limiting access to guns: is it useful or debilitating?
  • Evaluating gun control and its impact on crime.
  • The future of gun laws.
  • The political battle over gun control .
  • Gun policies and common sense.
  • How relevant is firearms control?
  • What effect does gun ownership have on domestic abuse ?
  • The economics of gun control.
  • Gun control: Is it saving lives or narrowing freedoms ?
  • Should you ever be able to buy a gun without a license or permit?

Gun control pros and cons have been discussed and thoroughly analyzed countless times. Both advocates and opponents have stuck to their positions, leaving the issue unresolved. Here are a few important pros and cons:

Points made in support of gun control (pros)

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  • Gun control statistics reveal that although the United States accounts for only 5% of the world’s population, U.S. residents own 50% of guns in the world.
  • When gun deaths statistics for different countries were expressed as the number of gun deaths in a population of a million people, the United States was ranked below South Africa.

Points against gun control (cons)

  • The very idea of gun control goes against the US constitution that allows people the right to safeguard their lives. People need guns to defend themselves when being attacked by others. Additionally, firearms can provide a sense of comfort and security. It would be undemocratic to take away a person’s right to feel safe.
  • Since the Second Amendment upholds the right to gun ownership, it should not be restricted. It seems dangerous to start altering the constitution whenever we see fit. In doing so, we might create a precedent that others can use to promote more harmful agendas.

Whichever side you chose, now you already have a few persuasive arguments. Let’s move on to the actual writing part.

Writing an impressive essay on gun control can be a bit difficult without proper organization. No matter what type of paper you are going to work on, you’ll need some detailed planning and thorough research.

Follow these five steps to write a perfect gun control essay:

  • Define what gun control is. Whether you are writing an argumentative, persuasive, or any other type of paper, the first thing you need is context. Use the definitions that are most appropriate for your essay. For example, you might start with a dictionary definition. Then, add some general facts about types of firearms. Next, you might give statistics on gun control , such as ownership and reasons for it.
  • Write a gun control thesis statement. Besides context and definitions, any essay introduction requires a thesis. It’s the message you’re going to argue in the following paragraphs. So, work on it before writing the rest of the paper. Make sure your gun control thesis statement is concise and easy to understand. You can use an online thesis generator if that requirement is hard for you to achieve.
  • One option is to use studies that have collected plentiful information over the years.
  • If you are writing a pro-gun control essay, you can use studies or statistics on how guns owned by private citizens have killed innocent people. You can also cite cases where students used their parents’ guns to commit violent crimes in school.
  • If you are arguing against gun control, cite studies proving that private gun ownership saves lives. You could also add research revealing the positive effects of gun ownership.
  • Organize your paper. Of course, the content and organization vary for each particular essay. The facts remain the same. It is the way that you arrange and present them that will create a concrete argument. That’s why you should make sure to draft an outline before you get started.
  • End with a strong conclusion. In there, you should summarize your essay and reiterate the most important points. Don’t forget to restate and develop your statement based on the facts you mentioned. If it’s not an argumentative essay, present your findings and suggestions about the issue.

John McGinnis Quote.

As you can see, writing an impressive gun control essay takes time and effort. It also requires deep research. If you’re finding this task too challenging, you can order an essay from our custom writing service. We provide 100% original papers at reasonable prices.

You might also be interested in:

  • Top Ideas for Argumentative or Persuasive Essay Topics
  • Best Argumentative Research Paper Topics
  • 97 Inspirational & Motivational Argumentative Essay Topics
  • Great Persuasive & Argumentative Essay on Divorce
  • Proposal Essay Topics and Ideas – Easy and Interesting
  • Free Exemplification Essay Examples

🤔 Gun Control FAQ

To create a great title, you should express your point of view in a concise and eye-catching manner. A creative title grabs your readers’ interest. Try to make up an unusual keyword combination, or paraphrase a metaphor or a set expression. Using two opposite ideas works well, too.

If you want to spark a discussion, you need to make an educated standpoint choice. For a good debate essay, make sure to thoroughly study the topic. A list of pros and cons will help you gain a deeper insight. Then decide where you stand before you start writing.

Good persuasive topics provoke emotions. A great topic for an essay is an issue that concerns nearly everyone in society. For example, gun control or animal testing may be good topics for college essays.

Good thesis statements give a clearly formulated opinion. You need to state whether you are for or against gun control. Either way, the author’s position must be based on convincing arguments and facts.

🔗 References

  • Gun Control Latest Events
  • The Link Between Firearms, Crime and Gun Control
  • Gun Control Pros and Cons
  • Second Amendment: Right to Bear Arms
  • A Brief History of the National Rifle Association
  • Gun Control Essays at Bartleby
  • Argumentative Essays on Gun Control
  • Gun Control Issues, Public Health, and Safety
  • Universal Background Checks: Giffords
  • Gun Violence: Amnesty International
  • Facts on US Gun Ownership: Pew Research Center
  • Gun Control in the US: Encyclopedia Britannica
  • Gun Control: The Debate and Public Policy: Social Studies
  • Guns and Gun Control: The New York Times
  • Gun Control Topic Overview: Gale
  • US Gun Policy: Global Comparisons: Council of Foreign Relations
  • US Gun Debate: Four Dates that Explain How We Got Here: BBC News
  • Gun Control and Gun Rights: US News
  • Why Gun Control Is So Contentious in the US: Live Science
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my thing is this it’s not the guns it’s people now if we could make it to where you’ll have to possess a gun ownership license kinda like a drivers license that would solve most problems don’t you think

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My opinion if I may is that guns should be in the hands of law enforcement and military. If a person wants a gun for protection they only need to call 911 on their cell or landline if a person is frightened to take steps which are many, to ensure your safety guns do kill people and there have been far too many innocent people dying! Football games schools churches concerts outdoor activities and or indoor activities places just about anywhere and people in danger it is terrible. What has become to civilization where people are going about their innocent daily lives and get killed!!!!! What is wrong with this picture? Many years ago American citizens did not have to live in such danger as it is today, the government does nothing including NRA. Congress does nothing, sadly we live in a dangerous and volatile world and something needs to be done about this to prevent innocent children and adults from dangerous people who have guns in their hands the government should protect America from harm and danger!!!!

This helped me with my essay due. I wanted to do it on gun control, but I had no idea where to start. This really helped to develop my thesis statement and claim to turn in. Now I just have to write 8 pages on it. 🙂 Wish me luck, lol.

Do you still have a copy of this essay ?

Good luck, Danielle! 🙂 Glad the article was useful for you.

I think you should add how guns can be a big cause in the world because guns are a bad thing.

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This helped me with a 5-paragraph essay I need due.

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How to Write a Gun Control Essay (Plus Topics)

Gun Control Debate

The topic of gun control always sparks divisive rhetoric. Noticeably, the politics of guns continually shift whenever there are mass shootings that draw media attention. Also, true to it, there have been many shootings in schools. Regrettably, even social places and homes have turned out not to be safe as they are sprees for gun-wielding bloodthirsty maniacs.

At this point, we can ask ourselves from a policy perspective if the stricter gun control laws have done any better. The fact remains that regulating firearms ownership and use is only but an emotional debate with historical and legal roots. The discussion often comes through the media, political circles, public domain, and class discussions.

Gun control is a pressing issue in America. Some questions such as why is the prevalence of mass shootings increasing. What is the right position to take on the matter? How can such issues be prevented in the future? Always come up. Amidst the questions, we have compiled a guide on how to write a great gun control argumentative essay. It could be for or against gun control essay, but no matter the side, let us have ourselves some tricks and tips.

Defining Gun Control

The controversial gun control essay, explores the gun control facts, gun control debate, and features gun control statistics. So, what exactly is gun control? By definition, gun control refers to regulation or laws that define the gun use regime. They include the possession, background checks, modification, use, transfer, classification, carrying, and any matter related to guns either in public or on private property.

Most of the countries globally have stricter gun control policies. Consequently, the possession, carrying, and use of guns in such countries by the citizens are limited.

Countries like the USA have permissive gun control policies. In this respect, citizens can possess and use guns. The regulation has a colonial history. Besides, it has placed the country at the center stage of the gun control debate, given the rising incidences of mass shootings.

Gun ownership in the US is protected under the Second Amendment of the USA Constitution. The hallmark of the gun control debate, therefore, is never a human rights violation but the Second Amendment.

Those against gun control and those pro-gun control policies have their reasons. For instance, the proponents of gun control argue that the right as enshrined in the constitution does not limit the proper use of the guns and that restrictions can be placed to safeguard lives henceforth.

Some of the pertinent questions you should ask before writing this type of essay include:

  • Why should we have stricter gun control laws?
  • Why do we need gun control laws?
  • Whose mandate is it to argue for good gun laws?
  • Can gun control policies reduce the impacts seen across America?

When you reason like that and have adequate answers, there is no doubt that you will write the best gun control essay that might be used by the professor as a class sample. Nevertheless, there is more, read on!

Common Types of Gun Control Essays

Before we delve further, it is only prudent that we cover some of the types of essays that you can be assigned on the controversial topic of gun control. Understanding the type of essay becomes handy when structuring or outlining your essay. Besides, it also helps in the development of thoughts and ideas as well as researching for the essay. Here are some of the common essay types students are requested to submit as gun control essays:

  • Compare and Contrast Essay . You can be requested to compare the similarities and differences between the two gun control policies or stances. You will end up finding an essay comparing gun laws, comparing gun homicide statistics in two states or countries, comparing the implementation of gun control regulations by politicians, and from that, you are expected to make a conclusion and find the connection between issues.
  • Persuasive Essay . Even though there is confusion between persuasive and argumentative essays, there is always a clear distinction. For this essay, you aim to convince the readers to adopt your point of view. You are expected to argue with facts either for or against the gun control policies, for instance. You are also likely to make them see the limitations of adopting your side of the debate. A persuasive gun control essay should be articulate, well supported, and well written to fetch the best grades. When writing a persuasive essay on gun control use ethos, logos, and pathos to convince your audience.
  • Argumentative Essay . In the argumentative gun control essay, you are to offer your opinion through facts and arguments that support it. Your arguments, when presented, should also have a counterargument that details the other side of the debate. You can use the Toulmin argumentation model, Rogerian argumentation model, or classical argumentation.
  • Expository Essay . In this type of essay, your main agenda is to explore the facts and present findings on the chosen topic. For instance, you could focus on the role of government in gun control. You could also expose the truth that gun control laws are negatively influenced by lobbying.
  • Definition Essays . You could stumble upon an essay that requires you to define the Second Amendment, Human Rights, Concealment, gun policies, etc.
  • Cause and Effect Gun Laws Essay . The aim of a cause and effect essay on gun control could be to look at the causal relationship between the facts involved. What are the consequences of weak gun laws? What are the impacts of gun control regulations?
  • Annotated Bibliography . Sometimes, you will be requested by your professor to write an annotated bibliography on gun control after scanning through scholarly literature. Depending on the format: APA, MLA, Harvard, or Chicago, your annotated bibliography must have the full bibliographic information bolded and in hanging-indent. It should also have your brief description and critical analysis of the source about 150-200 words long.
  • Informative Gun Control Essays . As the name suggests, this is a descriptive essay where you will be expected to expound on the whole issue of gun control. Here, you must lay bare the components of the topic, facts, and statistics. It could be a gun control pros and cons essay, and that is just fine for an informative essay. Sometimes, you can be requested to write about gun control statistics, and you have to provide gun control facts that someone can resonate with even without having been privy with such information before.

Therefore, those are the common types of gun control essays. However, from our experience, either gun control argumentative essays for or against gun control are the most common.

Steps when Writing a Great Gun Control Essay

We have closely monitored top-quality essays and research papers written by our professional essay writers in the fields of sociology, criminology, criminal justice, political science, English, Education, Healthcare Sciences, Law, Psychology, and Criminal Justice. It is based on the understanding of these realms that we have compiled a gun control essay guide, first of its kind, given its comprehensiveness. This guide deals with everything from topic choice, structuring, concluding and editing the argumentative, persuasive, descriptive, or informative essay on gun control.

Therefore, here are the steps or principles to follow when writing a gun control essay:

  • Choose an excellent gun control topic

To determine the topic for your essay, it is always recommended that you analyze the prompt from class. Usually, essays or research papers have a prompt that outlines what is expected in the essay. The topic can be either direct or indirect.

  • Research for Scholarly Sources

After coming up with a great gun control essay topic, the second step is to gather information from the scholarly sources online. For gun control essays, you can use credible news channels, government publications, periodicals, legal memos, and peer-reviewed journals.

  • Pick a Side

Based on the research and availability of facts, you can choose the side that most appeals to you. It should be one that you can defend using credible facts from scholarly resources. You should choose a side after studying either side of the argument. Make sure you can argue strongly in your chosen side.

  • Create a Thesis Statement

After picking a side to defend, you can now create a thesis statement for your essay. The thesis statement should either be one or two last lines in the introduction that bares the gist of your essay.

  • Make an Outline

Your outline should help you structure the essay. It will help you determine the topic sentence, supporting facts, and concluding sentences. When developing an outline for the body paragraphs, it should reflect the thesis statement of the bun control essay.

  • Begin writing the first draft of the introduction, body, and the conclusion

After the outline, develop each paragraph. When our writers are writing, they usually use citation tools such as Citefast, BibMe, and Citethisforme, to ensure consistency in text-citations. The practice also helps maintain and manage all your bibliography online and copy them when you are into the references/bibliography/works cited sections. It also helps maintain citation consistency depending on the citation format or style such as APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, ASA, among others. If you are writing a pro-gun control essay, ensure your facts are well supported in each paragraph. The same applies to gun control essay.

  • Polish your Essay

Your gun control arguments in an essay can only fetch the best grades if you have an essay that has been qualified, edited, and proofread. If you need help with editing and proofreading your essay, we run an essay editing service that can legitimately help you.

Are you looking for someone to help you find convincing arguments? You can place an order on our website and get a response to your " write my essay " request within the shortest turnaround time.

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Selecting a Topic for Gun Control Essay

As we surveyed students, we have helped write gun control essays; a common question stood out; what is the best title for gun control essay? If you are writing an anti-gun control essay or a general gun control essay and you are worried about what is the best title, this section is for you.

Well, tales have it that the hyena tried many routes, and that is why it limps. You do not want to cover every aspect of gun control in the global arena, do you? Therefore, you must pick a topic that you can build facts on and write a coherent essay.

Always go for a topic that reasons with your judgment. Therefore, it should be a topic that interests you. You can only do so by beginning to research the paper given the essay prompt. That way, you are assured of writing satisfactorily.

It is also recommended to pick a topic that is widely covered in the news. For instance, when there is a gun control issue in a state or a country, you are most likely to get facts quickly. You could explore concepts that you encounter in your life as well or in the movies. For instance, guns and gangs; youths and gun violence; domestic violence and guns;  mass shootings in public places; guns and terrorism, and maybe how to combat the impacts.

Whatever you do, pick a clear side that can be either pro or against strict gun control laws. As you do so, also factor in your audience. For instance, provide statistics, relevant legislation, news reports, and facts when targeting law students and school education experts.

Common Argument Points for Pro and Anti Strict Gun Law

Gun Control Arguments

The entire gun control debate can have philosophical underpinnings. For instance, when questioning whether gun ownership is a right or a privilege.

Proponents of gun control always center their arguments on:

  • Firearm ownership control can reduce the statistics of gun homicides;
  • Most of the people who commit gun violence in the US are those who obtained it regularly as opposed to black market and dealership acquisition of guns;
  • Possession of firearms is to blame for the rising incidences of firearm accidents, domestic violence, gang violence, and mass shootings in America.
  • There is increased youth violence and crime courtesy of gun ownership;
  • Pro-gun control debaters believe that gun laws will change the perception of weapons in the media;
  • Gun laws reduce the entry and use of banned weapons sold in the black market;
  • Gun control makes the government in charge of gun ownership and uses for accountability.

The Opponents of stricter gun laws argue that:

  • The laws have little, if any, impact on the violence being experienced in the USA;
  • Strict gun laws lead to legal and mental pressure in the society other than focusing on issues of significance such as the economy;
  • There is always the chance to get illegal firearms which is likely even to get worse;
  • Gun possession is necessary for self-defense;
  • It is imperative to have gun safety training and education compared to strict regulations.

Now, whichever gun control argument side you choose, always ensure that it is strong. Do not make it ambiguous, either.

Example of strong gun control arguments :

  • American society is deeply ingrained in guns. The Second Amendment of the Constitution gives American citizens rights to bear firearms. Consequently, three in every 10 American adults own a gun .
  • In a recent study in the USA , it emerged that change in gun policies to enforce stricter laws that reduce access to adolescents led to reduced suicide rates by 40%.

Notably, strong arguments are well supported by scholarly sources and mention essential facts and statistics.

Gun Control Essay Topics

Gun Control Topics for Essays

Compare and Contrast Gun Control Essay Topics

  • Compare the dun deaths in the UK, Germany, and the USA.
  • Compare and contrast Australia and Sweden as examples of recently modified arms control.
  • Compare the conservative and modern liberal views on gun control.
  • Compare the approach to gun control in the US and any developing country.
  • Compare teen gun suicides before and after reforms in America.
  • Compare the development of gun rights and mass shootings in America
  • Compare and contrast stricter gun laws and relaxed gun laws, including their implications.

