Gun Control Cause and Effect Essay Ideas?

BKH · March 5, 2013, 12:55 PM

My final for my English class this semester is a cause and effect paper. I've chosen to write about gun control. It's a college essay, so it's going to be pretty thorough, and I figured I would see if anyone here had any ideas they would like to suggest. It's going to be focused on three causes, and the resulting effect. Gun control is a very broad subject, so feel free to suggest whatever you like.

Brian Pfleuger · March 5, 2013, 12:57 PM

You should have at least a section that's focused on racism. There is NO DOUBT that the root cause of a great deal of early gun control efforts was racism. Particularly laws in the southeast and the Sullivan Law in New York City, which was INDISPUTABLY intended to disarm immigrants so that Sullivan's thug friends could rob them safely. You could probably fill the whole paper on that topic alone and it gives a whole new spin that most (modern) anti-gunners have never considered.

lcpiper · March 5, 2013, 01:23 PM

It's just a wiki page but start here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Firearms_Act

I would start with the National Firearms Acts of 1934/1968(Title II), and the Gun Control Act of 1968 ("GCA") is Title I. These are the foundation of Federal Gun Control Law in the US.

Then you could hit the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), or Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, which was a subtitle of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

Each and every one of these Federal Laws seek to define weapons or categories of weapons(not just firearms), and then regulate their manufacture, import, possession, ownership, and transfer, and other things as well. Each one had a defining purpose stated or otherwise, and they often had effects that fell outside of their stated purpose as well as failures to achieve the desired and/or stated objectives of the legislation.

You need to cover the stated objective of the legislation vs. the actual effects of the legislation, and challenges or court reversals/descissions that may have nullified elements of the legislation as passed.

Then if you want you can roll into what has and is currently being done in regards to gun control at the State level, but that paper is really going to grow. Then again, if it looks like it is going to come up short you could prepare and have a ready to go path for expansion. Don't try state by state, just add things by issue and correlate the issues with which states support them or supported them and later stopped because they decided against it.

These are the real good ones because they represent things that were tried and simply failed because they were a bad idea to begin with, even though some folks are still pushing them as solutions.

BKH · March 5, 2013, 01:44 PM

Wow. I wasn't expecting such detailed responses. I thought I'd share something I found just looking around for resources. It's a good paper.

http://rense.com/general32/nine.htm

**Spats McGee** · March 5, 2013, 01:48 PM

Might I also recommend the TFL Library as a good starting point?

RickB · March 5, 2013, 02:15 PM

I'd certainly explore the creation of "gun free zones" actually resulting in free-fire zones. It's no coincidence that mass killings take place in schools.

**44 AMP** · March 5, 2013, 11:30 PM

Another effect of gun control you might want to consider is the popularity gun control gives to certain guns. Forbidden Fruit, as it were.

For just one instance, AR 15 rifles have been sold in the US since the earliest days of the design over 50 years ago. They were moderatly popular but nothing big in the non military and police community. Like wise several other guns labeled assault weapons today.

"hi cap" mags have been around since the First World War. The now infamous "30 round mag" has been common for decades. Why now, starting back with the 94 AWB have these things become such a "threat?", and, because of fear of bans, so popular?

Another unintended consequence of the 94 AWB with its ten round mag limits was to popularize a smaller and more easily concealed pistol. IF it can only havfe 10, then shorten the butt, and the slide to match, and now, its even better for CCW! I rather confidant that was not what the writers of that law had in mind...

Just a couple of ideas of some of the causes and effects that aren't usually at the forefront of the discussions....for a paper, might just be a "unique perspective"...good luck!

scrubcedar · March 5, 2013, 11:56 PM

There's some more good info on German and English Laws here. http://thefiringline.com/forums/show...42#post5373642

jp_over · March 6, 2013, 03:40 AM

Quote:

My final for my English class this semester is a cause and effect paper. I've chosen to write about gun control. It's a college essay, so it's going to be pretty thorough, and I figured I would see if anyone here had any ideas they would like to suggest. It's going to be focused on three causes, and the resulting effect. Gun control is a very broad subject, so feel free to suggest whatever you like.

