However, many Americans own guns and/ or have the ability to be within possession of a gun. Most Americans who own guns own long guns, but handguns are the most commonly used in crimes. (Long 25).
Sociologist James Wright and Peter Rossi believe that criminals are more likely to own guns than the general public. (Strahinich 37) Gang members of today are more violent than in the first half of the century. These people are typical for criminal acts, which correlate to gun use. Gang members involve themselves in " serious crimes, drug-related behavior, and fire arm use."" (Bijlefeld 225) Without tight restrictions, guns are being easily accessed and practically given to gang members and criminal. Even at young ages guns are affecting lives. Because guns are easy to obtain, drug trafficking increase, violent media, no real family structures, and the number of gun-related cases involving adolescence has rose. (Scariano 73) .
With the increase of firearms in the U.S., is the increase of the suicide rate. (Cothran 22) Most being at challenging times in life and learning to adjust to life, teenagers turn to suicide believing that they have no hope. Most gun deaths are that of adolescence. "In 1990, murders, accidents, and suicides with the gun took 4,173 teenage lives."" (Scariano 9) "Suicides are approximately half of all firearm deaths in the United States, they were a uncommon cause of hospitalization for firearm injury."" (Bijlefeld 138) In the U.S. guns cause more deaths as a result of suicide than homicide each year. To reduce the number of deaths due to suicide, there should be tighter gun control. (Levine 45).
Handguns escalate violence and by restricting gun access the rate of intentional violence and the rate of unintentional injuries and death will reduce. (Bijlefeld xxxii) Many gun owners keep their weapons loaded, which cause accidents. "More than 1/3rd of gun owners keep their guns loaded either all the time (25%) or some of the time (12%).