Persuasive Topics on Gun Control

  • The impact of gun control on gang violence
  • Can gun control protect us?
  • How gun control policies can reduce crime and violence
  • The role of legislators and police in gun control
  • Why the problem is the people and not gun laws
  • The evolution of stricter gun laws and why it is time for America
  • The stance of Locke, Hobbes, and Sandel on gun control laws, does it matter?
  • How gun laws impact the criminal justice system

Argumentative Essay Gun Control Topics

  • People should be allowed to carry concealed guns in public places
  • Gun control laws must be stricter
  • Australian gun control policies have impacted mass shootings
  • We need more stringent gun control policies
  • Can gun laws fix the American gun violence menace?
  • Is it the people or the gun laws?
  • Gun control laws have been effective in NYC
  • Gun control has reduced gun deaths in America
  • America is a model country for stricter gun laws
  • Should there be restrictions when purchasing or acquiring a gun?
  • Can strict gun control laws reduce school shootings?
  • Should teachers be allowed to carry weapons to school and class?
  • Which one is a better, stricter law or gun safety training/education?
  • A Conservative approach to gun laws can be effective
  • Is there any possibility that new reforms in gun laws can stop mass shootings?
  • The legal age for buying guns should be raised to 18 years plus
  • There should be a restriction to high-capacity ammunition magazines
  • There should be restricted access to assault weapons

Expository Essay Topics on Gun Laws and Gun Control

  • Strategies to prevent school shootings
  • Economics of gun control
  • The role of the National Rifles Association (NRA) in the gun debate
  • Universal background checks
  • Social and economic benefits of gun control
  • Are Bernie Sander's gun control laws worthwhile?
  • Texas and stricter gun control laws
  • The relationship between mental health and mass shootings
  • The connection between religion and politics in the gun laws debate
  • The American gun ownership culture
  • Strong gun policies, the economy, and the criminal justice system
  • Gun violence incidences in the USA 2010-2019
  • Demographics of Americans and its influence on gun control debate
  • The role of activists and lobbyists in gun control regulation
  • The inefficiency of gun control for local communities such as Mississippi
  • The connection between gun laws, crime, gang violence, and mass shootings
  • Demystifying the gun control debate (gun control, interdiction, community policing, and other strategies)
  • Media bias in shaping the propaganda on gun control
  • Do criminals obey strict gun laws?
  • The gun control loophole
  • Process of gun ownership in the USA
  • Gun laws and crime control
  • The role of the Integrated Ballistics Identification System ( IBIS ) in gun control
  • Forensics and gun control in the USA

Writing a decent essay begins with a good topic choice. We understand that choosing one can be tricky. Even worse, writing a high-quality essay on gun control can be troublesome, especially if you have little time on your hands. If that is your case, take advantage of our essay writing service. We are a legitimate essay-writing website that can end your writing woes. Get help from our expert writers at any academic level today! We will always get the best essay writer to pen your essay.

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Essays About Gun Control: 7 Best Examples and Topics for Students

Gun control is a hot topic in the United States. Here, we’ll explore some essays about gun control topics to help you learn more about this topic.

From mass shootings to second amendment rallies, gun ownership is a topic that fires up Americans. While the Constitution does promise Americans the right to bear arms, many gun control activists argue that the writers of the Constitution couldn’t have imagined the advances in gun technology—such as the development of assault weapons—that have occurred in recent years.

Pro-gun control activists cite school shootings and other mass shootings as reasons people shouldn’t own guns. In contrast, people who are against gun control policies often argue that guns, when used correctly, can stop violent events. The topic of gun control is a controversial issue for a good reason, and no matter what side of the gun control debate you’re on, it can be tough to find the right solution.

Here, we’ll take a look at essay topics that take a passionate opinion on the issue of gun control. Remember, the issue of gun control in the United States can be incredibly divisive, and it’s important that you speak carefully and respectfully in an essay about gun control to get your point across.

These essay topics delve into the intricacies of gun violence in America, helping to shed light on how the right of the people in the United States of America to use firearms interacts with the US citizens’ right to stay safe from violent crimes. For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the best essay checkers

Essay Examples On Gun Control

  • 1. Stop It With ‘Gun Control.’ Enough Already. By Frank Bruni
  • 2. Gun control is a lost cause. Come despair with me. By Ross K. Baker
  • 3. Why Gun Control is Now a Matter of National Security By Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson
  • 4. Gun control is all we have left By Kaelin Connor
  • 5. Opinion: Pushing back against gun control arguments By Cathy S. Wright

6. Imagining Gun Control In America: Understanding The Remainder Problem By Nicholas J. Johnson

7. u.s. gun policy: global comparisons by jonathan masters, 1. gun safety vs. gun control: does the language matter, 2. changing gun laws in today’s political climate, 3. gun control and national security: one in the same, 4. gun control: the only option to stop mass shootings, 5. mental health services and gun control: how the two can work together, 6. how does the national rifle association influence politics, 1.  stop it with ‘gun control.’ enough already.  by frank bruni.

“If you’re a person who doesn’t want to see our gun laws change, it makes sense that you would evoke the rhetoric of ‘gun control,’ especially in a place like America, where individual freedom is so celebrated,” said Jonathon Schuldt, an associate professor at Cornell University whose expertise includes the role of language in opinion making. “It’s much harder to justify being against ‘safety’ than it is to justify being against ‘control.’”

There’s no denying that words matter, especially with tough issues like gun control. In this essay,  New York Times  opinion columnist Frank Bruni shares the importance of language around gun control and gun safety and explains other times throughout history in which language has made a difference in garnering public support and creating lasting change.

2.  Gun control is a lost cause. Come despair with me.  By Ross K. Baker

“Let’s start with the fact that there are  enough guns in this country  so that every man, woman and child could have one. Add to that a couple of Supreme Court decisions that enshrine gun ownership alongside freedom of speech and freedom of assembly as constitutionally hallowed rights. On top of that is the fact that even such modest efforts at the state level to limiting access to guns to people deemed dangerous to themselves have proved ineffective. No better example of this is the fact that the  Indiana “red flag” law  designed to keep guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people only temporarily delayed the killer of eight people in Indianapolis from getting his hands on the weapon used to take their lives.”

According to  USA Today  opinion columnist Ross K. Baker, gun control in the United States has become a non-issue, falling to the wayside with bills requesting changes to the national anthem. Baker explains how each state’s right to dictate their gun control laws means that people are simply travelling further—and becoming more sneaky—to get the guns they want without red tape. Baker states that with the current political standing of Congress, there’s no way to change gun laws in a way that impacts the devastating number of mass shootings that occur in the United States each year.

3.  Why Gun Control is Now a Matter of National Security  By Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson

“We share Biden’s view that the level of U.S. gun violence is a “national embarrassment.” But as National Security Council veterans who have specialized in counterterrorism—with direct experience involving far-right American terrorism, burgeoning jihadism, and Northern Irish extremism in the 1990s—we also see a new threat rising, one that has the potential to change the urgency of the debate: the growing, and heavily armed, American militia movement, which made a show of force on January 6.”

In this  Politico  essay, authors Simon and Stevenson dig into the events of the January 6th attempt of a right-wing militia to take over the United States Capitol. The pair discusses the dangers of such groups having access to semiautomatic weapons. According to Simon and Stevenson, while these groups would not stand a chance against the United States military, they could easily cause mass casualty scenarios.

4.  Gun control is all we have left  By Kaelin Connor

“The U.S. has one of the  worst gun violence incidents  of any high-income country. It makes sense why out of  100,000 people in America, 12  die by a gun. To buy a gun at any large box store, like Walmart, it’s  required  to have a background check sent to the FBI. They look for things like criminal convictions, domestic violence and citizenship status. However, denials only occur less than  one percent of the time .”

In this essay for  The Battalion , Connor discusses the injuries and deaths in the United States each year due to gun violence. She explains the differences between the processes of purchasing a gun at a big box store versus purchasing a gun at a gun show and discusses the lack of action taken by Congress to change gun laws in recent years, despite school and mass shootings frequently happening in the United States.

5.  Opinion: Pushing back against gun control arguments   By Cathy S. Wright

“I agree that laws should be enforced, “A slap on the wrist does not do it.” However, we see this happening when lax prosecutors allow criminals to evade a city’s gun control laws with a free pass, such as in neighboring New York City. Progressive gun grabbers say it would be a disaster for public safety if the Supreme Court were to strike down any of New York’s firearms laws, yet city prosecutors do not pursue serious punishment for violating those draconian laws. How can this possibly make any sense if you have the toughest laws in the nation, but those laws are not meaningfully enforced against criminals?”

This opinion essay discusses the importance of providing mental health services to address the root of gun violence rather than simply stopping access to guns for people deemed incompetent. Wright also discusses the importance of enforcing gun control laws rather than hitting violators with “a slap on the wrist” when these laws are broken. The author states that when criminals know penalties are lax for violating gun control laws, they’re more likely to continue breaking laws and dealing with the penalty.

“None of these measures have been particularly successful and, upon reflection, have been somewhat peculiar. We have pressed supply-side rules at the margin-e.g., with prospective limits on supply and restrictions on obscure categories of guns-all while denying that disarmament is the ultimate goal.5 This recipe for gun control has yielded disappointing results.”

In this opinion essay, Johnson both includes factors that have contributed to his thoughts on gun control and presents compelling legal evidence to prove his argument. Johnson expertly discusses how laws that demand changes in gun supply are symbolic only and shares why he believes these laws will not work to change gun violence rates in the United States.

“The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, has 46 percent of the  world’s civilian-owned guns , according to a 2018 report by the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey. It ranks number one in firearms per capita. The United States also has the highest homicide-by-firearm rate of the world’s most-developed nations. But many gun rights proponents say these statistics do not indicate a causal relationship.”

In this essay, Masters compares gun law in the United States with other countries and presents a correlation between gun ownership rates and gun homicides. Masters uses statistics to back up his thoughts and details how other countries work to lower gun violence rates.

Gun Control Essay Topics

When writing an essay about the terms used to talk about gun control, it’s important to talk about how the issue of control has been handled by American citizens in the past (you may want to contrast questions in the United States around women’s rights issues). You’ll also want to talk about how gun control laws are, in fact, gun safety laws and talk about how gun control laws have the potential to lower the number of gun-related deaths in the United States. 

Essays About Gun Control: Changing Gun Laws In Today's Political Climate

Each state has the right to create laws around gun control, which many activists feel makes creating national gun control laws a losing battle. Some people travel to other states to obtain guns that are illegal in their state, making gun control laws ineffective. Some people feel that gun control laws in less-restrictive states contribute to many mass shootings each year in the United States. 

Many people feel that access to semiautomatic weapons creates the possibility of a small group of citizens causing a mass casualty scenario. An essay about gun control and national security talks about how gun control laws have changed over time and dig into the statistics on how many mass shootings are related to access to semiautomatic weapons each year. 

Sadly, mass shootings are a regular occurrence in the United States. In your essay about gun control and mass shootings, discuss the injuries and deaths in the United States each year due to gun violence. Be sure to explain the differences between the processes of purchasing a gun at a big box store versus purchasing a gun at a gun show and discuss the lack of action taken by Congress to change gun laws in recent years, despite school and mass shootings frequently happening in the United States.

In an essay on mental health services and gun control, you’ll want to discuss the importance of providing mental health services to address the root of gun violence rather than simply stopping access to guns for people who are deemed incompetent. Many people who commit violent acts struggle to deal with issues in their own lives. Some people who are against gun control laws feel that controlling access to guns would not stop violent acts; rather, it would cause people struggling with mental health issues that result in violence to find other ways to commit violent acts. 

There’s no question that the National Rifle Association influences American politics. Still, it can be tough to figure out exactly how the organisation influences elections, policy, and other factors. In your essay about how the NRA affects politics, you’ll need to dig deep to touch on how the NRA plays a role in American politics and lawmaking. 

While the influence the NRA plays can be tough to pin down, there are concrete statistics that make it clear that the NRA’s political involvement directly influences sales: for example, when  Smith and Wesson worked with the Clinton Administration  to alter their products, their sales dipped dramatically—due to an NRA boycott of the company.

When researching how the NRA is connected to politics, learn more about how current political leaders are connected with the NRA. This information changes with time, and it’s important to ensure that you’re using the latest news to support your stance.

Tip: If writing an essay sounds like a lot of work, simplify it. Write a simple 5 paragraph essay instead.

If you’d like to learn more, in this guide our writer explains how to write an argumentative essay .

how to end an essay on gun control

Amanda has an M.S.Ed degree from the University of Pennsylvania in School and Mental Health Counseling and is a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer. She has experience writing magazine articles, newspaper articles, SEO-friendly web copy, and blog posts.

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gun control

Gun Control Essay Guide: Titles, Example, Writing Tips

how to end an essay on gun control

Writing against gun control essay follows the basic steps of an argumentative essay. The paper begins with an introduction which highlights what the entire essay will be about. Then, three body paragraphs follow: the second paragraph presents the first supporting reason; the third gives the second supporting argument, whereas the fourth paragraph offers the pro-gun control arguments to show the existence of opposing viewpoints.

The firearms debate is something that has been going for a while, and in light of increased mass shootings and a higher risk of terrorist threats, it will continue to be a hot topic. Here at EssayService , we have put together a handy guide to help you with creating any type of essay on this controversial subject.

What is The Gun Control?

The problem of mass shootings has been on the rise around the world, with the United States being the most affected. A report published by The Guardian in 2016 showed that in the United States, there are 265 million guns compared to the 242 million adults living in the country. Also, half of the guns are owned by 3% of the adult population, with each of these adults owning eight to 140 guns. The gun control law aims at regulating the manufacture, possession, transfer or use of firearms by civilians.

The use of guns is something that has to be regulated to maintain safety for everyone. Pro campaigners argue that with increased mass shootings and easy access to firearms, make it too difficult to prevent this kind of tragedies.

Anti-gun control crusaders argue that due to the failure of the governments to ensure their safety, they are forced to acquire guns to defend themselves. However, some pro-gun control campaigners argue that gun ownership should be limited to the police and army officers due to the increased shootings in high schools and colleges. The report published by The Guardian revealed that there are 30, 000 gun deaths in the US annually, the highest across the globe.

One of the pro-gun control arguments is that the law on gun ownership must be amended to control how guns are used and stored. They link the increased shootings in schools to unsafe storage of firearms. As a result, students quickly access their parent’s shotguns and carry them to school and use them to commit crime and murder. Although anti-gun control crusaders argue that the guns will ensure their safety, there have been instances where innocent people were hurt injured and even killed.

The pro-gun control campaigners advocate changing the constitution to either monitor the use of guns or totally ban gun possession among civilians. Also, parents and educationists have taken measures to educate children on the misuse of guns through lectures and open forums. One of the techniques professors use to educate students is by assigning them assignments to write an essay on gun control. That way, students can do adequate research and review existing literature before drafting the final gun control essay. Parents have also taken steps to monitor their children’s exposure to violent video games and videos that influence them to be violent.

In recent years there has been increased education in schools and universities to ensure fewer chances of this kind of tragedies happening again. A typical exercise can involve giving students a gun control essay to research and write. This way the students can see what are the current laws and do research themselves into what problems can be affected if you change them.

how to end an essay on gun control

Things to Consider when Writing a Gun Control Essay

The law states that anyone in the U.S. can carry a firearm under certain conditions and restrictions depending which local authority governs them. Even tho there is Federal laws and local laws in place they can be confusing in some areas but generally, a version of the second amendment is followed.

consider gun control

The original text from the Bill of Rights 1789 which was later edited and ratified as the Second Amendment is as follows:

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”.

There is debate over interpretation of this ancient text but it generally accepted as having a trained military or “state guard” and the people which is anyone native or considered part of the community to be able to keep and carry weapons.

Things to consider:

  • When this law was drawn up the world was a very different place.
  • Many laws have been changed to fit in with modern society.
  • Other countries gun laws are much stricter.
  • People owning guns would not protect themselves from the government.

Gun Control Essay Titles

It is an important part of your essay to include a catchy title, this will inform the reader of your stance and also intrigue them to read further. It can also help other people look for your article quicker. If at first, you can not think of a title then it's a good idea to write as much of the essay and come back to naming it. It should be a creative process and do not just rush in to label your work. Think of something different and fresh that could challenge the reader, so a question, for example, is a good way to do this. Imagine your gun control essay to be a movie and you need to title it suitably can be another useful trick.

When writing your essay, you need to include a memorable title for your article. Here are some examples from our paper writing service online to help you:

  • Take a side, not a sidearm
  • Violence in America, guns under fire
  • Gun control under control
  • Shooting holes in the second amendment
  • Gun deaths on deaf ears
  • Guns don’t kill people, husbands that come home early do
  • Putting guns into the hands of the bad and leaving the innocent unarmed
  • Gun control: deciding who's pulling the trigger
  • How gun control can cost your life
  • Gun control, man caught over a barrel

Pro Gun Control Essay or Against Gun Position Choice

Before embarking on writing your essay, it is vital you decide if you are pro or against the idea. Then you can plan out the essay according to your stance.

When you have decided which angle you are taking, research as much as possible and gain a lot of statistics that are already published. Remember hard facts are needed for your article.

Here is an argumentative gun control essay sample to give you clearer idea:

Then you can begin to outline your essay.

How to Write Your Gun Control Essay Outline?

Draw up a plan of what you need to do, a gun control outline will save you time in the long run which will help with planning and researching. Here is a free template to follow and fill in sections accordingly:

Introduction - Brief description of the article and stance taken, include a hook and thesis.

Body of text - Supporting evidence and statistics for the argument.

Conclusion - Present summary of the most important ideas.

gun control

Gun Control Essay Introduction

After crafting a worthy title, you can move onto a gun control essay introduction. Sometimes the best way to start is with a gun control essay hook which the reader will find interesting. Then proceed with a description of what the article will include and maybe some interesting background to the research undertaken. Include a gun control essay thesis. This will give you a target to aim for during your research to help focus on the important parts, it is also possible to come back and change the thesis statement later on. This is a very important part of the article as the audience will already have formed some opinions of the work after they have finished reading the opening paragraphs.

Body of Gun Control Essay

Depending on what type of essay you are writing will determine which style you adopt. Most common styles would include an argumentative essay or expository essay so check the links for free help on this style of writing. The vital part to presenting your side in these formats would be stating a fact or statistic to prove your point then writing a paragraph with your ideas and opinions on it. Make sure you use hard evidence for every point or it will just count as just commentary. Another popular style would include a research paper , here is free help with this format. Make sure your paragraphs flow well between points and ideas so that the reader will not be bored and use transition words and phrases to help with this.

Gun Control Essay Conclusion

When you write the gun control essay conclusion it is important to present a summary of the main ideas that back up your thesis or the point that is being proved. Depending on the style you can restate the thesis then lead into the summary. Whichever style adopted make the final sentence memorable which could include a dramatic plea or a question as this will be the last thing the audience takes away with them. Even try to challenge the reader.