I'd recommend something discussing/exploring the early enforcers of gun control related to oppressive, communist, and socialist regimes (Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini - have not researched these myself). Such that one might see who we're following and where our great Nation is headed...

thedudeabides · March 6, 2013, 06:10 AM

Depending on where you go to school, you may get graded extra harsh for a pro-gun paper.

Glenn E. Meyer · March 6, 2013, 10:57 AM

That's a real risk. Use Google scholar for the real lit. A prof might not like internet popular sources. Kleck and Kopel are good names to search on.

Lott has some scholarly problems - if the prof knows the lit.

Gaerek · March 6, 2013, 11:11 AM

Here's a fun graph (and included explanation) that shows the effect of gun control on murder rate since the late 1800's.

http://extranosalley.com/?p=40867

It's pretty telling...stricter gun control results in an increase in murder rate. Lessening gun control (as in states laxing rules for obtaining CCW permits in the last 20 years or so) results in a lower murder rate.

Skans · March 6, 2013, 02:18 PM

If you want to do a little quantitative/qualitative analysis, I'd plot the rise (or fall) in NRA membership in conjunction with the number of gun ban proposals, state and federal.

How about plotting gun prices and / or ammo prices as an indicator of public demand for these things in relation to gun ban rhetoric.

If you can get enough quantitative and qualitative variables you should be able to incorporate some sort of regression analysis to prove various cause-affect relationships. A true cause and effect paper is a cheesy topic for an English class. Because it doesn't involve any genuine research, you may just be regurgitating a bunch of other people's opinions.

I could think of a bunch of original projects to conduct on a college campus to collect data and write a paper around it developing various surveys and questions. I admit, this would be better for a stats class rather than an English writing class.

Have fun with it. If you have a liberal professor, and you don't give him/her the answer they want, don't expect a good grade. If I had to do college all over again, I'd be a holy terror, rubbing liberal professors' noses in their ignorant garbage every chance I got.

Dwight55 · March 7, 2013, 08:04 AM

Personally, . . . I would take Chicago and Washington DC as example "A" and contrast their "gun control" effects, problems, results against an area in down state Illinois and another in Virginia, . . . example "B".

The proximities of each rule out geographical or weather or other natural phenomina affecting the numbers, . . . makes it hinge on the "people" of each of the 4 groups.

Look at gun involved crime rates: homicide rates per 100K, suicide rates per 100K, armed robberies, random drive by shootings.

If you are brave, . . . take a look at two books by Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape, and The Human Zoo. Both were early 70's works, but show the very different mind set of animals confined to cages, how petty their activities become, . . . and how strikingly they correlate to the inner cities.

And, . . . good luck, . . . come back and tell us what happened, how it worked out.

May God bless,
Dwight

RickB · March 7, 2013, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Personally, . . . I would take Chicago and Washington DC as example "A" and contrast their "gun control" effects, problems, results against an area in down state Illinois and another in Virginia, . . . example "B".

There's a news story today, telling us that the areas in the U.S. with the strictest gun control have the least gun crime, and those with the fewest gun laws have the most. Interesting news.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...-is-that-true/

Dwight55 · March 7, 2013, 09:59 PM

Quote:

There's a news story today, telling us that the areas in the U.S. with the strictest gun control have the least gun crime, and those with the fewest gun laws have the most. Interesting news.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...-is-that-true/
Today 08:04 AM

Actually, . . . its a whole lot closer to a BS story than it is to news.

Once you begin to dig into what they did and how they did it, . . . it was more or less a manufactured story to prove that indeed the moon is really made of green cheese, . . . has to be true, . . . saw it on Youtube.

It's a perfect fit for a Mark Twain statement about the different classes of untruths: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.

May God bless,
Dwight

bbqbob51 · March 10, 2013, 10:30 PM

Look here for some statistics:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr...t-crime/murder
Statistics can be boring but there is some interesting stuff there about violent crime and what is actually used to commit the crimes.

March 5, 2013, 12:55 PM	#1
BKH Junior Member Join Date: December 7, 2012 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 13	Gun Control Cause and Effect Essay Ideas? My final for my English class this semester is a cause and effect paper. I've chosen to write about gun control. It's a college essay, so it's going to be pretty thorough, and I figured I would see if anyone here had any ideas they would like to suggest. It's going to be focused on three causes, and the resulting effect. Gun control is a very broad subject, so feel free to suggest whatever you like.

