But, most U.S. guns are legally owned: police estimate there are two million guns in New York City, for example, and only about three percent are covered by valid firearm permits. When a gun goes off in Manhattan, says one New York reporter, a crime is usually involved. Of the 2,000 homicides reported in the city in 1993, about seventy-five percent were committed with handguns. (Sirs Researcher, page 2.) Two things that have triggered the gun epidemic in the last three decades in the U.S.: fear and drugs. The fear followed the race riots in the 1960's. Then the drugs became a factor. Many of the people in the drug trade get guns so that they have protection in case someone tries to steal their drugs or money. They believe it is some sort of security and defense, but it ends up causing more problems for people around them and themselves. The guns they use for so called protection are killing innocent people. .
One of the worst things that have occurring more and more have been school shootings. There have been shootings in Pearl, Mississippi, Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas, Edinboro, Pennsylvania, Fayetteville, Tennessee; Springfield, Oregon; and Littleton Colorado. The U.S. needs to have some sort of federal law to control all this mayhem. In Florida, 200 people attended a statewide conference on school violence in early May of 1993. The Sunshine State has seen school violence increase more than thirty-four percent from 46,088 incidents in the 1990-91 school year to 61,842 last year. .
If you are not a hunter why do you need a gun? Some people believe that you need a gun for self defense. Florida criminologists found that 645,000 times people used guns for self defense and in fifty percent of those situations people died. In other words, guns for self-defense give people a false sense of security. A gun in a home may be your last line of protection (Napper, page 4.) I believe if those who want some sort of self defense, should learn karate or take a special self defense class.