Video Assignment

Argument assignment

                                    Canada Gun Control

                                                          photo by Mitch Barrie

According to Amnesty International, more than 500 people die each day in incidents that involve gun violence. Today, there are hundreds of millions of guns owned by people and millions are produced each year. There have been heated debates over gun control laws with enthusiasts on both sides. Andrew Yen in his article argues that "guns should be widely available in Canada". According to Andrew, guns are necessary tools for self defense. He argues that guns are also a recreational activity and a good skill if learned to use properly. While owning guns may have some advantages but it comes with life threatening risks.
The self defense argument is perhaps the most widely used argument by the proponents of relax gun control laws. A gun at home can result in intentional or unintentional injuries or killings of innocent people, or of threatening people that could be thwarted without using a firearm. In an article, the writer argues that "guns kept in the home are more likely to be involved in a fatal or nonfatal unintentional shooting". A firearm is a tool that is made to kill. This capability of guns is enough reason to not own them. Rick Hemmingson in his article argues that the willingness of Canadians to carry concealed weapons for self defense
                           
                         "might lead to a vigilante attitude that could all too readily
                           result in an increase in violence in Canadian society"

Also, most gun owners are not trained how to use and when to use a gun. Yen argues that if proper training is given, "the average citizen can become quite adept with using a simple hand gun in a self defense situation" but even the trained ones do not have the mental training to control their emotions and avoid drawing guns in situations where guns are not needed. In an article in ScienceDaily, the author argues that we can not fully train ourselves for all encounters  where gun use is essential because we can never imagine all forms in which an attack can occur. A real attack is much different from a fake attack in a training institution. Because there, we already know that even if we make a mistake, we are not going to be killed.
yen cites Switzerland as an example and argues that their gun Control laws are quiet relax as compared to Canadian gun laws but not even a single mass shooting has occurred since the year 2001. While that may be true, we do not need to go farther than the US to know the effects of their lax firearm regulations. According to a  statistics, there were "twelve deaths per 100,000 people" in 2017 alone. In 2010, this ratio was 10.1 per 100,000 people. On the other hand, Australia, which has also strict gun laws, is one of the most peaceful countries when it comes to gun violence.
Finally, using guns as recreational tools is not a good idea keeping in mind the lethal risks that comes with it. Playing with tools that are meant to kill, can have unintentional lethal consequences.

Why I chose the topic:
                                 While using Google  trends, I learned that the word "laws" is more common than the word "Control". But I used the later over the former because of the content of my article."Canada gun Control" is widely searched as compared to "Gun control laws in Canada" and " Gun laws in Canada". Although, "Canada gun control" and "Gun laws in Canada" score almost the same but the former is more widely searched during last few months . Places where it is most widely used are Ontario and British Columbia.