FREE ESSAY ON ANTIGUN CONTROL

ANTIGUN CONTROL

Outline for Persuasive Speech
I. Intro. - Imagine you are sitting home one night with nothing to do. Your parents have
gone away for the weekend and there is absolutely no one around. So you sit around that
night watching TV for awhile but find nothing on worth watching. You go on upstairs to
your room and get ready for bed. Turn off the lights, lay down, and close your eyes. All
of a sudden you here a crash of glass in your kitchen. You rush to your feet and put your
ear to the door listening to what's going on downstairs. You begin to hear the voice of
two men as they start going through the living room, making their way to the stairs,
right outside your room. What do you do? You aren't going to confront them since its just
you-remember you thought you heard two of them right?
Well you are really stuck in your room and all you can do is sit there hoping that they
leave soon and don't harm you. Now if it were at my house things would be a little bit
different. For starters I would get out my shotgun from my closet and begin to see what
is gin on down stairs. As soon as those burglars saw me walking around with a gun, you
better believe they would think twice about sticking around any longer.
II. Statistics- 
A. 39% of felons aborted a crime due to the victim being armed
B. 74% say they avoided dwellings all together if they felt they might be shot.
One of the major arguments against the theory that gun control would save lives is that
although two-thirds of all homicides are committed with firearms, firearm controls would
have no effect on homicide, because "human nature is what it is". Even if guns
disappeared from the crime scene, criminals would replace them with knives, clubs, axes,
or even fists. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Stated simply, these crimes
occur because some people have come to hate others, and they will continue to occur in
one form or another as long as hatred persists
III. Myths- Many gun owners agree that those who are promoting gun control are
misinformed. 
A. The one of those myths is "the only purpose of a handgun is to kill people"
1. An estimated 75-80 million privately owned handguns are used mainly for hunting,
target shooting, protection of families, and other legitimate and lawful purposes.
2. All of those who own guns for these reasons have the support of the National Rifle
Association (NRA).
a.) The NRA is composed mainly of hunters, gun owners and sports enthusiasts who firmly
believe that every American has the constitutional right to own firearms as guaranteed by
the Second Amendment.
b.) 3.5 million members include women and non-gun owners.
B. Another myth is that of "The majority of Americans favor strict new additional federal
gun controls 
1. Scientific polls indicate that most people oppose the costly restrictions of
firearms.
2. Americans, individually, as armed citizens are the best deterrent to violent criminal
attacks
3. It has been said that 81% of 1800 criminals agreed that a "smart criminal" would
attempt to find out if a potential victim is armed.
C. Yet another myth is "Gun control reduces crime"
1. The National Institute of Justice concluded that over 20,000 gun control laws "had no
impact in reducing criminal violence" 
2. A nationwide study found that violent crimes fell after states made it legal to carry
concealed handguns.
3. Also resulting in homicide decreasing by 8.5 percent, rape falling to 5 percent and
aggravated assault dropped by 7 percent.
Example: In the District of Columbia, no civilian can legally buy or carry a handgun, nor
keep a loaded or assembled gun in the home. In the years before 1976, the District of
Columbia had a fairly low crime rate, but since then, it has risen dramatically to become
one of the highest in the nation.
4. One of the main problems interfering with the acceptation of gun control is that
criminals do not acquire their guns legally anyway.
5.