Citations or References Section of Gun Control Essays

Depending on the type of essay or work you are writing this will have an impact on how to reference material used. It is vital that you include a references section usually at the end of the essay.

Pro Gun Control Essay Tips

Here at essay writing service , we have collected some of the best top tips for writing your essay to help you out.

  • Backup all your ideas. When you put a claim or point of view across make sure you have supporting evidence or statistics to back up. Most students forget to include the vital information to backup their ideas. Here is a good website for global firearm laws and statistics .
  • Clearly structure each point or idea. Do not make the essay boring to the reader so include transition words and phrases and create one idea based on facts per paragraph.
  • Look for fresh and new research. This topic has been covered a lot to a variety of different levels so try to get modern research and data to present the best ideas. There have been many students completing essays like this so try to stand out.
  • Understand human psychology. Look and think outside the box because anyone can own a gun but not everybody has a strong enough mind to not pull the trigger. Guns are part of the argument but look at human thought and reasons.
  • Be honest. With everybody under the sun having a say in this topic, just be clear and present your idea with truth and this will give you the best essay.

Gun Control Essay Example

Gun Policy: The Views of Republicans and Democrats

Do you know how many firearms are currently in civilian possession in the US? According to official numbers, over 393 million guns are owned by Americans, which makes up for 46% of the global stock of civilian firearms. This statement alone indicates how strong and well-developed gun culture is in this country. On the other hand, the rate of firearm deaths (both homicides and suicides) keeps growing at a rapid pace, causing the gun policy to be one of the hottest and most discussed topics. Unsurprisingly, the two major opposing parties in the US: Republicans and Democrats, are having very diverse opinions concerning this matter. While Republicans want to keep it easy, Democrats are voting for more restrictions, and they only agree on a couple of points.

To go into detail, Republicans are generally supporting gun ownership. They believe that it should be accessible to the majority of US citizens. According to the survey by the Pew Research Center, the majority of Republicans don't really see gun violence as a "very big" problem:

  • 42% of the party representatives see the problem as "moderately big";
  • And 23% believe there is no issue at all. 

Thus, when it comes to the majority of suggestions concerning stricter regulations of gun possession among civilians, Republicans vote for such changes very reluctantly. Instead, the party representatives strongly support the allowance of concealed carry of firearms in most public places. And, they also vote for allowing school teachers and authorities to carry guns at the workplace. All in all, Republicans are convinced that stricter gun policies cannot help minimize cultural brutality and prevent cruel crimes. But they believe that death penalties can.

Democrats, on the contrary, have a very different viewpoint on gun policy. According to Pew Research Center, as many as 65% of the party representatives believe that the problem of gun violence is very big. And another 26% think that it is moderately big. Due to their outlook on the problem, the majority of Democrats are strongly against making concealed carry of guns allowed. They also don't support reducing the waiting time for legal firearm purchases. They, on the contrary, support stricter background checks. Democrats even suggest creating federal databases to gain stronger control over gun sales. One more point in Democrats' policy is a restriction of sales of assault-style weapons.

Despite critically opposing ideas that Republicans and Democrats have regarding gun policy, they do find a few points of contact on this issue. Namely, the equal number of Republicans and Democrats vote for restricting mentally ill people from purchasing and owning firearms. Another shared idea with a small gap in the number of votes is that gun ownership should not be accessible to people who are included in no-fly or watch lists. Finally, the last policy update on which both parties somewhat agree implies the introduction of background checks for private sales and sales made at gun shows.

Overall, Republicans and Democrats have fundamentally contradicting views on issues related to gun violence. Despite the fact that the number of firearms crimes keeps striking, Republicans keep stubbornly voting for more sparing policies and less control. Democrats, on the contrary, are spreading awareness of the issue. They assure that the problem is real and suggest stricter policies. The goal of stricter gun policies is to minimize the danger for citizens. Interestingly enough, despite the strong gun culture in the country, according to surveys, most Americans would rather support democrats. 52% of citizens believe that gun control has to be stricter, and personally, I would also stand by the same ideas that the Democratic party is spreading.

Still Need Help with Your Gun Control Essays?

If you feel that you do not have enough time to gather the best research, do not worry you can order a custom essay online from professional writers. Have confidence in our expert team of writers from various academic backgrounds. There are also free guides and blogs to help you with any type of writing projects in the future. Thousands of happy students who graduated with our essay help. Buy an essay and check that there is no better way to write the essay than order an essay with us. Students which need a help with admission essay - we propose to use our admission essay writing service .

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84 Gun Control Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🔫 how to write a gun control essay: do’s and don’ts, 🏆 best gun control topic ideas & essay examples.

  • 💡 Most Interesting Gun Control Topics to Write about

❓ Gun Control Essay Questions

Writing a gun control essay can be tricky if you’ve never done it before.

However, there are some things that will make the process much easier and help you get a good grade. Here is a list of what to do and what not to do while writing an essay on gun control:

  • Don’t rely on news articles to provide you with reliable information. Some news sources may twist data in order to convey certain ideas that may not be entirely true. Similarly, you should avoid relying on politicians’ statements because they may be biased.
  • Do search scholarly articles and official reports on the topic. These types of resources often contain raw data that is more reliable than other people’s interpretations.
  • Don’t assume a position before you’ve done enough research. Although you may have a certain opinion based on your political beliefs or other people’s influences, it may prevent you from offering an unbiased view in your essay. Hence, make sure that you’ve read as much as possible on the subject before writing your gun control essay thesis.
  • Do consider gun control in a global context. Different countries and states have various laws in place to promote gun safety. Comparing various outcomes between two or more areas with different gun control laws will give you more things to write about in the paper.
  • Don’t ignore the issues related to gun control. Gun violence is among the most obvious topics that you can include in the paper. However, try to think about other issues, such as terrorism, police brutality, illegal gun dealing, and more. Reviewing the influence of gun control on other problems will give your essay more depth and might offer a new perspective on the issue.
  • Do research gun sample essays on gun control before you begin writing. These can help you to understand the full scope of the issue and the various opinions on it. A good gun control essay example may give you new thoughts on the content, structure, titles, and arguments.
  • Don’t forget about the structure. Organization and logical flow of the paper are just as important as the content. To help with this part, create a gun control essay outline containing your key points. These points should be the topic sentences, followed by related explanations or examples.
  • Do capture the reader’s attention from the beginning. Essays on controversial subjects, such as gun law problems, tend to be similar to one another. How do you think your tutor would feel if they had to go through ten or more papers with the same thoughts and arguments? To draw attention and make the reader interested in reading further, you need to ensure that your first sentence contains a hook. A good gun control essay hook may be a rhetorical question or a contented statement made by a politician.
  • Don’t forget to give your reader a proper closure. The final paragraph of the paper should offer a summary of all the themes covered, as well as your conclusions based on research. Remember that this part of the essay should not contain any new information. Instead, restate your thesis and main points and show how your interpretation of the gun control problem was influenced by this information.

Lastly, do check our site for more information on how to write an argumentative or persuasive paper!

  • Legislative Bans: For and Against the Gun Control The standard checks ensure the medical drugs in use are of superior quality and of higher benefit to the people. Gun control is the legal limitation on the use and ownership of a gun.
  • An Argument against Gun Control This paper will argue that the US government does not have any right to control guns and as such, it should respect the second amendment and stop taking up measures to impose gun control on […]
  • Guns Should Be Controlled or Restricted in the USA The problem is in fact that the causes of the phenomenon are not only in increasing the atmosphere of violence in the society but also in the availability of the methods to realize the violent […]
  • Greater Gun Control Is a Good Idea A stricter legislature on guns in society means that people with and without firearms can live with the guarantee of a safer community that reduces gun access to unwarranted personnel. Gun control is a good […]
  • Gun Control: Gun Reforms Could Save Lives Gun violence has been a challenge that needs to be addressed and has resulted in the deaths of people through murder, suicide, and accidents. Both of them agree that gun policies and restrictions can be […]
  • Think Tank Positions on Gun Control It is known that the arbitrary usage of the weapon brings irrecoverable losses and undermines the confidence in safe living. It is doubtful whether the professionals will come to the house of the potential offender […]
  • U.S. Gun Control and Violence The culture of conflict resolution by violence is a common theme in the history of the U.S. This culture could be one of the reasons why the U.S.records one of the highest numbers of private […]
  • Exercises for Expression: Drafting Expression About Gun Control in Pennsylvania To evoke the needed emotions from the audience, I would emphasize the effect of lax gun control measures on children and families.
  • Gun Control Debate: Problem Analysis and Studies The purpose of this paper is to analyze how empirical research in the USA evaluates the effectiveness of county legislation on the licensing of arms through its influence on the level of violent crime.
  • Gun Control: A Matter for Everybody’s Concern In fact, the policies existing in the United States regulating the rules of gun control can be evaluated as sort of frivolous and, thus, causing a row of problems for people’s safety.
  • Gun Control Policies: Pros and Cons The purpose of this paper is to analyze the benefits and limitations of gun control. Mass media remains the main source of information about weapons and contributes to the popularity of firearms in society.
  • Gun Control: In Favor of a Stronger Law However, it can be said that the gun control law is easy to formulate keeping in view the problems and highly workable within a comparatively small frame of time, say a couple of months.
  • Gun Control: Term Definition The main objective of the research would to develop a form of argumentative system that would be instrumental in helping out the policymakers and enable them to lead a normal logical conclusion on the subject […]
  • Gun Control versus the Right of Autonomy This discussion presents the ‘harm principle,’ arguments for and against the liberal interpretation of this principle, and presents Lafollette’s reasoning that the banning of guns, particularly handguns does not violate the tenets of this principle.
  • Political Sciences: Gun Control Laws The most prominent constitutional issue related to the topic is reflected in the Second Amendment that defends the individual right to keep and bear arms.
  • Gun Control in America: Public Opinion & Policies However, although the abolition of the Second Amendment will not be able to solve the problem of shooting entirely, tighter control over the possession of weapons is necessary to ensure greater security for citizens.
  • Federalism and Gun Control in the United States 2 Each type of government possesses a set of duties and powers that it can exercise in the region, and the relationship between the levels is established in the Constitution.
  • Gun Control Is Not the Answer – Education Is The issue of gun control in the US is a complicated matter due to the extensive history of violence and debates regarding the efficiency of regulations that aim to minimize access to weapons.
  • Stricter Gun Control Saves Lives! In conclusion, it is important to emphasize that gun control efforts in the USA are failing as the prevalence of violence in the streets and domestic settings is alarming.
  • Gun Control in the US: Empirical Analysis The data collected include the total number of fire arms in the US, the number of people living in poverty, number of people consuming alcohol, population between 18-24 years, and unemployment rate. The number of […]
  • Gun Control Legislation in Colorado The success of this issue is explained by the fact that this problem has occurred in the United States long ago and many people grew to support the gun control measures.
  • American Gun Control, Limits and Background Checks This shows that extensive limitations on gun ownership and sale can have a considerable impact on gun-related deaths within a country and supports the argument that amendments should be made on the Second Amendment.
  • Banning the Possession of Guns Proponents argue that the more uncontrollably the government continues to allow firearms’ possession to the public, the higher the chances of acquisition by the ‘high risks groups’ and hence threatening the public security.
  • “The Truth About Mass Shooting and the Gun Control” by Benjamin Domenech Written by Benjamin Domenech, the article, “The truth about a mass shooting and the gun control”, unravels the mysteries behind mass shootings and the ever-controversial topic of gun control.
  • The Debate on Gun Control The gun violence has led to the debate on gun control and the recent incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that saw the death of 26 children has reignited the debate and President […]
  • Necessitating Gun Control Laws in the US As a matter of fact, the Second Amendment to the constitution of the United States protects the right of people to acquire and own guns.
  • Gun Control in US In order for the gun control to ensure a reduction in the rate of crimes, there should be an evaluation of the impact of the gun control policy on availability and accessibility to firearms, especially […]

💡 Most Gun Control Topics to Write about

  • Debate of Gun Control in America Those suggesting that ownership of the gun is illegal and unethical observe that the local authorities and the federal agencies in charge of the gun control policy are not doing enough in terms of policy […]
  • Gun politics in the United States The movie theatre shootings in Aurora and the more recent school shootings are examples of events that have contributed to the increased gun-control debate. In the article, the authors contribute to the debate on gun […]
  • Gun legislation in the United States The second factor that contributes to gun violence in the United States is the fact that guns are made available to the youth.
  • Gun Control Pro and Contra For instance in the United States, guns use is the main cause of most of the suicidal and homicide cases. Many Americans think that limitation of use and ownership of guns in the United States […]
  • The Evolution of Gun Control Policy in College Campus: The Path to Better Policy Making It is also important to know if the parents or one of the parents have membership in a gun club. There is a need to find out what kind of obstacles will be encountered if […]
  • Gun Control in the United States of America Moreover, when the public is in possession of guns, it makes it hard for the police to maintain law and order since they can be entangled in a scandal.
  • Gun Control: Impact on Crime and Gun Availability This paper will set out to ascertain the impact that gun control laws have on violent crime prevalence and the number of guns available to civilians in the US.
  • Proper Gun Control in the U.S. Majority of the Americans also feel that they have the right to possess firearms hence the issue of gun control will only be against their constitutional rights.
  • Gun Control in the USA: Inconsistency, Irrationality and Improbability Indeed, taking a closer look at the problem of the use of guns, one will notice that, for the most part, people refer to high crime rates within the state to prove their point.
  • Gun Control in Deterring Repeat Offenders It would cost less to enforce gun control regulations than to constantly convict repeat offenders and withstanding the worst of their crimes.
  • Gun Registry in Canada The enacting of the law resulted to the formation of Canada Firearm Centre that was meant to foresee the implementation of the program.
  • Gun Control Is Important: Here’s Why With regard to whether an individual should have the right to own a gun, it is imperative that one knows that the right to bear arms is an individual and not a collective right.
  • Gun Laws regulating and controlling Guns Much as the opponents of firearm regulations have raised strong arguments for the need to continue owning guns, this paper states that the dangerous individuals should be stopped from handling guns in order to stop […]
  • Gun Limitation: Proponents and Opponents of Gun Control The proponents have also promised that gun control initiatives are not focused on taking away the rights of Americans to own and use firearms.
  • Gun Control Policy: Will it solve suicidal shootings in America? Using ethos, the author has drawn the readers to understand the situation brought by the access of guns to the young people in the United States using the case of Kameron.
  • The Gun Control Problems Either way the issue of guns is analyzed, it is clear that the higher the availability and permission to possess firearms, the more chances there are that someone will use weapons.
  • The Role of the Government in Providing Policies and Overcoming Crises: Gun Control Laws and Policies The US Government is the main authority in providing the necessary laws and policies in order to regulate all the spheres of the public’s life in the country.
  • Gun Control Debate: Security in the U.S. On the other hand, there is another group that opposes any attempt to control guns in this country, citing the security of the civilians when they are denied opportunity to own guns.
  • Good Gun Control Law Controversy A good gun control law should be under the control of the federal or central government; therefore, ensuring its inclusion in the constitution.
  • The best idea of regulating guns in the United States is restricting the purchase of bullets Reason # 1: Tracking the buyers of bullets makes it easier to regulate guns in the United States Guns are nothing but empty vessels without ammunition and so it would help a great deal if […]
  • Gun Control in United States This paper will look at various ways of gun control, the available statistics, background checks of control of guns, ownership of guns and the measures that the United States government has taken to control spread […]
  • Should Guns be Limited? We will also aim to show that, contrary to what the majority of na ve people believe, the introduction of more and more gun control laws results in the drastic increase of violent crime rates, […]
  • Justice on guns control The argument that possession of the guns by the civilians protects them against the tyranny of the state is frequently advanced.
  • Gun Control in Society Being in possession of a gun would allow the individual to employ own capacities for self-protection. On the contrary, more awareness of weapons should be introduced to ensure a higher self-confidence and security among the […]
  • Gun Control: A Case Against Gun Ownership Arguments that current gun control measures are paving the way for a ban on all private ownership of guns are therefore alarmist in nature and should be ignored.
  • Obama’s Speech on the Issue of Gun Control In the case of the speech “Obama on Gun Control” this takes the form of the President attempting to convince the American public of the righteousness of his cause on the basis of the image […]
  • Gun Control in the USA This clause states, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a state the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”.
  • Are Gun Control Laws in the U.S. Protecting Us?
  • Will Gun Control Stop Harm or Protect Citizens?
  • What Should and Shouldn’t Be Allowed for Better Gun Control?
  • Should America Have Stronger Gun Control Laws?
  • Where Do Ted Cruz and Beto Orourke Stand in the Debate Over Gun Control?
  • How Should the Gun Control Laws Be Less Restrictive?
  • Who Supports Gun Control?
  • Will Stricter Gun Control Laws Hurt This Country?
  • Should Anti-gun Control Be Banned?
  • Why Does America Need Stricter Gun Control Laws?
  • Does America Need Tighter Gun Control, or Is the Problem Intrinsic to Society?
  • Why Won’t Gun Control and Ban on Certain Guns Work in the United States?
  • Can Gun Control Prevent Mass Shootings?
  • Why Does Gun Control Need to Be Implemented?
  • Does Gun Control Control Crime?
  • Why Have Most Attempts to Pass Federal Gun Control Legislation Failed?
  • Are Stricter Gun Control Laws Needed?
  • Why Do People Feel Gun Control Is Unfair?
  • Does Gun Control Infringe on a Person’s Constitutional Rights?
  • Why Should Gun Control Laws Be Stricter?
  • Can Gun Control Solve the Epidemic of Gun Violence?
  • Why Does the United States Not Need Gun Control?
  • Does Gun Control Lower Crime Rates?
  • Are the Laws for Gun Control Sufficient, or Should There Be More?
  • Does Gun Control Work or Is the Wrong Issue Being Addressed?
  • How Much Gun Control Does America Need?
  • Will Gun Control Reduce Crime?
  • What Role Should the Government Play in Gun Control?
  • Why Should the Gun Control Law Be Allowed?
  • Will Gun Control Cause Any Changes in Society?
  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 27). 84 Gun Control Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/gun-control-essay-examples/

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Gun Control Essays: Know How to Write and What to Write

  • Essay Samples

Gun Control Essay

It is difficult to start writing a gun control essay possessing an insufficient amount of knowledge and facts that elevate its importance and actuality in modern society. Suppose you feel that you are not mature enough to cope with topics related to gun control. In that case, this article is for you since we are going to shed light on the pivotal moments and inspire you to craft essays about gun control that will touch the strings of everyone’s soul. 

