Handgun Essay, Research Paper

Handgun

Because the prison population has doubled since 1984, it is really urgent for people to pay attention to the method of decreasing the crime rate. Basically, it is true that “locking people up is obviously not the answer to the crime problem. Training and educating people is one answer.” (Los Angeles Time, Joseph Mayfield) But training and educating people to lower the crime rate may only work under some conditions. For instance, this can only apply to the criminal who committed a crime because of his poverty or lack of education. How about those criminals who are rich and well educated?

As we know, there are many criminals who were wealthy and well educated , such as Mr. Keating involves the crime of Lincoln Savings. Mr. Keating had a good job and has been well educated, but he still committed a crime. From this point of view, job training and education may not effectively decrease this kind of crime. Locking these rich and well educated criminals up is the better way to prevent them from committing crime. Therefore, the government may spend as much money on prison as on education. Spending money on prison is not wasteful.

Passing laws to outlaw the possession of automatic weapons and set the restriction on private gun holders may not effectively lower the crime rate. Actually, limiting the quantity of automatic weapons may only lower the degree of damage, but not really lower the crime rate. Without automatic weapons, people still can use their hands or non-automatic weapons committing crimes. For instance, there are computer criminals who steal firms’ secret business files through computer Inter-net system. These criminals commit crime only by their technical knowledge, not by automatic weapons. Very possibly, passing laws to outlaw the possession of automatic weapon may not really lower the crime rate. Passing serious punishment to threaten people, such as death penalty and not allowing parole may be a more effective way to solve crime problems. With serious punishment, people may realize that committing crime is worthless. For instance, a drug dealer may gain a lot of money from the selling drug, but what can money do for him, if the drug dealer has to stay prison for rest of his life? Therefore, laws with serious punishment may prevent people from committing crime and effectively lower the crime rate.