Gun Control Has Become a Term Paper

Crime rates do not drop with restrictions on gun control because crimes have been shown to be intent driven rather than means driven. Which simply means that those who are interested in committing crimes will usually do so given any access or restrictions standards? It is evident from this analysis that guns have little impact upon crime rates. However, gun control advocacies use misinformation to present a dangerous position to the public.

Another important factor in media manipulation is the use of specific misinformation to influence public opinion to support severity within gun legislation. Popular gun control advocacies use strong statistics to influence the public into perceiving that gun control is not only needed, but that gun violence is an escalating crime that needs to provide greater security mandates. Oftentimes they use deceiving statistics as a means to manipulate public opinion on the prevalence of firearms. For instance, the Brady campaign, a gun control advocacy argues that 192 million American owned a firearm. This statistic would suggest that the majority of Americans, since the total population of the United States is less than 400 million have owned a gun. However, as Sarah Beale notes in her analysis of Media influences no criminal justice, in actuality gun ownership within the United States is below the 30% marker. These statistics while valid are presented in a misleading fashion since it accounts for gun ownership within the past five years. At the same time, position of firearms for recreational purposes are also counted within ownership despite a different validation and checking procedure for hunting related weaponry. Beale argues that gun control groups skew public perception by increasing the dramatization of the scope of problems. Gun related deaths is in actuality one of the less severe criminal problems within the United States, much less prevalent than drug related crimes. However, it is prosecuted much more severely than possession with the intent to sell of certain narcotics. The implication of this analysis is simple. Gun control advocacies utilize hyperbole and misleading media campaigns to influence public opinion on the dangers of gun related crimes and deaths.Dramatization has an adverse impact upon legislation by increasing the number of legislations related to gun control and increase of gun scrutiny within state and national legislation.

In the final analysis, both sides of the gun control issue have used misinformation to manipulate public sentiment. The direct result is that gun legislations are oftentimes both prominently featured and either too lenient or severe. The reality of the gun debate is that it has little influence upon society other than from a jurisdictional perspective. Gun ownership within the United States is not nearly as high as purported by the media, nor is gun related violence an important part of our criminal system. Guns have a rather small influence on actual social norms, but it appears to command significant attention on the national level. The difference from its impact and influence can be attributed to the misinformation that both sides of the conflict have perpetuated through the use of media outlets and public sentiment. The actual result is that resources and time are being diverted away from issues that matter. It is up to the media system and the national audience to look through biased statistics and concentrated manipulation tactics in order to emphasize the facts related to guns. Understanding their actual role within society will not marginalize the issue, but rather reorient society into understanding the implicit pros and cons related to this issue.

Firearm facts, Bradycampaign.org

The News Media's Influence on Criminal justice policy: how Market-driven news promotes punitive ness, Sara sun Beale, Duke law school working paper series 2007 paper 85

Counting Guns, Randolph Roth. Social Science History 26:4 winter 2002

Would Banning Firearms reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of international evidence, Gary a. Mauser & Don B. Kates. Bepress Legal Series 2006 paper 1564

Shooting down the more guns, less crime hypothesis, John J. Donohue & Ian Ayres. Center for the study….....