Gun Control Essay : What You Need to Write About

Gun control refers to the laws and regulations that are put in place to govern the possession, use, and distribution of firearms within a given jurisdiction. It aims to address and mitigate the risks associated with gun violence by creating a framework for responsible ownership and reducing access to firearms by potential threats.

When writing an essay about gun control, you need to remember that there are two opposing views to this problem. Opponents of gun control often emphasize the significance of the Second Amendment in countries where it is recognized, arguing that individuals have the constitutional right to bear arms for self-defense, hunting, or sporting purposes. They assert that stricter regulations disproportionately impact law-abiding citizens while criminals find alternative means of obtaining firearms. Critics also argue that gun control policies can infringe upon personal liberties, potentially leading to a slippery slope of further restrictions on individual rights.

Essay Gun Control: Delve into History Before Writing

Before you launch writing your essay on gun control, it is essential to investigate the roots and reasons for raising such a topic. From hunting for sustenance to defending territories, the possession of weapons has been intertwined with human history. However, the legal framework surrounding gun ownership developed differently across nations and cultures.

In the United States, the Second Amendment of the Constitution, ratified in 1791, has had a significant impact on the legal rights and debates regarding gun ownership. In the early years of the United States, there were minimal restrictions on firearm possession, reflecting the importance of individual and collective defense in a nation with a developing frontier.

In countries like Australia and the United Kingdom, gun ownership regulations took a different trajectory. These nations have historically had a less pervasive gun culture, and their laws reflect a perspective focused on limiting access to firearms. Instances of mass shootings, such as the Port Arthur massacre in Australia in 1996, prompted significant changes in legislation and resulted in stricter gun control measures.

So, before you start your essay on gun control , it is obligatory to discover the laws of the country you are going to mention and explore as many facts as you can, collecting only relevant and up-to-date information. 

Things to Remember when Writing Gun Control Essay

When you need to write p ersuasive essays about gun control , pay attention to some sensitive points that define the quality and credibility of your writing. Since the given topic is not static and laws tend to change, you should operate only checked facts and not mislead your audience. So, check the following issues. 

  • Understand different viewpoints. Gun control is a highly contentious issue, and people hold diverse opinions on it. Take the time to comprehend different perspectives, such as those advocating for stricter regulations or defending the right to bear arms. Acknowledging these viewpoints will demonstrate a well-rounded analysis in your gun control essay.
  • Consider the sociocultural context. Gun control debates often intersect with various sociocultural factors, such as crime rates, mental health issues, and historical events. Reflect on how these factors influence the effectiveness and necessity of gun control measures. It will enhance the depth and comprehensiveness of your essay.
  • Analyze statistical data. Statistical data provides valuable evidence in any discussion about gun control. In your gun control argumentative essay, utilize reliable sources and cite relevant statistics to support your claims. Consider factors like crime rates, gun-related incidents, and the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of existing gun control measures.
  • Address counterarguments. Analyze opposing viewpoints and address them in your essay. By acknowledging and refuting counterarguments, you can strengthen your stance and demonstrate your ability to engage critically with the topic.

Remember, the key to writing compelling essays on gun control is to maintain an objective and evidence-based approach. By considering different perspectives and presenting well-researched arguments, you can contribute to a meaningful discussion on this complex issue.

Gun Control Essay Titles

If a good title for your essay is always a burden for you, you may refer to our ideas on gun control essay titles . You may find lots of extraordinary and exciting ideas in this list.

  • Aiming for Change: Rethinking Gun Control to Create a Safer Society.
  • Triggering Conversation: Exploring Effective Strategies for Gun Control.
  • Beyond Bullets: Crafting a Comprehensive Approach to Gun Control.
  • Locked and Loaded: Evaluating the Impact of Stricter Gun Control Measures.
  • Safeguarding Lives: Unveiling the Necessity of Enhanced Gun Control.
  • From Arms to Harmony: The Path Towards Responsible Gun Control.
  • Calibrating Safety: Reimagining Gun Control Policies for a Brighter Future.
  • Bulletproofing Society: Embracing Innovation in Gun Control Strategies.
  • Empowering Responsibility: Identifying Solutions through Gun Control Reforms.
  • Shooting for Progress: Tackling the Complexities of Gun Control Head-On.

Remember, when dealing with essays about gun control , you delve into quite a debatable and sensitive topic that has lots of supporters of both viewpoints. So, consider your audience before selecting the title for your creation.

Gun Control Essay Topics

Striving to be up-to-date in your writing and cover topics that draw much attention and may cause an outburst of ideas and comments, you need to demonstrate a serious approach to the selection of gun control essay topics. So, what you may consider in your writing? 

  • Exploring the effectiveness of gun buyback programs in reducing firearms-related violence.
  • Analyzing the impact of mental health screenings and background checks on preventing gun-related incidents.
  • The Second Amendment debate: Balancing individual rights and public safety.
  • Examining the correlation between gun ownership and gun violence rates across different countries.
  • Evaluating the role of technology in developing smart gun control measures.

Suppose these topics will inspire you in essay gun control -based writing and find a suitable topic that echoes your viewpoint. 

Perfect Gun Control Essay Outline

A good beginning is half done. So, do not neglect the necessity to prepare a well-thought-out gun control essay outline that will guide you and help you compile information logically and comprehensively. Here is a sample of a possible outline for your essay on gun control.  

  • Introduction. Provide background information and invent a catchy thesis statement. 
  • Body. Overview of gun control-related laws and historical events. Provide brief statistics examining mass shootings and the rising frequency of firearms application in civil life. Introduce arguments to support the right to protection using guns and counterarguments against gun control essay part. 
  • Gun control essay conclusion. Restating the thesis statement and summary of the main points is essential. Emphasize the importance of comprehensive gun control measures for public safety.

Remember, you may use other ideas for outlining, but in any case, a well-organized writing plan is key for well-rounded gun control essay writing. 

Hints for Crafting Essays About Gun Control

You may enhance the quality of your gun control essays following the proven recommendations of our experts. So, do not hesitate to spend a bit of your precious time on preparations and organization of the writing process, considering all the pros and cons and adhering to the outline you create. In addition, do the next:

  • Brainstorm your ideas and sort out the worthiest to cover in your gun control essay.
  • Consider the essay type (argumentative, persuasive, informative, etc.) and define the information you will use to correspond to essay requirements.
  • Operate only checked and relevant information. Remember, the policy of countries may vary and change with time.
  • Do not be subjective. Instead, back every statement with a life sample, statistics, or research data. 
  • Ensure logical flow in your gun control essay to help readers understand your message.

It is also important to prefer a topic that will be close to your attitude and exciting for the rest. 

Necessity for Referring to Gun Control Essay Samples

Relying on gun control essay samples is crucial for obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the topic, improving one’s writing skills, strengthening arguments, generating new ideas, and contributing to the scholarly discourse. By incorporating the perspectives presented in these samples, individuals can develop an informed and well-rounded essay on gun control.

Final Thoughts

The theme of gun control is quite controversial and seems to have no final solution that will satisfy opponents. However, you are free to discuss it in your gun control essays , referring to different credible sources and offering your viewpoint. Be logical, concise, but confident and creative when touching this issue since the gun is not only a tool for self-protection, it is also a life-threatening weapon that requires a sober mind and qualified application.

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Persuasive Essay About Gun Control

Cathy A.

Persuasive Essay About Gun Control - Best Examples for Students

Published on: Jan 9, 2023

Last updated on: Jan 29, 2024

persuasive essay about gun control

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Gun control is such an issue that often evokes strong opinions from all sides. While some argue that guns should be banned altogether, others think gun ownership is a fundamental right. 

It can be tricky to navigate this complex topic if you're tasked with writing a persuasive essay on gun control. 

But don't worry – we're here to help! 

In this blog, we'll outline the basics of gun control essays and offer examples for crafting a persuasive argument. 

Let's get started!

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Persuasive Essay Examples on Gun Control

Gun control is an incredibly controversial and divisive issue in the United States, with strong opinions on both sides.

Writing a persuasive essay on this topic is not an easy task. 

To effectively write an essay on gun control, you must have a clear opinion on the subject you want to defend throughout your paper. 

The following are some good examples of persuasive essays on gun control that you can use to help guide your writing.

Essay Examples on Gun Control

Persuasive Essay Against Gun Control

In a persuasive essay against gun control, it is important to explain why gun control has the potential to infringe upon individual rights. 

Here is an example of a persuasive essay against gun control:  

Persuasive Essay on Pro-Gun Control

One of the most controversial topics surrounding gun control is pro-gun control. 

In a persuasive essay, the writer may argue in favor of pro-gun control and provide examples to support their stance. 

Here are a few examples of persuasive essays on pro-gun control. 

Short Persuasive Essay on Pro-Gun Control

Argumentative Essay About Gun Control

An argumentative essay on gun control is an academic piece that presents both sides and provides evidence supporting one side. 

Here are a few examples.

Short Argumentative Essay About Gun Control

Check out these examples of argumentative essays on gun control. 

Short Argumentative Essay on Pro-Gun Control

Tough Essay Due? Hire a Writer!

Tough Essay Due? Hire a Writer!

Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay

Persuasive essays can be tricky. Still, with some tips from the experts, you'll be able to write one that truly convinces your reader of your argument. 

So what are you waiting for? Check out these six tips for persuasive essay writing!

Choose Your Position

Before beginning the writing process, decide which side of the argument you will take and state it clearly in your thesis statement. 

Choose a Strong Thesis Statement

The thesis statement is your argument boiled down to one sentence. It should clearly state your opinion on the topic and give a sense of direction for the rest of the essay. 

Research Extensively

To make a good persuasive essay, you need to back up your opinion with facts, figures, and other research. 

Take the time to explore all sides of the issue and consider different points of view. Make sure your evidence is both relevant and reliable.

Check out this video explaining essential tips and tricks for writing a persuasive essay.

Create an Outline 

A good persuasive essay has a clear structure that is easy for the reader to follow. An outline can help you organize your ideas and arguments to flow logically.

Check out our amazing blog on how to write a persuasive essay outline here. 

Use Strong Language

Choose words that are powerful and precise. Powerful language can make your argument more convincing. Take the time to craft sentences that make an impact. 

Make It Personal

Connect with readers on an emotional level by sharing stories and experiences. This will help you to create a connection between your argument and the reader. It will make them more likely to agree with you.

Edit Thoroughly

Take the time to edit your essay, so it’s clear and concise. Check for grammar or spelling mistakes and arguments that don’t make sense. 

Thorough editing can also help you remove unnecessary information, making your essay more persuasive. 

These tips should help you write a strong and effective persuasive essay. 

Persuasive Essay Topics About Gun Control

Let’s explore a few persuasive essay topics about gun control that might help get your point across.

  • Should the government implement stricter gun control regulations?
  • How can Congress work to reduce gun-related deaths and injuries? 
  • Is the Second Amendment an outdated law that should be revised? 
  • Should individuals be allowed to carry firearms in public places? 
  • Are laws requiring background checks on gun purchases effective? 
  • Are concealed carry laws a good idea? 
  • What are the risks and benefits of having private citizens own guns? 
  • Should states have the right to set their gun laws? 
  • Is there a role for mental health professionals in developing gun control policies? 
  • How can we prevent children from accessing firearms? 
  • What role does the media influencing people’s opinions on gun control? 
  • Does the NRA hold too much sway over legislators regarding gun control laws? 
  • Is stricter gun control legislation the best way to reduce mass shootings? 
  • Are smart gun technologies viable for promoting responsible firearm ownership? 
  • How can we work together to create more effective gun control laws?

Take a look at more detailed  persuasive essay topics  to get inspired.

Whether you are for or against gun control, conduct thorough research and use evidence when writing your paper.

So keep these tips in mind and start writing your gun control essay today!

So here you have it! We’ve provided excellent examples of persuasive essays on gun control for your reference, but don’t stop there!

Take a look at our website and see how our persuasive essay writing service can help you take your writing skills to the next level. 

Our expert persuasive essay writer is here to help to craft a compelling essay in no time. Our online essay writing service is available to you 24/7. Just complete the easy order process, and our essay writer will start working to deliver a masterpiece to you. 

At CollegeEssay.org, we are experts at helping students write essays that will get them the grades they need and want.

Try our AI essay generator and breeze through your assignments today!

Frequently asked Questions

What should be included in a persuasive essay outline.

A persuasive essay outline should include the thesis, evidence, counterarguments, and conclusion. It is important to structure your argument logically to effectively communicate your point of view to readers.

How do I write a strong persuasive essay?

To write a strong persuasive essay, you should start by thoroughly researching your topic and familiarizing yourself with both sides of the argument. You should structure your essay using an effective introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. 

What are good sources for writing a persuasive essay?

When writing a persuasive essay, it is important to use credible sources. Examples of good sources include scholarly journals, government documents, and reputable websites. Make sure you check the credibility of any source before using it in your essay.

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how to end an essay on gun control

Gun Control - Free Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

The topic of gun ownership is very relevant in modern society in the United States and is increasingly being discussed at different levels. This social issue has also seeped into educational structures, so students often have to write essays considering this topic.

It’s important to keep in mind some general requirements while writing a research paper on gun control. Amongst others are presenting your opinion about gun ownership, adding a topic sentence to structure your work, and starting every new idea with a new paragraph, you may also consult a specialist to know how to make an introduction, conclusion and outline for gun laws essay.

Get creative and speak up. Tell whether you believe weapons are necessary for defending yourself and being in safety, or on the contrary, you think guns may lead to a high school shooting or other crime and the law should go through a reform. Share if you see any solution — elaborate a thesis statement about gun control to consolidate your beliefs. You can find an argumentative essay on gun control in America to familiarize yourself with the main questions on the issue.

Weapon ownership being a social issue, is quite difficult to write about and is a topic that causes debate. So one should read a sample. For instance, we provide free persuasive essays about gun control to facilitate general comprehension. Don’t forget to take a look at gun control essay examples too before writing one, and a hook for gun rights essay may also be helpful.

essay writing about gun control

The History, Politics, Stakeholders, and Legislation of Gun Control Laws

Our nation needs gun control laws. The United States' inhabitants are slaughtering each other every day, but Congress is doing little to stop this. If we had gun control laws, teenagers wouldn't have access to automatic weapons our army uses. Historically, our nation has done little to restrict the ease of getting these weapons. There are big stakeholders that are anti-gun control such as the NRA who are so big, congress is not willing to disagree with their lobbying firm. […]

Why Gun Control Won’t Work

Society sees guns as a source of violence and evil. Consequently, society believes that there needs to be strict regulations on firearms. However, many fail to realize that enforcing strict gun control is not the solution to the problem. People are very ignorant on guns, and they just speak with the masses. Gun control is such a controversial topic because it isn't stated in the constitution if the regulation and control of guns is constitutional or not. Most people on […]

Pros and Cons of Gun Ownership

Gun control is very controversial issue because all though guns can be used for leisure, they can cause much harm. In reason years, guns have landed in the wrong hands, and as a result many innocent lives were lost. The question we all ask is should more gun control laws be enacted? They say more gun control laws would reduce the deaths, with high compacity magazines should be banned because they turn people into mass murders. The second amendment of […]

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Stricter U.S. Gun Control: Safety Vs. Rights

Gun control means control. It means control for the government and the government starts controlling people says Luke Scott. Guns have become so problematic in the United States and as the year goes by and it is so devastating to hear news about schools, grocery stores and many more places that were involved in a gun-related events. One of the few ways to help improve the problem is that the government should do a psychological screening before purchasing guns to […]

Gun Control in America

Throughout American history, the debate on gun control has divided the nation. Gun control is a difficult subject to discuss. There is so much controversy over guns that it can become difficult to analyze the subject, through an objective lens. Americans today own more guns than ever recorded. The firearm industry has grown tremendously and is estimated to be a thirty billion dollar industry, which is contributing to the countries economy (Hindman, Nate C.). While mass shootings are on the […]

Chicago’s Gun Laws

Year after year, Chicago has had an increase in gun crimes. Chicago has gun laws that seem to be ineffective, therefore there are high crimes rates in the city. Since I have a personal experience that involves having a gun to my head, I believe that gun laws need to be changed to be made stricter because it can traumatize a person. There needs to be a restriction on who is capable of purchasing these times of weapons. In Chicago, […]

School Shootings and Gun Control

Killing people for pleasure or killing people because a person has mental problem should be an issue to look into. Gun control in schools are a dangerous and devastatin. Kids who go through shootings/ anxiety and PTSD. Gun control in schools and why it should not be a law. Gun controls in schools is a big problem and should be addressed by the community and the state. The history behind guns and gun control can be very interesting. Gun control […]

Gun Control – Debatable and Controversial Topic between Individuals and Politicians in USA

Gun control can be a topic that is very debatable and controversial topic in the United States between individuals and politicians. In our society currently, there is a strong movement to strengthen gun control laws. The idea of strengthening gun control laws stem from the number of shootings that have happened recently; however, many Americans seem to be missing the point of what gun control truly is. Gun control is a right given to individuals by the government, but guns […]

Does the U.S. Need Tougher Gun-Control Laws?

The United States holds the title of having one of the highest rate of gun-related deaths in the world. As that number continues to rise, and with the benefits that reap from implementing gun control in America outweighing the so called negative effects, it is no surprise that more and more people have become pro-gun control. Legislation should be passed to permit gun control laws and more regulations on guns to be put in place. What exactly is gun control? […]

Why is Gun Control Still an Issue in Today’s America?

