One Writer's Opinion on Gun Control

By: Olivia Aragon

Illustrated by: Carla Cieza Espinoza

On Oct. 22, George Fox University locked down for several hours in response to an off-campus gun shot. 

Often when these types of events take place, the question of gun control is brought up: Do we need more of it? Or less? Is the problem the access to guns? Or the people wielding them?

Oregon has fairly loose gun regulations in comparison to much of the United States. A resident does not need a license in Oregon to own a gun, there is no waiting period to buy a gun, and open- and concealed-carry in Oregon are allowed with a permit.

To fully understand the debate of more or less gun control, it’s important to understand what each side is arguing and compare that to statistical data. 

Those who argue for more gun control want to decrease the amount of violence by guns and also lessen the number of deaths caused by guns. Supporters of less gun control say that more gun control does not actually decrease gun violence because violent criminals are already obtaining the guns illegally. In the vein of their argument, gun laws only prevent those who would not commit gun violence from getting them. 

Let’s see which arguments are backed up by data. 

Between the years 2015 to 2019 data was collected by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in gun-related deaths. In four years 194,130 people died due to gun violence, of those more the 60% were related to suicide-related deaths and 36% were homicide-related. 

Suicide taking up the bulk of gun-related deaths is often used to support the argument against gun control, since those who want to kill themselves would just find another way, right? 

Wrong. 

Based on a study done by Stanford University found that gun ownership in men raised the risk of suicide 8 times in men and 35 times in women. It would seem to me that gun availability does play a role in the likely hood of committing suicide. 

The second piece of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention data collected needs clarification: how many of the homicide-related deaths were in self-defense? One of the main arguments for guns is that it allows people to protect themselves. Pro-gun individuals separate this motivation from the other statistics, and defend gun usage by perceiving homicide-related incidents as lacking the full scope of the situation. 

Based on available data and studies it does appear that gun control does help decrease the amount of gun-related deaths. The issue on the table seems to be more relevant to the kind of gun control. 

Alternative arguments to gun-control include banning AK-47 or machine guns. I believe, logistically, those types of guns do not take up that significant of a portion of gun deaths, therefore banning them would not help all that much in preventing gun-related deaths. 

What is going to help prevent gun-related deaths?  It may be time for some more innovative ideas to treat the issues at hand.

Illustrated by Carla Cieza Espinoza