Jessica+Medina+Persuasive+Essay

[|On September 14, 2011, a 1 year old girl named Samyah Bailey was shot in the face while sitting in her stroller at the park]. She was taken to the hospital and she lived but she lost her eye. All of this happened while this little girl was with her dad having a nice day at the park. The one who fired the shot was Damark King who was 19 years old. He shot the gun, hoping to target the girls uncle. But instead, the bullet hit the 1 year old girl. Later on police, police arrested the alleged shooter, and 3 other men. But, even if they are arrested, that little girl still lost her eye. I think that non-police officers over the age of 18 shouldn't be allowed to carry guns for 3 reasons: they're not trained, they could harm innocent people, and little kids can get a hold of it. The first reason that I think non-police officers over the age of 18 shouldn't be allowed to carry guns is because they're not trained. Any person can have a gun and use it with out actually knowing how to use it. They don't know what precautions to have in mind before using it. Because of this, some people shoot themselves because they don't really know how to use a gun. [|Actually, 592 people killed themselves accidentally in one year.] It might look like suicide, but some people shoot themselves accidentally. All those people were innocent, they just didn't know how to use a gun and died by a self-inflicted gun shot. The second reason I think that non-police officers shouldn't be allowed to carry guns is because they could harm innocent people. The person can have bad intentions in mind. They might want to kill people who are innocent. Also, a mentally ill person can get a hold of a gun. They might want to kill innocent people who didn't do anything to deserve getting killed. [|For example, in 2007, 33 people were killed on the campus of Virginia Tech University]. The killer was armed and at the end, killed himself. The killer's name was Seung-Hui Cho. He was mentally ill and caused the Virginia Tech massacre, it was one of the deadliest shooting incidents by a single human being in U.S history. If he wouldn't have had this gun, all of those 33 innocent students would've been alive. The third reason I think that non-police officers shouldn't be allowed to carry guns is because little kids can get a hold of it. You could hide a gun in a safe place but there's still a possibility that a little kid can find it. Some people also could be very careless and not hide the gun in a good place. If a little kid gets curious and starts looking around, they could find the gun. They might start playing with it since they don't know what it is or what it could do. They might think it's a toy. This might lead to the little kid shooting themselves by accident. More than 500 children die annually form accidental gun shots.[| A 3 year old boy was sitting in the car at the gas station waiting for his parent. While waiting, he found a gun in the front seat. He started playing with it and shot himself in the face.] If his parents wouldn't have had the gun or would've put it in a safer place, that little boy wouldn't have shot himself in the face. Too many kids get killed each year because of this. Others may say that carrying a gun good in case they need it for self-defense. They think that a gun could help them protect themselves form other people. It's understandable to want to protect yourself or someone you care about but an innocent person can get killed or injured because of this. [|Actually, most causes of hunting accidents were found to be failure to identify the target.] A person can think that they are shooting the right person, but it ends up being someone else who didn't have anything to do with the situation. The victim was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Some may also argue that people should carry guns because it reduces crime. If one person knows that the other person has a gun, they might not think about hurting them. They might not do anything because they know that the other person has a gun too. But really this isn't true. [|Crime victims rarely use weapons.]Most victims don't have a gun to defend themselves. So really, this doesn't help in reducing crimes. Victims don't know they're going to be attacked, they're not ready with a gun. In conclusion, I think that non-police officers over the age of 18 shouldn't be allowed to carry guns. The number of people dying over gun violence is too high. A lot of these people die unintentionally. Because of people carrying guns, a lot of people are killed or injured. The amount of little kids getting shot each year is also really high. Some may say that more people owning guns will decrease crime rates but facts say otherwise. Non-police officers shouldn't be allowed to carry guns at all.