The number of mass shooting in the USA during 2018 has recently risen above 300. By November 9, 1135 people were killed as a result of these mass shootings ( Bonnie Berkowitz, Denise Lu & Chris Alcantara, 2018). These numbers do not even scratch the surface of the problem that is gun violence in the US. Every time a new shooting happens, a debate rises, gun control advocates try to raise awareness, but the conclusion is still the same: there […]

The Importance of Gun Control

Gun control is one of the most battled zones in the United States. There have been legislative issues raised by activists on gun control and other weapons associated with the same matter. Many people have fallen victims of gun violence and activists' movements in America have been battling its control. Statistics show that close to 270million personnel own weapons outside the military in the United States (ProCon, 2016). In order to control this ownership, measures to input strict control over […]

Gun Rights in America

Gun rights in America have been at the focal point of discussion for quite a long time, and this is because hits home for such a significant number of Americans. According to research at the University of Chicago, around 200 to 250 million guns are owned all through the nation, (Cook, 2009). A similar research shows that one in four Americans had possessed a weapon in 2009. Firearms are a vital piece of the wellbeing of Americans, yet the dangers […]

The Relationship of Gun Control and America

With recent events, gun control has been a topic among citizens in the United States of America. So many opinions are being spread from politicians, celebrities, and common citizens. The United States of America has an extensive history with assault weapons. Organizations such as the National Rifle Association have spread messages against gun control which have divided the nation. The current situation in America is not ideal with the number gun-related incidents rising and increase in assault weapon sales. Although […]

Gun Control Legislation

Gun control has been a popular topic of discussion over the last couple of years. The second amendment of the United States Constitution awarded citizens the right to purchase and bear arms. If the individual is licensed, they can carry their firearm(s) on their person. The guidelines to obtain firearms are too lenient. Others have said that heavy firearms are too accessible for public use and has started to affect the quality of life for the people of the United […]

Effects of Gun Control

As the effects of gun control become an increasing topic of current events, it is time that we take the initiative to learn each side of gun control; strong and weak. Stated in the constitution, Citizens have the right to bear arms (2nd amendment, Bill of Rights). This is the major reason there is any conflicting matters to limiting the use of firearms due to inappropriate use. The decision however comes from the citizens themselves; to find a correct solution […]

Gun Control in USA

One of the most controversial political topics in today's climate is gun control. The increasing rates of gun violence has lead to an outcry on both ends of the political spectrum, and has necessitated the need for more legislation and clear laws regarding american citizen's second amendment rights. However, to get the full scope of how these laws have been interpreted over time and how we, as a country, have reached this current crisis, one needs to look towards the […]

Security Enhanced Peace for the Entire Nation

It is the responsibility of citizens in collaboration with the government to ensure that security is maintained by all means possible. The United States is a diversified nation and gun usage has been no news. Owning of guns by citizens irrespective of age has been an ongoing trend. It is evident that security matters and the acquisition of these guns to some citizens in essential. On the other hand, gun misuse cases have been reported from a number of citizens […]

The Early Gun Control Movements

The United States of America has always had a tangled and romantic history with guns, and as the nation owning more guns than any other country in the world, some Americans view gun ownership and violence as a grave social danger. Several organizations and movements have formed in the last two centuries with the hopes of regulating the availability of firearms and limiting the freedom to own firearms. The ultimate goal then and now is to reduce crimes and accidents […]

Gun Control has Many Effects in USA

The United States still has gun rights but we also still have rules to that matter. Gun control always had two vectors: common sense, and and to keep guns from the untrustworthy (pg 28). Some people should not be able to own a gun if they have a bad history for guns or if they have been in trouble for robbery etc... In some situations you may need gun rights such as in school, work, parks etc¦ The United States […]

America’s Debate on Gun Control

All Americans, from whatever walks of life and of whatever political or philosophical convictions, hate the death of innocent human beings and have had a reaction of shock and pain due to the killing of 20 schoolchildren and six staff members in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Since the shooting at sandy hook elementary, Americans have had to consider with great thought and caution how best to proceed to protect innocent families and people. First we had to think about […]

Does Gun Control Actually Control Crime

On average, there are 276 gun homicides a week throughout America. There are 439 gun suicides. All told, there are, on average, nearly 1,200 incidents involving gun violence, every week, in America (Dam). In society today violence is more prevalent than ever specifically gun violence. From worldwide news to small town news channels we hear about gun violence on a weekly basis. There is a belief that no gun control powerful enough to stop those who want to use guns […]

Stop Gun Violence

Guns in America are ruining our society. Watch the news any day and you will most likely see either a school shooting ora shooting at some type of gathering. For some children going to school is horrifying because they are extremely disturbed by the school shootings that are going in our society. Children as young as kindergarten are learning how to act in the case of a school shooting. Yet, guns are killing innocent people by being able to have […]

Why Gun Control and Ban on Certain Guns Will not Work in the United States

In this paper I will state the reasons why gun control and ban on certain guns will not work in the United States, especially in rural areas across the country. 46% of americans in rural areas own a gun compared to 19% of urban residents. 75% of rural gun owners own more than one gun to 48% of urban gun owners. 47% of rural gun owners owned a gun before age 18 only 27% of urban gun owners owned them […]

Gun Control in the US

So why is it that the most important country in the world has the easiest process to get a gun? In a country that is so powerful and filled to the brim with people from around the globe getting a gun shouldn't be so easy. Mass shootings are a real problem in the United States and more so recently because they are becoming more frequent. Even though school shootings are the focus there are more problems than just that, sure […]

How Gun Control Affects the American’s Point of View

John R. Lott once wrote, American culture is a gun culture? (Lott 1) . On December 15, 1791 the second amendment to the United States Constitution became a law and made it legal for all people in the United States to own a firearm. However, people have evolved since the 1700's. Today, the news is constantly filled with crime and violence using guns. People are injured from guns what seems along the lines of almost every day. All of the […]

More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws

John R. Lott has written a series of books, three to be exact, all with the same topic. More guns and less crime is the issued discussed. These books provide true evidence and facts on gun control and how it relates to crime. In the latest addition of the series, John portrays American culture to one considered as gun culture. One statistic states that in 2009, one hundred and twenty four million people lived in homes that obtained a total […]

Rethinking Gun Laws in the United States: a Urgent Call to Action

Just from this year, there have been over three hundred shootings in the United States just this year. Having stricter gun laws could reduce the crime rate we have in the United States and the gun violence in not only schools and universities, but also in everyday life. The fact that some Americans aren't concerned with our current gun control laws worries me and is ridiculous that people aren't doing anything about it even after all the shootings. The purpose […]

Common Sense and Gun Control don’t Mix

In January of 2013 President Obama signed 23 executive orders pertaining to guns. Action number 14 deemed gun violence a serious public health issue that affects thousands of individuals, families, and communities across the Nation (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council 12). This directed the CDC to identify firearms' effect on public health. This study focused on a handful of major questions. Two of which were the characteristics of gun violence and risks and protective factors. The study analyzed […]

Mental Illness and Gun Control

Gun Violence relating to Mental Illness and Background Checks Gun Violence is a huge threat to people across America. 'In 2018 alone 46,000 incident of violence with a gun, 11,700 death by gun, and 290 mass shootings were more than 4 people have died each shooting' (Gun Violence Archive). Gun violence is something that needs to be taken seriously and acted upon fast. Background checks are not keeping guns out of the people who threaten us the most especially criminals […]

Gun Violence and Gun Control

Gun violence in America is a never-ending series of tragedy after tragedy, mass-shooting and the one of the constant social problem in United State. Many innocent lives have been taken to gun violence from Sandy Hook elementary, Pulse nightclub in Orlando, 2017 Las Vegas, Columbine High School, and all of that violence has been increasing. The Second Amendment, the right of the people to bear arms, has given the individual to own a gun, but many have abused the power […]

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How To Write an Essay About Gun Control

Introduction to the complexities of gun control.

Gun control is a multifaceted and often contentious topic, making it an engaging subject for an essay. The introduction of your essay should begin by defining what gun control encompasses – including various laws, policies, and public opinions surrounding the regulation of firearms. It's crucial to present the relevance of this topic, especially in the context of current events and societal debates. This section should set the stage for your essay, providing a brief overview of the different aspects of gun control you will explore, and subtly introducing your thesis statement. This groundwork is key to preparing the reader for a nuanced discussion on the complexities of gun control.

Building a Structured Argument

The body of your essay is where you'll develop your argument, which should be clearly outlined in your thesis statement. Whether you're examining the effectiveness of gun control measures, their impact on crime rates, or the constitutional debates surrounding the Second Amendment, each paragraph should focus on a specific aspect or argument supporting your thesis. Use evidence such as statistical data, historical examples, or case studies to reinforce your points. It's also important to acknowledge and address counterarguments. By presenting a balanced view that considers multiple perspectives, your essay will be more persuasive and reflective of the multifaceted nature of the gun control debate.

Exploring the Broader Implications

Beyond the immediate arguments for and against gun control, your essay should delve into the broader implications of the topic. This includes examining how gun control policies affect different communities, the relationship between gun rights and public safety, and the cultural and political factors that influence the gun control debate. Discuss the ethical considerations involved, such as the balance between individual liberties and community safety. This section should encourage readers to think about gun control in a wider social, cultural, and ethical context, providing a deeper understanding of why it's such a persistent and polarizing issue in society.

Concluding with Insight

In your conclusion, revisit the key points of your essay, tying them back to your thesis statement. This is your chance to underscore the significance of the topic and the strength of your argument. Offer a reflection on the potential future of gun control, considering recent developments and ongoing debates. You might also propose areas for further research or suggest ways in which the conversation around gun control can be advanced constructively. A strong conclusion will not only provide closure to your essay but will also leave the reader with lingering thoughts or questions, encouraging further contemplation and discussion on the topic of gun control.

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Prevention Institute

Gun Violence Must Stop. Here's What We Can Do to Prevent More Deaths

how to end an essay on gun control

Listen to "How Communities Can Prevent Gun Violence," a Prevention Institute podcast episode

Time and again, we are heartbroken by the news of another mass shooting. Part of our healing must be the conviction that we will do everything in our power to keep these tragedies from happening in a nation that continues to face a pandemic of gun violence. It's not only the high-profile mass shootings that we must work to prevent, but also the daily death-by-guns that claims more than 30,000 lives every year.

We know that these deaths are a predictable outcome of our country’s lack of political will to make a change and an underinvestment in prevention approaches that work. Through a public health approach that focuses on drawing from evidence and addressing the factors that increase or decrease the risk of gun violence, particularly in communities that are disproportionately impacted, we can save lives.

Each time a major tragedy occurs, the discourse tends to focus on addressing a specific venue. In the wake of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, there is an understandable focus on school safety. We strongly support broad engagement of community members, including young people and other survivors of gun violence, policymakers, and others, in insisting that schools be safe. We must also insist on that same level of safety for our places of worship, shopping malls, movie theaters, concert venues, nightclubs, workplaces, neighborhoods, and homes.

We are listening to young people from all races, classes, and sexualities, in Florida, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and throughout the country, who are unifying to speak truth to power. We have renewed hope that, together, we can prevent gun violence— not just in the case of mass shootings but also in the case of domestic violence, suicide, community violence, and violence involving law enforcement. We first developed this list after the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012. The public health approach has evolved since then, and we have now updated it, including more attention to addressing multiple forms of gun violence.

The recommendations below begin with attention to reducing immediate risks related to guns, broaden to address the underlying contributors to gun violence, and then address the prevention infrastructure necessary to ensure effectiveness. We also include recommendations related to new frontiers for research and practice, to ensure that we continue to learn, innovate, and increase our impact over time. The set of recommendations illustrate that one program or policy alone is not going to significantly reduce gun violence, but rather, through comprehensive strategies, we can achieve safety in our homes, schools, and communities. 

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Gun safety: Reduce the imminent risk of lethality through sensible gun laws and a culture of safety.

1. Sensible gun laws: Reduce easy access to dangerous weapons.

2. Establish a culture of gun safety.

  • Reduce firearm access to youth and individuals who are at risk of harming themselves or others.  
  • Hold the gun industry accountable and ensure there is adequate oversight over the marketing and sales of guns and ammunition.  
  • Engage responsible gun dealers and owners in solutions.  
  • Insist on mandatory training and licensing for owners.  
  • Require safe and secure gun storage.  

Underlying contributors to gun violence: systematically reduce risks and increase resilience in individuals, families, and communities. 

3. Public health solutions: Recognize gun violence as a critical and preventable public health problem.

4. Comprehensive solutions: Support community planning and implementation of comprehensive community safety plans that include prevention and intervention.

5. Trauma, connection, and services: Expand access to high quality, culturally competent, coordinated, social, emotional, and mental health supports and address the impact of trauma.

Prevention Infrastructure: ensure effectiveness and sustainability of efforts

6. Support gun violence research: Ensure that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others have the resources to study this issue and provide science-based guidance.

7. Health system: Establish a comprehensive health system in which violence prevention is a health system responsibility and imperative.

New Frontiers: continue to learn, innovate, and increase impact through research and practice

8. Community healing: Prevent community trauma.

9. Mental health and wellbeing: Invest in communities to promote resilience and mental health and wellbeing.

10. Support health y norms about masculinity: Explore the pathways between gun violence and harmful norms that have been about maintaining power and privilege.

11. Impulsive anger: Explore the linkages between anger and gun violence.

12. Economic development: Reduce concentrated disadvantage and invest in employment opportunities.

13. Law enforcement violence: Establish accountability for sworn officers and private security.

14. Technology: Advance gun safety and self-defense technology.

FULL RECOMMENDATIONS for Preventing Gun Violence

Gun safety: Part of a public health approach to gun violence is about preventing the imminent risk of lethality through sensible gun laws and a culture of safety.    

  • Sensible gun laws: Reduce easy access to dangerous weapons by banning high capacity magazines and bump stocks, requiring universal background checks without loopholes, instituting waiting periods , and reinstituting the assault weapons ban immediately.  
  • Establish a culture of gun safety: As the nation on earth with the most guns, we must make sure people are safe.  
  • Reduce firearm access to youth and individuals who are at risk of harming themselves or others . This includes keeping guns out of the hands of those who have been violent toward their partners and families, and those with previous violent convictions, whether through expanding lethality assessment and  background checks  or supporting  domestic violence bills , and gun violence restraining orders .  
  • Hold the gun industry accountable and ensure there is adequate oversight over the marketing and sales of guns and ammunition . Five percent of gun dealers sell 90% of guns used in crimes, and must be held accountable to a code of conduct . Further, states can pass laws requiring sellers to obtain state licenses, maintain records of sales, submit to inspections and fulfill other requirements. Unlike other industries, gun companies have special legal protections against liability leaving them immune from lawsuits. There is a need to repeal gun industry immunity laws in states that have them, and resist their enactment in states without current immunity laws. Increasingly, in the absence of legislative action, organizations are divesting from companies that manufacture firearms, and consumers are pressuring companies directly. More and more companies are setting new policies about what they are selling to the public and/or who they are selling products to.  
  • Engage responsible gun dealers and owners in solutions. For example, some gun dealers and range owners are already being trained in suicide prevention .  
  • Insist on mandatory training and licensing for owners . This training should include recurring education to renew permits, with a graduated licensing process at least as stringent as for driver's licenses.  
  • Require safe and secure gun storage. For example, in King County, Washington, public health has teamed up with firearm storage device retailers. In addition to safe storage being tax exempt in Washington, through the LOK-IT-UP initiative , residents can learn about the importance of safe storage, purchase devices at discounted rates and learn how to practice safe storage in the home.  

Underlying contributors to gun violence: Risk and resilience. A public health approach to preventing gun violence expands solutions beyond gun access to reduce additional risk factors associated with gun violence and bolster resilience in individuals, families, and communities.  

  • Public health solutions: Recognize gun violence as a critical and preventable public health problem. Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the country. Yet, unlike other preventable causes of death, we haven't mustered the political will to address it. Gun violence is most noticed when multiple people die at once, but it affects too many communities and families on a daily basis whether through suicide, domestic violence, community violence, or other forms. Data shows that risk for firearm violence varies substantially by age, race, gender, and geography, in patterns that are quite different for suicide and homicide. Through a public health approach, we have learned that violence is preventable across all of its forms. The public health approach studies data on various forms of violence and who is affected and identifies the biggest risk factors and what’s protective, and develops policy, practice, and program solutions in partnership with other sectors and community members. Many communities and groups have adopted a public health approach to preventing violence such as Prevention Institute’s UNITY City Network and Cities United , a growing network of over 100 mayors.  
  • Comprehensive solutions: Support community planning and implementation of comprehensive community safety plans that include prevention and intervention. A growing research base demonstrates that it is possible to prevent shootings and killings through approaches such as hospital-based intervention programs , the Cure Violence model , and Advance Peace . A growing number of safety plans across the country include upstream strategies such as youth employment , neighborhood economic development, safe parks , restoring vacant land , and reducing alcohol outlet density . Following the implementation of Minneapolis’ Blueprint for Action to Prevent Youth Violence , which prioritized prevention and upstream strategies, the City experienced a 62% reduction in youth gunshot victims, a 34% reduction in youth victims of crime, and a 76% reduction in youth arrests with a gun from 2007-2015. Yet too many communities lack the resources to do what is needed. We must commit to helping communities identify and implement solutions.  
  • Trauma, connection, and services: Expand access to high quality, culturally competent, coordinated, social, emotional, and mental health supports and a ddress the impact of trauma.  Too often gun violence is blamed on mental illness, when in fact in most cases people who carry out shootings do not have a diagnosable mental illness. However, throughout a community, members often recognize individuals who are disconnected and/or otherwise in need of additional supports and services. It is critical to reduce the stigma associated with mental health needs and support our children, friends, family members, and neighbors in seeking and obtaining appropriate supports. For this to work, communities need resources to assess and connect individuals at a high risk for harming themselves or others to well-coordinated social, emotional, and mental health supports and services, particularly in critical times of crisis and high need. Further, trauma can have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and health across the life course, especially during key developmental stages such as early childhood and adolescence, and can increase the risk for multiple forms of violence . We need to do more to recognize trauma, develop trauma-informed protocols, including for law enforcement, and support healing and treatment for individuals who have experienced or are experiencing trauma, including from exposure to violence in any form.  

