Today is a dangerous time for anyone, whether a criminal or law-abiding citizen, to reside in America. Although dubbed the country of freedom, America faces an appalling rate of violence unmatched by the majority of nations around the world. A vast police network is scarcely adequate to prevent drive-by shootings, rape, gang violence, and murders. In an effort to eliminate the savagery committed by fellow Americans unto each other, many political organizations (with voters" support) have toiled to pass various gun control laws. The most well-known, the Brady Bill, endeavors to control a high rate of gun purchases. Presently, about 192 million firearms are privately owned in the US. Furthermore, in 1998, licensed firearm dealers sold an estimated 4.4 million guns, 1.7 million of which were handguns. The Brady Bill was passed five years beforehand in November 1993, and stipulated that individuals convicted of a felony would be barred from purchasing guns. Unfortunately, despite the good will behind the Brady Bill and similar proposals, the startling criminal statistics remain. Three years after passing the Brady Bill, in 1996 alone, handguns murdered 2 people in New Zealand, 15 people in Japan, 30 people in Great Britain, 106 people in Canada, and 9,390 people in the United States (US Federal Bureau of Investigation). One must question these cold numbers which do not reveal all. This is particularly true in the case of individuals who pull the trigger on themselves. A report by the Los Angeles Times cited over 3,400 gun deaths **. The report failed to include that roughly half of that tremendous number was by account of suicides. Anti-gun leaders obscure several statistics and provide ineffectual reasons for gun restrictions that do not aim toward the root of the problem. Clearly, the enactment of gun control laws achieve little in curbing violence, and the NRA advocates this fact.