Prevention Infrastructure: Beyond addressing the risk and underlying factors of gun violence, a public health approach also entails building a prevention infrastructure with mechanisms for scale, sustainability, and effectiveness. The UNITY RoadMap is a tool to support prevention infrastructure.  

  • Support gun violence research: Ensure that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others have the resources to study this issue and provide science-based guidance. The CDC, the nation's public health agency, has long been restricted from conducting the kind of research that will support solutions to reduce gun violence. CDC can track, assess, and develop strategies to prevent gun violence, just as we do with influenza and tainted spinach. In the absence of sufficient tracking and evidence at the federal level, California launched the Firearm Violence Prevention Research Center at UC Davis, and other states are proposing to establish research centers as well.  
  • Health system: Establish a comprehensive health system in which violence prevention is a health system responsibility and imperative. The Movement towards Violence as a Health Issue , which consists of over 400 individuals representing more than 100 organizations across the country dedicated to a health and community response to violence has proposed a framework for addressing and preventing violence in all of its forms. Moving away from the current, fragmented approach to violence that leans heavily on the justice system, this unifying framework encourages and supports extensive cross-sector collaboration. The framework includes 18 system elements such as public health departments, primary care, behavioral health care, law enforcement and the justice system, schools, and faith-based institutions, which together can move the nation toward safety, health, and equity.  

New Frontiers: A public health approach includes continuous learning and innovation to increase impact through research and practice. These emerging areas require further examination and are important additions to reducing the impact of gun violence in our society.  

  • Community healing: Prevent community trauma. Community trauma can result from experiencing violence and it can also increase the likelihood of violence, contributing to a mutually reinforcing cycle. Let’s support healing and resilience through strategies that rebuild social relationships and networks, reclaim and improve public spaces, promote community healing, and foster economic stability and prosperity. Prevention Institute’s Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience Framework , provides an approach for addressing and preventing community trauma.  
  • Mental health and wellbeing: Invest in communities to promote resilience and mental health and wellbeing. Mental illness is not at the root of our country’s high rate of gun violence, in fact, people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. However, we know we can do more to foster mental health and wellbeing in the first place . Through our national initiative, Making Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Men and Boys , with communities across the US, we’re learning that there are pillars of wellbeing that promote wellbeing which is supportive of efforts to prevent multiple forms of violence, including belonging/connectedness, control of destiny, dignity, hope/aspiration, safety and trust. We are also seeing community members come together to change their community environments to promote mental health and wellbeing, including as a suicide prevention approach.  
  • Support healthy norms about masculinity: Explore the pathways between gun violence and harmful norms that have been about maintaining power and privilege. The majority of men do not perpetrate gun violence; however, the majority of people who use guns against others and themselves are boys and men. For instance, the majority of the mass shooters over decades have been men. How do expectations about masculinity in different cultural contexts that promote, domination, control, and risk-taking connect to distress, bias and discrimination, and gun violence perpetration? How do gaps in expectations of power and privilege versus reality play into this? Why does our dominant culture permit a destructive desire for power over others? Answering questions like these can glean important insights and help us move toward a culture of equitable safety.   
  • Impulsive anger: Explore the linkages between anger and gun violence. More research is needed to examine patterns of impulse control, empathy, problem solving, and anger management across shootings, as well as interactions of these functions with the harmful norms described in the previous recommendation. Through a public health approach, we want to understand who is at a greater risk for violence as a means to creating long-term solutions to stop the issue in the first place. Further analysis may provide answers regarding particular linkages and what to do when functions are compromised.  
  • Economic development: Reduce concentrated disadvantage and invest in employment opportunities. As Rev. Gregory Boyle has long said of his work in East Los Angeles, “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.” Lack of employment opportunities increases the risk for gun violence, and on the other hand, economic opportunity protects against violence. Promoting equitable access to education programs, job training, and employment programs with mentorship for residents of neighborhoods with concentrated disadvantage, especially young people can be effective in reducing gun violence. For example, a study of One Summer Chicago Plus , a jobs program designed to reduce violence and prepare youth from some of the city’s most violence neighborhoods for the labor market – saw a 43% drop in violent-crime arrests of participants. Further, neighborhood-based economic development strategies such as Business Improvement Districts that bring public and private partners together to invest in neighborhood services, activities, and improvements, have also been shown to reduce violence, including gun violence.    
  • Law enforcement violence: Establish accountability for sworn officers and private security. Ensure that police and security industries examine disparities regarding who they protect versus who is most often harmed as a result of their actions. With this information, these sectors should develop effective approaches to reduce harm in those populations, including unarmed African American men and people with mental illnesses. Current approaches being explored include implicit-bias training , problem-oriented policing , and restorative justice . Moving forward, it’s important to determine and understand the most effective strategies.     
  • Technology: Advance gun safety and self-defense technology. As the call for gun safety continues to increase, we must consider the role of new technologies . Just as cars continue to have new safety measures embedded in the technology, from fingerprint scanners to PIN codes and RFID chips, there are ongoing developments to increase the safety of guns and gun storage that require further analysis to assess effectiveness. In addition, technologies that are alternatives to guns are being developed to support self-protection to reduce the perceived need for a firearm for self-defense.

As our families, communities, and country reel from terrible daily tragedies, we must vow to change our culture and our policies and to stop this cycle of violence. We should be able to live in our homes, send our children to first grade, pray in our houses of worship, shop in our local malls, and walk through our streets and neighborhoods without being shot. Together we can take action in the memory of those who died and insist that this never happen again. Please take action and support changes like those outlined above to prevent gun violence.  

Learn more about preventing gun violence from other organizations and resources we’ve found helpful:

American Journal of Public Health

American Public Health Association

American Psychological Association

Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence

Everytown for Gun Safety

Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence

Harvard T.H. School of Public Health

Hope and Heal Fund

Interdisciplinary Group on Preventing School and Community Violence call to action

International Firearm Injury Prevention and Policy

Movement towards Violence as a Health Issue

Pew Research Center Americans’ views on guns and gun ownership

RAND Corporation

Smart Tech Challenges Foundation

Smarter Crime Control: A Guide to a Safer Future for Citizens, Communities, and Politicians.

Speak for Safety campaign for Gun Violence Restraining Order

States for Gun Safety Coalition

The Joyce Foundation

University of California, Davis – Violence Prevention Program

Violence Policy Center

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Argumentative Essay

Argumentative Essay About Gun Control

Last updated on: Apr 9, 2024

Crafting an Argumentative Essay About Gun Control: Examples and Tips

By: Caleb S.

12 min read

Reviewed By: Betty P.

Published on: Mar 13, 2023

argumentative essay about gun control

Crafting an argumentative essay on gun control can be intimidating, especially when you don't know where to begin.

You need to make sure that your essay is well-researched and thoughtfully written in order for it to be effective. It's also important to present both sides of the issue so that readers have all the information they need to form their own opinion.

Don't worry – we've got you covered! Our guide will provide you with examples and tips on how to craft a perfect argumentative essay. 

With our help, you'll be able to write a compelling paper that presents both sides of the debate in a balanced way.

Let's get started! 

argumentative essay about gun control

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How to Write an Argumentative Essay About Gun Control?

Whether you're pro-gun or anti-gun, writing an argumentative essay on gun control can be hard to do. 

But don’t worry! 

This guide will walk you through the steps of crafting a compelling argumentative essay on gun control. 

Let’s get started! 

Form an Outline

Now that you know what kind of information should go in your paper, it's time to form an outline. 

Having an outline before starting to write can help make sure that all thoughts are organized in a logical way. 

Discover how to create your very own argumentative essay outline with our comprehensive guide.

Write an Introduction

The introduction should provide background information on your topic and state why you believe it’s important. Start by introducing your main argument and then move into discussing both sides of the issue. 

Make sure to include facts and statistics that support your point of view. Add any relevant anecdotes you may have come across during your research. 

Remember to end your introduction with a clear thesis statement that states what side of the debate you are taking. 

Write Body Paragraphs

Your body paragraphs should each focus on one particular point from your thesis statement. You can use examples from history or current events to support your points if necessary. 

When writing about gun control, it is important to understand both sides of the issue in order for your arguments to be effective. 

Make sure each paragraph has a clear topic sentence that summarizes its main point. It should be followed by evidence or examples that back up this point.  

Write a Conclusion

Your conclusion should wrap up all of the points you made throughout your essay. At the same time, restate your thesis statement in different terms than you used in the introduction. 

Your conclusion should not introduce any new information. Instead, it should serve as a summary of what has already been discussed in the body paragraphs. 

Make sure to end with a strong call-to-action urging readers to think more critically about their own views on gun control. Make them think how they can contribute to creating meaningful change in society regarding this issue.  

Points to consider while writing about gun control -MyPerfectPaper.net

Examples of Argumentative Essays About Gun Control

Writing an argumentative essay on gun control can be a challenging task, but with the right information and approach it can be manageable. 

To help make this process easier, we have provided several examples of argumentative essays related to gun control below. 

Through these examples, you will gain a better understanding of the structure and format of an argumentative essay. 

Argumentative Essay On Gun Laws

Gun Control Argumentative Essay Example

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Persuasive Essay About Gun Control

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If you're searching for ways to craft a compelling essay, look no further than our blog of extraordinary argumentative essay examples !

What are Some Arguments for Gun Control? 

Gun control is a highly debated issue in the United States, with many people taking strong stances on both sides of the argument. 

Let’s explore some arguments for gun control as well as counterarguments from those opposed to further regulations.

Arguments for Gun Control:

  • The most common argument for gun control is that it can help reduce the amount of gun-related violence. This can include deaths from mass shootings, homicides, and suicides involving firearms. Studies have shown that countries with stricter gun control laws tend to have lower rates of gun violence.
  • Gun control can also help reduce the risk of accidental shootings, especially among children and teenagers. Stricter laws on gun ownership mean less access to firearms. 
  • Gun control can also make it easier for law enforcement to track down guns used in crimes. This can help police to quickly identify and apprehend the person responsible for a crime. It will reduce the amount of time it takes to find stolen or lost firearms.

Watch the video and gain invaluable insight on how to compose a convincing argumentative essay!

Argumentative Essay Topics About Gun Control

When writing an essay about gun control, it is important to choose a topic that presents both sides of the issue. 

There are many different topics related to gun control that you can use as your focus, such as: 

  • Should There Be More Gun Control in the United States?
  • Is Concealed Carry a Right or a Privilege? 
  • What Are The Pros and Cons of Allowing Citizens To Openly Carry Firearms? 
  • Are Semi-Automatic Weapons Suitable for Civilian Use? 
  • Is It Ethical to Sell Guns Online? 
  • Are Guns Necessary for Self Defense? 
  • Does Gun Control Reduce Crime Rates in Countries With Strict Regulations on Ownership Rights? 
  • Do Background Checks Help Prevent Crimes Involving Firearm Use?
  • How Can We Address Racism and Prejudice In The Enforcement Of Gun Laws?  
  • Is Mandatory Training Necessary Before Obtaining A Firearm License?

Need more topics? Explore our argumentative essay topics blog!

Summarizing it,

This blog provides an overview of the arguments for and against gun control. We have also provided a list of potential topics to discuss in an argumentative essay on gun control.

This blog should help readers gain a better understanding of the various arguments surrounding gun control. 

However, if you do not know which side to choose, let our essay writer do it for you.

Our expert essay writing service offers essay help to students in need. Our argumentative essay writer can write your essay quickly which guarantees an A+ grade. 

Just say “ write me a paper ” and we will take care of all of your essay-writing needs! 

So what are you waiting for? Place your order today and say goodbye to your writing woes. 

Caleb S.

Caleb S. has been providing writing services for over five years and has a Masters degree from Oxford University. He is an expert in his craft and takes great pride in helping students achieve their academic goals. Caleb is a dedicated professional who always puts his clients first.

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Gun Right vs Gun Control

Gun Control Argumentative Essay – Sample Essay

Published by gudwriter on October 21, 2017 October 21, 2017

A Break Down of my Gun Control Argumentative Essay

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Title: Stricter Gun Control Laws Should Be Adopted

Introduction

I have tried to design the introduction in such a way that it attracts the attention of the reader and gives him an idea of the essay’s focus. My first sentence comprises of some startling information: The pervasive gun culture in the United States of America is a creation of the country’s frontier expansion, revolutionary roots, colonial history, and the Second Amendment. It is not totally new information to the readers. In fact, it is a pertinent fact that explicitly illustrates the point that I wish to make. It is followed by a sentence of elaboration. In addition, I have tried to ground the reader with some information that is relevant to understand my thesis. Lastly, I have finished my paragraph with a thesis statement for my argumentative essay.

To get your essay on gun control written for a cheap price, connect with a professional research paper writer for help on this platform where we have a pool of experts to choose from, making it easy for you to get matched fast. You can also use our essay generator to get a quality and plagiarism free paper.

The body of my gun control essay contains reasons + evidence to support my thesis. Each body paragraph begins with a topic sentence that identifies the main idea of that paragraph. If you have read the essay, you can see that my explanations try to answer a simple question: how does this evidence support my thesis?

I have tried to sum up my points and provide a final perspective on gun control in an effort to bring closure to the reader. I have reviewed my main points, trying not restate them exactly, and tried to briefly describe my feelings concerning the topic. I was unable to find a good anecdote that would have ended my essay in a useful way.

References:

Though, I won’t recommend it, I have used some news articles from CNBC and NYTimes as part of my references. I would advise you to go for more credible sources such as peer reviewed articles and journals.

Argumentative Essay on Gun Control

Gun control is a controversial subject in the United States of America. In the wake of so many tragic mass shootings, like the recent Las Vegas Shooting, the conversation  tends to pull in two directions : Those who believe gun laws should be less strict and those pushing for more restrictions.

When you are writing a gun control argumentative essay, you are free to take any side you want, unless your instructor specifically tells you to take a certain side. What matters is that whichever position you choose, ensure you have good points and supporting facts.

In this gun control essay, I have decided to take a pro gun control approach:  strict regulation up to and including an outright ban on firearms. In fact, my thesis statement for this for argumentative essay is  stricter gun control laws should be enacted and implemented if the United States is to solve the problem of mass shootings and reduce crime within its borders.

My essay is divided into three basic parts, the introduction, the body and the conclusion.

Here is my gun control argumentative essay. Enjoy!

Stricter Gun Control Laws Should Be Adopted

The pervasive gun culture in the United States of America is a creation of the country’s frontier expansion, revolutionary roots, colonial history, and the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment stipulates, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (“Second Amendment,” 2020). The argument fronted by proponents of stricter gun control laws is that the amendment targeted militias and not the common citizen. They are of the view that gun control restrictions have always been there and that they serve to enhance the security of the country and the various states. The opponents however argue that through the provisions of the Second Amendment, individuals have the right to own guns. Their view is that individuals need guns for self-defense and that gun ownership thwarts criminal activities. This paper argues that stricter gun control laws should be enacted and implemented if the United States is to solve the problem of mass shootings and reduce crime within its borders (my argumentative essay thesis statement ).

On 1st October, 2017, the U.S. witnessed one of the worst mass shooting incidences in its history, probably the worst. The shooting, as observed by Swift (2017), was conducted by a common U.S. citizen who was a gun owner. Following the incidence, there has been rage and confusion all over the country as to whether the gun control debate is still relevant. A whopping 59 people died in the incidence with 500 others sustaining serious injuries (Swift, 2017). This incidence alone, the Second Amendment notwithstanding, tells why the country is in dire need of very strict gun control laws. Nothing can compensate for human life and it is even worse when life is lost at the hands of another human being. It becomes more serious when one person decides to kill, without stopping to think, as many people as time and other factors would allow them to! The latest gun incidence is a clear sign that the threat of lives being lost due to misuse of personal guns is more real than the threat of one losing their life due to lack of self-defense.

Given the latest mass shooting incidence, together with such other past incidences, it could be safely argued that the Second Amendment is being misinterpreted to mean what the framers of the Constitution never intended nor meant. It is high time the three branches of the federal government, together with the states, sought a clear reinterpretation of “well-regulated militia”. It cannot be that those who effected this amendment “authorized” what was recently witnessed in Las Vegas. As pointed out by Insana (2017), “The Founding Fathers, who lived before the invention of the Gatling gun, could not have envisioned civilians commanding the right to hunt turkeys, or humans, with modern ferocity”. The Second Amendment is surely not a leeway for citizens to have unlimited rights to own guns. A well-regulated militia should imply that a state, or the country, adequately serves its law enforcement agencies with the right ammunition and weaponry so as to ensure security. This has however unfortunately been misinterpreted to mean anyone can own a gun.

Stricter gun control laws would reduce deaths resulting from individually owned guns. Street (2016) reports that between 1999 and 2013, the number of gun deaths totaled 464,033. Out of this, 270,237 were gun suicide cases, 9,983 were unintentional deaths, and 174,773 homicides. It is thus crystal clear that mass shooting is not the only way in which guns are being used for the wrong purposes. It is emerging that giving an American citizen the right to own a gun is akin to giving them a shorter way of executing their evil plan of killing themselves, if they had it that is. If a gun is meant for self-defense and crime prevention, isn’t gun suicide the exact opposite of this? As a matter of fact, one would be safer from their own selves without a gun than with a gun. This is why it should be made tremendously difficult for people to acquire guns.

Opponents of gun control laws argue that introduction of such laws would deny people a sense of safety by infringing upon their right to self-defense. This argument is oblivious of the fact that weak gun control laws compromise even the safety of the gun holder himself or herself (Purcell, 2013). Moreover, it is the role of the federal government to ensure that every American citizen is always safe irrespective of the part of the country they find themselves. Building and maintaining strong security agencies is enough to ensure this. On the same note, the “right to self-defense” argument would lose its meaning if an individual cannot first of all defend themselves against themselves. When a person knowingly or unknowingly harms themselves using a gun they own, it means they lack the very self-defense they acquired the gun for.

To take their argument even further, the opponents would contend that the Second Amendment gives every American the right to possess personal guns. They often cite the phrase “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (Burke, 2017), with more emphasis on the “shall not be infringed” part. They forget that the same clause contains some “well regulated militia” part which should be equally given as much weight as the other parts. While it is true that this right should not be infringed, according to the Constitution, it should not culminate in anybody being allowed to own guns. If the right is as absolute as opponents suggest, firearms would be owned by children and even mentally ill felons, a situation one can never wish for. It is thus a farfetched and unnecessary argument.

The enactment and implementation of very strict gun control laws by the United States is long overdue. People cannot continue butchering innocent citizens in the name of enjoying the provisions of the Second Amendment. If it is the Second Amendment that is creating all this loss of life and lawlessness, it should be thoroughly reinterpreted so that it works in the best interest of all Americans. Nobody has the right to take their own life and that of others. It is sad that gun ownership perpetuates this phenomenon. This discussion reveals that gun ownership is neither promoting self-defense nor deterring crime but promoting the same.

Burke, D. E. (2017). “Why the arguments against gun control are wrong”.   Huffpost . Retrieved July 11, 2020 from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-the-arguments-against-gun-control-are-wrong_us_59d6405ce4b0666ad0c3cb34. Accessed 29 June 2020

Insana, R. (2017). “The time for polite debate on gun control is over”. CNBC . Retrieved October 20, 2017 from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/05/the-time-for-polite-debate-on-gun-control-is-over.html

Purcell, T. (2013). Shotgun republic: the gun control debate . North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Second Amendment. (2020). In Cornell Law School . Retrieved July 11, 2020 from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment

Street, C. (2016). Gun control: guns in America, the full debate, more guns less problems? no guns no problems? . North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Swift, H. (2017). “Gunman’s girlfriend arrives in U.S. and is expected to be questioned”. The New York Times . Retrieved October 20, 2017 from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/us/las-vegas-shooting-live-updates.html

Sample 2: Gun Control Essay Outline

Thesis:  Gun control is important for solving mass shooting problems and crime reduction.

Paragraph 1:

Stricter gun control laws are needed for addressing the persistent mass shooting problem in the U.S.

  • The gun control debate might have been made irrelevant by probably the worst mass shooting in the U.S. history that occurred on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas.
  • The shooting claimed 59 lives and left 500 people with serious injuries.
  • The Second Amendment does not allow for such heinous acts in the name of owning a gun.
  • Innocent lives should not be lost at the hands of one person who judges it right to terminate human lives.

Paragraph 2:

Gun control would help address misinterpretation of the Second Amendment by individual gun owners.

  • It is apparent that people are misinterpreting the amendment to mean what was not intended by framers of the constitution.
  • A clear reinterpretation of a “well-regulated militia” should be sought.
  • Those who debated over and passed the amendment could not have authorized mass shootings of innocent citizens.

Paragraph 3:

Deaths resulting from individually-owned guns would decrease if stricter gun laws were adopted.

  • Between 1999 and 2013, there were 464,033 gun deaths out of which 174,773 resulted from homicides, 9,983 from gun accidents, and 270,237 from suicide.
  • Thus, individual gun owners are using guns in more destructive ways than just mass shootings.
  • Gun suicide is the exact opposite of self-defense and crime prevention, the reasons for which gun ownership was allowed.

Paragraph 4: 

The quantity of guns in a society determines the rate of gun violence in the society.

  • A good case example to prove this is Japan.
  • The country has made it very difficult for its citizens to acquire guns.

Paragraph 5:

Opponents of gun control argue that gun control laws would infringe into people’s right to self-defense and thus deny them a sense of safety.

  • This argument fails to recognize that even the safety of the gun holder herself or himself is compromised by weak gun control laws.
  • Moreover, the safety of all American citizens wherever they may be is the responsibility of the federal government.
  • It would be enough to guarantee this safety by building and maintaining strong security agencies and policies.

Paragraph 6:

Opponents argue that gun control laws give too much power to the government and that this may make the government tyrannical.

  • This argument is wrong because the United States is a country founded on strong Constitutional provisions that clearly spell out the rights of citizens and indicate that the country is democratic.
  • There is no room for government tyranny.

The U.S. should enact and implement very strict gun ownership laws if it is to solve mass shooting problems and reduce gun-related crime. People cannot purport to be enjoying the provisions of the Second Amendment while continuing to butcher innocent citizens.

Sample Essay 2: Gun Control Essay

The United States continues to experience a pervasive gun culture owing to its colonial history, revolutionary roots, frontier expansion, and the Second Amendment. According to the Second Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (Cornell Law School, 2017). Proponents of gun control argue that the amendment did not target the common citizen but militias. However, the opponents argue that the amendment guarantees express rights for individual gun ownership. This paper argues that gun control is important for solving mass shooting problems and crime reduction.

Stricter gun control laws are needed for addressing the persistent mass shooting problem in the U.S. The gun control debate might have been made irrelevant by probably the worst mass shooting in the U.S. history that occurred on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas. The shooting, conducted by a common citizen possessing a gun, claimed 59 lives and left 500 people with serious injuries (Swift, 2017). The Second Amendment does not allow for such heinous acts in the name of owning a gun. So many innocent lives should not be lost at the hands of one person who judges it right, out of their personal reasons, to terminate human lives. The mass shooting incidences clearly indicate that there is more threat of lives being lost through misuse of guns than the threat of people losing their lives due to lack of self-defense.

Gun control would also help address misinterpretation of the Second Amendment by individual gun owners. It is apparent that people are misinterpreting the amendment to mean what was not intended by framers of the constitution given the past shooting incidences. A clear reinterpretation of a “well-regulated militia” should be sought by the three federal government braches in collaboration with the state governments. It is definite that those who debated over and passed the amendment could not have authorized the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas shooting incidence and such other incidences. Moreover, “The Founding Fathers, who lived before the invention of the Gatling gun, could not have envisioned civilians commanding the right to hunt turkeys, or humans, with modern ferocity” (Insana, 2017). The amendment was meant for protection of lives, not as a threat to lives.

Additionally, deaths resulting from individually-owned guns would decrease if stricter gun laws were adopted. Between 1999 and 2013, there were 464,033 gun deaths out of which 174,773 resulted from homicides, 9,983 from gun accidents, and 270,237 from suicide (Street, 2016). It is thus crystal clear that individual gun owners are using guns in more destructive ways than just mass shootings. It is apparent that letting an American citizen own a personal gun provides them with a quicker way of committing suicide if they had the plans to. Noteworthy, gun suicide is the exact opposite of self-defense and crime prevention, the reasons for which gun ownership was allowed. Acquiring guns should thus be made very difficult for people since it would make them safer from their own selves.

Another general observation is that the quantity of guns in a society determines the rate of gun violence in the society. A good case example to prove this is Japan. Research notes that the country has made it very difficult for its citizens to acquire guns. Even upon being allowed to acquire one, it would only be an air rifle or shotgun but not handguns (Low, 2017). Low (2017) goes on to cite the executive director of Action on Armed Violence, Iain Overton, who argues that a civilian society does not need guns for whatever reason. Overton adds that gun violence will inevitably be there in a society once the society has guns. According to journalist Anthony Berteaux, violence should never be used to quell violence hence the less need for guns.

Opponents of gun control argue that gun control laws would infringe into people’s right to self-defense and thus deny them a sense of safety. This argument fails to recognize that even the safety of the gun holder herself or himself is compromised by weak gun control laws (Purcell, 2013). Moreover, the safety of all American citizens wherever they may be is the responsibility of the federal government. It would be enough to guarantee this safety by building and maintaining strong security agencies and policies. Besides, if an individual cannot first of all defend themselves against themselves, the “right to self-defense” argument loses its meaning. When a person uses their own gun to cause self-harm either knowingly or unknowingly, it means they lack the very self-defense the gun is meant for.

Opponents may also argue that gun control laws give too much power to the government and that this may make the government tyrannical. In their view, the government may end up taking away guns from all citizens. This argument is wrong first because the United States is a country founded on strong Constitutional provisions that clearly spell out the rights of citizens and indicate that the country is democratic (Kopel, 2013). There is thus no room for government tyranny, not even through gun control. Second, stricter gun laws would only make difficult the process of acquiring guns but not take away all guns from citizens.

The U.S. should enact and implement very strict gun ownership laws if it is to solve mass shooting problems and reduce gun-related crime. People cannot purport to be enjoying the provisions of the Second Amendment while continuing to butcher innocent citizens. The amendment should be reinterpreted so that it serves all citizens in the best manner possible if it is what is creating all this loss of life and lawlessness. The Constitution does not provide for the “right” of taking one’s own life or that of others. It is thus sad that this phenomenon is being perpetuated by gun ownership.

Ready for a globalization essay sample ? Check it out.

Cornell Law School. (2017). “Second amendment”.  Cornell Law School . Retrieved May 20, 2018 from  https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment

Insana, R. (2017). “The time for polite debate on gun control is over”.  CNBC . Retrieved May 20, 2018 from  https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/05/the-time-for-polite-debate-on-gun-control-is-over.html

Kopel, D. B. (2013).  The truth about gun control . New York, NY: Encounter Books.

Low, H. (2017). “How Japan has almost eradicated gun crime”.  BBC News . Retrieved July 4, 2020 from  http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38365729

Purcell, T. (2013).  Shotgun republic: the gun control debate . North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Street, C. (2016).  Gun control: guns in America, the full debate, more guns less problems? No guns no problems? . North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Swift, H. (2017). “Gunman’s girlfriend arrives in U.S. and is expected to be questioned”.  New York Times . Retrieved May 20, 2018 from  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/us/las-vegas-shooting-live-updates.html

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Gun Control — Gun Control Thesis Statement

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Gun Control Thesis Statement

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Words: 1300 |

Published: Mar 19, 2024

Words: 1300 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Table of contents

I. introduction, ii. the second amendment and the right to bear arms, iii. gun violence statistics and the need for stricter regulations, iv. gun control policies and their effectiveness, v. mental health and gun violence, vi. gun control advocacy and opposition, vii. conclusion, a. overview of current gun control laws in the united states, b. analysis of the effectiveness of background checks and waiting periods, c. discussion of the impact of assault weapons bans and high-capacity magazine restrictions, a. connection between mental illness and gun violence, b. importance of mental health screenings for gun owners, c. strategies for preventing individuals with mental health issues from obtaining guns, a. overview of gun control advocacy groups, b. analysis of arguments against stricter gun control laws, c. strategies for promoting bipartisan support for gun control legislation, a. recap of key points, b. restate thesis statement, c. call to action for stricter gun control measures to improve public safety.

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In an effort to slow the rate of gun deaths many options have been put on the table

NPR's Michel Martin talks to gun violence researcher Garen Wintemute about the effectiveness of stricter guidelines and laws for firearms.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

In an effort to slow the rate of gun deaths in this country, many laws and proposals have been put on the table. Last week, the Biden administration announced new rules to close the so-called gun show loophole. They would expand the definition of a licensed firearm dealer to ensure any person who legally buys a gun anywhere goes through a background check.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And that's something that the polling indicates the majority of Americans, including gun owners, want.

GAREN WINTEMUTE: Legislators and advocacy groups like the NRA simply are not representing gun owners. If you ask gun owners what do you think we should do, gun owners say we should have background checks for all purchases. The groups and people who claim to represent gun owners are not doing their job.

MARTIN: That's Dr. Garen Wintemute. He is a longtime gun violence researcher at the University of California, Davis. He helped write the state's so-called red flag laws. We started by asking what the data shows about the effectiveness of making gun sellers and buyers follow stricter guidelines.

WINTEMUTE: What we know about closing the gun show loophole is that denying people who are at high risk the purchase of firearms reduces their risk of committing violent crimes. We did a controlled study here in California that showed that. At the policy level, it turns out that the evidence is mixed on background checks themselves. But what makes a very clear difference, and this has been shown over and over again, is if the background check is accompanied by a permit requirement, that works.

MARTIN: You helped craft California's red flag laws. How do they work?

WINTEMUTE: The idea here is this - there's a crisis, and somehow, firearms are part of the crisis. A person might be threatening to kill other people. They might be threatening to kill themselves. The process is that people with that information can go to a judge, make a case - just as we do with domestic violence, on which the red flag law was modeled here in California - that getting the guns out of the situation will help reduce the lethality potential of the crisis. The guns are recovered for safekeeping, or as we've had some times here in California, planned purchases of guns are blocked. And we've seen dozens of instances here in California where these restraining orders were used to block a threatened mass shooting.

MARTIN: Just looking at it from a distance, it just seems discouraging. And is there some reason to not be discouraged, or is there something that's keeping you hopeful?

WINTEMUTE: What brings me hope is most people reject violence. Most people reject the idea that violence is a way to solve problems in the United States. But there is a very distinct difference between states that regulate firearms robustly and states that don't. And the difference is measured in thousands of lives lost per year in that latter group of states that wouldn't have been lost if they had taken the approach that California and other states do.

MARTIN: That's Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research program at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Wintemute, thank you so much for your time.

WINTEMUTE: Thanks for having me.

MARTIN: Tomorrow on MORNING EDITION, we'll hear from two teenagers in Pennsylvania about how they see the threat of gun violence in their very different neighborhoods.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I'm used to it now. I know that's crazy to say, but I'm - like, I'm used to it, so...

MARTIN: And a look at how people across the state are making it their mission to help teens navigate the threats and keep them out of harm's way.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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Bob Costas reflects on how his gun culture essay was a ‘misplay’

"I did myself a disservice. I did the issue a disservice."

how to end an essay on gun control

Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas is remembered for many things. He’s called just about every major American sporting event. He hosted 12 Olympics for NBC. He’s had his own radio programs and talk shows. And even made several appearances in Hollywood films and TV shows.

His storied career was not without controversies. During halftime on Sunday Night Football on December 2, 2012, Costas offered up an essay on gun violence in the wake of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher’s murder-suicide. While paraphrasing then-Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock , Costas said that American gun culture was causing more domestic disputes to end in death .

Costas ended the segment  by saying, “But here, wrote Jason Whitlock, is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.”

Costas’s comments were seen by many as a call for gun control and seized upon by conservative critics who felt it was inapporpriate for him to have used that pulpit for such remarks. Costas apologized at the time but only for trying to address such a polarizing and nuanced topic in just 90 seconds .

More recently, the broadcaster called it “ one of the great regrets of my career . Not because of the blowback, but because I booted it. Not because I took on the subject, but because I took too much for granted.”

Costas looked back on the incident and criticism again during his recent appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast.

“Is that the biggest say misconception about your career?” asked host Brandon Contes. “If you could correct one misconception about your career, would it be correcting the headlines surrounding that essay?

“Yeah, but it’s also a misplay on my part,” said Costas. “And it led not just to a misunderstanding about that particular issue, but because people want an easy—they don’t want a nuanced and textured view of a person. They want to be able to put the person in a cubby hole, give them a little label, and then it’s easier for them to make whatever argument they wanna make, or to plug that person in for whatever narrative fits.”

Costas notes that whatever his critics might have presumed about his political leanings or beliefs based on the essay, they were likely mistaken.

“Believe it or not, I think the best comp for me would be someone like Bill Maher, who, full disclosure, he’s a friend of mine. I’m a classic liberal like Bill. Center-left person.” said Costas. “I do not embrace the excesses of progressivism. Of wokeism. Some of the insanity that’s infected academia. Some of these policies that make no sense. Country’s gotta have a border. And no matter how interested you are in social justice, the most important function of government is to secure the safety and security of the citizenry. So you can’t have crime running all rampant all over the place. I don’t endorse any of that. And there are many, what now would be Republican if the Republican Party even existed anymore. It’s the Trump Party and that’s the problem. But classic conservative and Republican positions, and as I said earlier, many conservative writers and thinkers who I respect and I agree with, so that characterization that came out of the gun thing is just wrong.”

In terms of the gun essay itself, Costas says that the way he went about it was a “misplay” and knows exactly what he would do differently if given the chance.

“That was a misplay on my part,” said Costas. “Javon Belcher kills his fiance, then kills himself at the Chiefs practice facility. And that’s on a Saturday. Every sports outlet in the country had addressed that at length, including our pregame and halftime shows. And with about four minutes to go in the second quarter of the game…they tell me ‘You got about 90 seconds, want you to do something about this.’ And a producer hands me a printout of what Jason Whitlock, and here’s an irony because Jason Whitlock is a pretty right-wing guy… But Jason Whitlock had credibility. He played football. He had covered sports in Kansas City, Kansas City-based. And so they handed me something that Jason had written and I looked at it and, to me, it resonated. To me, it was clear he was talking about a gun culture.

“So in the days surrounding that, there was a front page of the USA Today about athletes and guns with an icon of a gun helping to spell out the word gun . The New York Times and Sports Illustrated had done stories about it. And even to this day, if you Google “athletes and guns,” you’re gonna find a litany of tragedy, folly, criminality, stupidity. And if you in order to be fair, tried to find all the instances where an athlete with a gun turned a bad situation around for the better, certainly theoretically it exists. It’s happened a few times. But it’s outweighed by all the stuff on the other side. That’s just a fact. That doesn’t mean that people should be disarmed. It means that there was and remains, to a certain extent, a gun culture in the country, which has nothing to do with any sensible interpretation of the Second Amendment, and which infects sports to whatever extent it does.

“My thought was reading what Jason had written, it’s obvious that that’s the point he’s making. That was my bad, because it wasn’t obvious. And you could say, well, the producer handed it to you. Yeah, but I’m the goalie, I’m the last line of defense. I’ve got to make a decision even if it’s in a short period of time and that decision was wrong.

“What I should have said at that time, and I didn’t need a script, I’m a pretty good ad-libber. I should have said coming off of Dan Patrick in the commercial, ‘By now, you’re all aware of what happened this weekend in Kansas City. Whenever a harsh reality intrudes upon our games, you’ll hear a lot of worn-out cliches, thoughts and prayers, and this really puts everything in perspective, but that perspective seems to last about five minutes until we become obsessed with whatever is next on the sports docket. If we’re really looking for some perspective here, then this should begin a serious and ongoing conversation about a number of issues, including domestic violence. And are those who play a brutal and aggressive sport more inclined toward it than their athletic peers? What about the effects of football itself? Especially if brain trauma is mixed with painkillers, alcohol, performance-enhancing drugs. We know that the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed roughly until age 25. A lot of young football players have been playing football for many years prior to that and it’s the prefrontal cortex that plays a role in emotions and impulse control. And as part of this, we might examine the whole relationship between athletes and guns, not talking here about the responsible, lawful exercise of anyone’s legitimate Second Amendment rights. But we are talking about a gun culture which makes young people trigger-happy. At least some people trigger-happy. It comes from a variety of directions, including the culture. Look at all the movies that have people blowing people away. Or listen to some of the lyrics that glorify a gangsta existence, glorify the use of guns. All those things are insidious influences.

“‘For the record, when I hear about a young mother, single mother, someone’s breaking into her house, she blows the guy away. Not only do I have no problem with that, I applaud it. Anyone who’s responsible, who has a licensed firearm, who’s taken the proper training, or is using it to protect his or her home or family or for sporting purposes, I’m 100% good with that. But I’m not good with the idea that an 18-year-old kid can go and buy an assault weapon and then the next day after his birthday blow a bunch of his schoolmates away. I’m not good with that because no sane society needs that and it’s not needed for your protection.'”

“So was the biggest detriment to that gun culture essay the fact that you were given a minutes warning, given 90 seconds to speak on the topic, or being handed the Jason Whitlock article?” asked Contes.

“It was all those things, but the fault is mine. The fault is mine,” said Costas. “My intention was different than the reaction but that was a sloppy job on my part. And normally I think I’m a more precise thinker and certainly a more precise broadcaster than that. And I said this many times, I did myself a disservice. I did the issue a dissservice. Because that was an opportunity to talk about the most important issue there, the most important issue there was domestic violence, which everyone could agree about that. It’s a problem and this was an example of it.

“So not only did I misrepresent inadvertently my own feeling on an issue, but I missed an opportunity to shine a light in front of a very large audience on another issue which was more pertinent in this case, which was domestic violence. So regardless of the peripheral factors, it’s on me.

“But having said that I clarified all this just as I have with you in the ensuing days and every time I’ve been asked about it since, but when people have a straw man, they don’t want to give the straw man up. So I became a straw man in this instance. It wasn’t enough for them. Okay. ‘He admitted that, you know, it was a screw-up,’ a rare screw-up, I think, for me. But at that time, but you know, ‘He acknowledged it, he made clear where he stands. To the extent we agree or disagree with his actual stance, let’s talk about that.’

But if people are just intent on casting you in a way that makes it easy for them to fit you into their preconceived narrative, what the hell are you gonna do?

The full episode of The Awful Announcing Podcast with Bob Costas is out now . Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify , and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.

how to end an essay on gun control

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to [email protected].

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At the center of the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Manhattan is the accusation that Trump took part in a scheme to turn The National Enquirer and its sister publications into an arm of his 2016 presidential campaign. The documents detailed three “hush money” payments made to a series of individuals to guarantee their silence about potentially damaging stories in the months before the election. Because this was done with the goal of helping his election chances, the case implied, these payments amounted to a form of illegal, undisclosed campaign spending. And because Trump created paperwork to make the payments seem like regular legal expenses, that amounted to a criminal effort at a coverup, argued Alvin Bragg, the district attorney of Manhattan. Trump has denied the charges against him.

For Lachlan Cartwright, reading the indictment was like stepping through the looking glass, because it described a three-year period in his own professional life, one that he has come to deeply regret. Now, as a former president faces a criminal trial for the first time in American history, Cartwright is forced to grapple with what really happened at The Enquirer in those years — and whether and how he can ever set things right.

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What the data says about abortion in the U.S.

Pew Research Center has conducted many surveys about abortion over the years, providing a lens into Americans’ views on whether the procedure should be legal, among a host of other questions.

In a  Center survey  conducted nearly a year after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision that  ended the constitutional right to abortion , 62% of U.S. adults said the practice should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. Another survey conducted a few months before the decision showed that relatively few Americans take an absolutist view on the issue .

Find answers to common questions about abortion in America, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, which have tracked these patterns for several decades:

How many abortions are there in the U.S. each year?

How has the number of abortions in the u.s. changed over time, what is the abortion rate among women in the u.s. how has it changed over time, what are the most common types of abortion, how many abortion providers are there in the u.s., and how has that number changed, what percentage of abortions are for women who live in a different state from the abortion provider, what are the demographics of women who have had abortions, when during pregnancy do most abortions occur, how often are there medical complications from abortion.

This compilation of data on abortion in the United States draws mainly from two sources: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, both of which have regularly compiled national abortion data for approximately half a century, and which collect their data in different ways.

The CDC data that is highlighted in this post comes from the agency’s “abortion surveillance” reports, which have been published annually since 1974 (and which have included data from 1969). Its figures from 1973 through 1996 include data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and New York City – 52 “reporting areas” in all. Since 1997, the CDC’s totals have lacked data from some states (most notably California) for the years that those states did not report data to the agency. The four reporting areas that did not submit data to the CDC in 2021 – California, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey – accounted for approximately 25% of all legal induced abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to Guttmacher’s data. Most states, though,  do  have data in the reports, and the figures for the vast majority of them came from each state’s central health agency, while for some states, the figures came from hospitals and other medical facilities.

Discussion of CDC abortion data involving women’s state of residence, marital status, race, ethnicity, age, abortion history and the number of previous live births excludes the low share of abortions where that information was not supplied. Read the methodology for the CDC’s latest abortion surveillance report , which includes data from 2021, for more details. Previous reports can be found at  stacks.cdc.gov  by entering “abortion surveillance” into the search box.

For the numbers of deaths caused by induced abortions in 1963 and 1965, this analysis looks at reports by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, a precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services. In computing those figures, we excluded abortions listed in the report under the categories “spontaneous or unspecified” or as “other.” (“Spontaneous abortion” is another way of referring to miscarriages.)

Guttmacher data in this post comes from national surveys of abortion providers that Guttmacher has conducted 19 times since 1973. Guttmacher compiles its figures after contacting every known provider of abortions – clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices – in the country. It uses questionnaires and health department data, and it provides estimates for abortion providers that don’t respond to its inquiries. (In 2020, the last year for which it has released data on the number of abortions in the U.S., it used estimates for 12% of abortions.) For most of the 2000s, Guttmacher has conducted these national surveys every three years, each time getting abortion data for the prior two years. For each interim year, Guttmacher has calculated estimates based on trends from its own figures and from other data.

The latest full summary of Guttmacher data came in the institute’s report titled “Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2020.” It includes figures for 2020 and 2019 and estimates for 2018. The report includes a methods section.

In addition, this post uses data from StatPearls, an online health care resource, on complications from abortion.

An exact answer is hard to come by. The CDC and the Guttmacher Institute have each tried to measure this for around half a century, but they use different methods and publish different figures.

The last year for which the CDC reported a yearly national total for abortions is 2021. It found there were 625,978 abortions in the District of Columbia and the 46 states with available data that year, up from 597,355 in those states and D.C. in 2020. The corresponding figure for 2019 was 607,720.

The last year for which Guttmacher reported a yearly national total was 2020. It said there were 930,160 abortions that year in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, compared with 916,460 in 2019.

  • How the CDC gets its data: It compiles figures that are voluntarily reported by states’ central health agencies, including separate figures for New York City and the District of Columbia. Its latest totals do not include figures from California, Maryland, New Hampshire or New Jersey, which did not report data to the CDC. ( Read the methodology from the latest CDC report .)
  • How Guttmacher gets its data: It compiles its figures after contacting every known abortion provider – clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices – in the country. It uses questionnaires and health department data, then provides estimates for abortion providers that don’t respond. Guttmacher’s figures are higher than the CDC’s in part because they include data (and in some instances, estimates) from all 50 states. ( Read the institute’s latest full report and methodology .)

While the Guttmacher Institute supports abortion rights, its empirical data on abortions in the U.S. has been widely cited by  groups  and  publications  across the political spectrum, including by a  number of those  that  disagree with its positions .

These estimates from Guttmacher and the CDC are results of multiyear efforts to collect data on abortion across the U.S. Last year, Guttmacher also began publishing less precise estimates every few months , based on a much smaller sample of providers.

The figures reported by these organizations include only legal induced abortions conducted by clinics, hospitals or physicians’ offices, or those that make use of abortion pills dispensed from certified facilities such as clinics or physicians’ offices. They do not account for the use of abortion pills that were obtained  outside of clinical settings .

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A line chart showing the changing number of legal abortions in the U.S. since the 1970s.

The annual number of U.S. abortions rose for years after Roe v. Wade legalized the procedure in 1973, reaching its highest levels around the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher. Since then, abortions have generally decreased at what a CDC analysis called  “a slow yet steady pace.”

Guttmacher says the number of abortions occurring in the U.S. in 2020 was 40% lower than it was in 1991. According to the CDC, the number was 36% lower in 2021 than in 1991, looking just at the District of Columbia and the 46 states that reported both of those years.

(The corresponding line graph shows the long-term trend in the number of legal abortions reported by both organizations. To allow for consistent comparisons over time, the CDC figures in the chart have been adjusted to ensure that the same states are counted from one year to the next. Using that approach, the CDC figure for 2021 is 622,108 legal abortions.)

There have been occasional breaks in this long-term pattern of decline – during the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, and then again in the late 2010s. The CDC reported modest 1% and 2% increases in abortions in 2018 and 2019, and then, after a 2% decrease in 2020, a 5% increase in 2021. Guttmacher reported an 8% increase over the three-year period from 2017 to 2020.

As noted above, these figures do not include abortions that use pills obtained outside of clinical settings.

Guttmacher says that in 2020 there were 14.4 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. Its data shows that the rate of abortions among women has generally been declining in the U.S. since 1981, when it reported there were 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women in that age range.

The CDC says that in 2021, there were 11.6 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. (That figure excludes data from California, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey.) Like Guttmacher’s data, the CDC’s figures also suggest a general decline in the abortion rate over time. In 1980, when the CDC reported on all 50 states and D.C., it said there were 25 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44.

That said, both Guttmacher and the CDC say there were slight increases in the rate of abortions during the late 2010s and early 2020s. Guttmacher says the abortion rate per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 rose from 13.5 in 2017 to 14.4 in 2020. The CDC says it rose from 11.2 per 1,000 in 2017 to 11.4 in 2019, before falling back to 11.1 in 2020 and then rising again to 11.6 in 2021. (The CDC’s figures for those years exclude data from California, D.C., Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey.)

The CDC broadly divides abortions into two categories: surgical abortions and medication abortions, which involve pills. Since the Food and Drug Administration first approved abortion pills in 2000, their use has increased over time as a share of abortions nationally, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher.

The majority of abortions in the U.S. now involve pills, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher. The CDC says 56% of U.S. abortions in 2021 involved pills, up from 53% in 2020 and 44% in 2019. Its figures for 2021 include the District of Columbia and 44 states that provided this data; its figures for 2020 include D.C. and 44 states (though not all of the same states as in 2021), and its figures for 2019 include D.C. and 45 states.

Guttmacher, which measures this every three years, says 53% of U.S. abortions involved pills in 2020, up from 39% in 2017.

Two pills commonly used together for medication abortions are mifepristone, which, taken first, blocks hormones that support a pregnancy, and misoprostol, which then causes the uterus to empty. According to the FDA, medication abortions are safe  until 10 weeks into pregnancy.

Surgical abortions conducted  during the first trimester  of pregnancy typically use a suction process, while the relatively few surgical abortions that occur  during the second trimester  of a pregnancy typically use a process called dilation and evacuation, according to the UCLA School of Medicine.

In 2020, there were 1,603 facilities in the U.S. that provided abortions,  according to Guttmacher . This included 807 clinics, 530 hospitals and 266 physicians’ offices.

A horizontal stacked bar chart showing the total number of abortion providers down since 1982.

While clinics make up half of the facilities that provide abortions, they are the sites where the vast majority (96%) of abortions are administered, either through procedures or the distribution of pills, according to Guttmacher’s 2020 data. (This includes 54% of abortions that are administered at specialized abortion clinics and 43% at nonspecialized clinics.) Hospitals made up 33% of the facilities that provided abortions in 2020 but accounted for only 3% of abortions that year, while just 1% of abortions were conducted by physicians’ offices.

Looking just at clinics – that is, the total number of specialized abortion clinics and nonspecialized clinics in the U.S. – Guttmacher found the total virtually unchanged between 2017 (808 clinics) and 2020 (807 clinics). However, there were regional differences. In the Midwest, the number of clinics that provide abortions increased by 11% during those years, and in the West by 6%. The number of clinics  decreased  during those years by 9% in the Northeast and 3% in the South.

The total number of abortion providers has declined dramatically since the 1980s. In 1982, according to Guttmacher, there were 2,908 facilities providing abortions in the U.S., including 789 clinics, 1,405 hospitals and 714 physicians’ offices.

The CDC does not track the number of abortion providers.

In the District of Columbia and the 46 states that provided abortion and residency information to the CDC in 2021, 10.9% of all abortions were performed on women known to live outside the state where the abortion occurred – slightly higher than the percentage in 2020 (9.7%). That year, D.C. and 46 states (though not the same ones as in 2021) reported abortion and residency data. (The total number of abortions used in these calculations included figures for women with both known and unknown residential status.)

The share of reported abortions performed on women outside their state of residence was much higher before the 1973 Roe decision that stopped states from banning abortion. In 1972, 41% of all abortions in D.C. and the 20 states that provided this information to the CDC that year were performed on women outside their state of residence. In 1973, the corresponding figure was 21% in the District of Columbia and the 41 states that provided this information, and in 1974 it was 11% in D.C. and the 43 states that provided data.

In the District of Columbia and the 46 states that reported age data to  the CDC in 2021, the majority of women who had abortions (57%) were in their 20s, while about three-in-ten (31%) were in their 30s. Teens ages 13 to 19 accounted for 8% of those who had abortions, while women ages 40 to 44 accounted for about 4%.

The vast majority of women who had abortions in 2021 were unmarried (87%), while married women accounted for 13%, according to  the CDC , which had data on this from 37 states.

A pie chart showing that, in 2021, majority of abortions were for women who had never had one before.

In the District of Columbia, New York City (but not the rest of New York) and the 31 states that reported racial and ethnic data on abortion to  the CDC , 42% of all women who had abortions in 2021 were non-Hispanic Black, while 30% were non-Hispanic White, 22% were Hispanic and 6% were of other races.

Looking at abortion rates among those ages 15 to 44, there were 28.6 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic Black women in 2021; 12.3 abortions per 1,000 Hispanic women; 6.4 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic White women; and 9.2 abortions per 1,000 women of other races, the  CDC reported  from those same 31 states, D.C. and New York City.

For 57% of U.S. women who had induced abortions in 2021, it was the first time they had ever had one,  according to the CDC.  For nearly a quarter (24%), it was their second abortion. For 11% of women who had an abortion that year, it was their third, and for 8% it was their fourth or more. These CDC figures include data from 41 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

A bar chart showing that most U.S. abortions in 2021 were for women who had previously given birth.

Nearly four-in-ten women who had abortions in 2021 (39%) had no previous live births at the time they had an abortion,  according to the CDC . Almost a quarter (24%) of women who had abortions in 2021 had one previous live birth, 20% had two previous live births, 10% had three, and 7% had four or more previous live births. These CDC figures include data from 41 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

The vast majority of abortions occur during the first trimester of a pregnancy. In 2021, 93% of abortions occurred during the first trimester – that is, at or before 13 weeks of gestation,  according to the CDC . An additional 6% occurred between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, and about 1% were performed at 21 weeks or more of gestation. These CDC figures include data from 40 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

About 2% of all abortions in the U.S. involve some type of complication for the woman , according to an article in StatPearls, an online health care resource. “Most complications are considered minor such as pain, bleeding, infection and post-anesthesia complications,” according to the article.

The CDC calculates  case-fatality rates for women from induced abortions – that is, how many women die from abortion-related complications, for every 100,000 legal abortions that occur in the U.S .  The rate was lowest during the most recent period examined by the agency (2013 to 2020), when there were 0.45 deaths to women per 100,000 legal induced abortions. The case-fatality rate reported by the CDC was highest during the first period examined by the agency (1973 to 1977), when it was 2.09 deaths to women per 100,000 legal induced abortions. During the five-year periods in between, the figure ranged from 0.52 (from 1993 to 1997) to 0.78 (from 1978 to 1982).

The CDC calculates death rates by five-year and seven-year periods because of year-to-year fluctuation in the numbers and due to the relatively low number of women who die from legal induced abortions.

In 2020, the last year for which the CDC has information , six women in the U.S. died due to complications from induced abortions. Four women died in this way in 2019, two in 2018, and three in 2017. (These deaths all followed legal abortions.) Since 1990, the annual number of deaths among women due to legal induced abortion has ranged from two to 12.

The annual number of reported deaths from induced abortions (legal and illegal) tended to be higher in the 1980s, when it ranged from nine to 16, and from 1972 to 1979, when it ranged from 13 to 63. One driver of the decline was the drop in deaths from illegal abortions. There were 39 deaths from illegal abortions in 1972, the last full year before Roe v. Wade. The total fell to 19 in 1973 and to single digits or zero every year after that. (The number of deaths from legal abortions has also declined since then, though with some slight variation over time.)

The number of deaths from induced abortions was considerably higher in the 1960s than afterward. For instance, there were 119 deaths from induced abortions in  1963  and 99 in  1965 , according to reports by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, a precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC is a division of Health and Human Services.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published May 27, 2022, and first updated June 24, 2022.

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Support for legal abortion is widespread in many countries, especially in Europe

Nearly a year after roe’s demise, americans’ views of abortion access increasingly vary by where they live, by more than two-to-one, americans say medication abortion should be legal in their state, most latinos say democrats care about them and work hard for their vote, far fewer say so of gop, positive views of supreme court decline sharply following abortion ruling, most popular.

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