March 5, 2013, 12:57 PM	#2
Brian Pfleuger Moderator Emeritus Join Date: June 25, 2008 Location: Austin, CO Posts: 19,578	You should have at least a section that's focused on racism. There is NO DOUBT that the root cause of a great deal of early gun control efforts was racism. Particularly laws in the southeast and the Sullivan Law in New York City, which was INDISPUTABLY intended to disarm immigrants so that Sullivan's thug friends could rob them safely. You could probably fill the whole paper on that topic alone and it gives a whole new spin that most (modern) anti-gunners have never considered. __________________ Nobody plans to screw up their lives... ...they just don't plan not to. -Andy Stanley

March 5, 2013, 01:23 PM	#3
lcpiper Senior Member Join Date: May 15, 2011 Posts: 1,405	It's just a wiki page but start here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Firearms_Act I would start with the National Firearms Acts of 1934/1968(Title II), and the Gun Control Act of 1968 ("GCA") is Title I. These are the foundation of Federal Gun Control Law in the US. Then you could hit the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), or Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, which was a subtitle of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Each and every one of these Federal Laws seek to define weapons or categories of weapons(not just firearms), and then regulate their manufacture, import, possession, ownership, and transfer, and other things as well. Each one had a defining purpose stated or otherwise, and they often had effects that fell outside of their stated purpose as well as failures to achieve the desired and/or stated objectives of the legislation. You need to cover the stated objective of the legislation vs. the actual effects of the legislation, and challenges or court reversals/descissions that may have nullified elements of the legislation as passed. Then if you want you can roll into what has and is currently being done in regards to gun control at the State level, but that paper is really going to grow. Then again, if it looks like it is going to come up short you could prepare and have a ready to go path for expansion. Don't try state by state, just add things by issue and correlate the issues with which states support them or supported them and later stopped because they decided against it. These are the real good ones because they represent things that were tried and simply failed because they were a bad idea to begin with, even though some folks are still pushing them as solutions. __________________ Colt M1911, AR-15 \| S&W Model 19, Model 27\| SIG P238 \| Berreta 85B Cheetah \| Ruger Blackhawk .357MAG, Bearcat "Shopkeeper" .22LR\| Remington Marine Magnum SP 12GA., Model 700 SPS .223

March 5, 2013, 01:48 PM	#5
Spats McGee Staff Join Date: July 28, 2010 Location: Arkansas Posts: 8,821	Might I also recommend the TFL Library as a good starting point? __________________ I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. If you need some honest-to-goodness legal advice, go buy some.

March 5, 2013, 11:30 PM	#7
44 AMP Staff Join Date: March 11, 2006 Location: Upper US Posts: 28,832	Another effect of gun control you might want to consider is the popularity gun control gives to certain guns. Forbidden Fruit, as it were. For just one instance, AR 15 rifles have been sold in the US since the earliest days of the design over 50 years ago. They were moderatly popular but nothing big in the non military and police community. Like wise several other guns labeled assault weapons today. "hi cap" mags have been around since the First World War. The now infamous "30 round mag" has been common for decades. Why now, starting back with the 94 AWB have these things become such a "threat?", and, because of fear of bans, so popular? Another unintended consequence of the 94 AWB with its ten round mag limits was to popularize a smaller and more easily concealed pistol. IF it can only havfe 10, then shorten the butt, and the slide to match, and now, its even better for CCW! I rather confidant that was not what the writers of that law had in mind... Just a couple of ideas of some of the causes and effects that aren't usually at the forefront of the discussions....for a paper, might just be a "unique perspective"...good luck! __________________ All else being equal (and it almost never is) bigger bullets tend to work better.

March 5, 2013, 01:44 PM	#4
BKH Junior Member Join Date: December 7, 2012 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 13	Wow. I wasn't expecting such detailed responses. I thought I'd share something I found just looking around for resources. It's a good paper. http://rense.com/general32/nine.htm

March 5, 2013, 02:15 PM	#6
RickB Senior Member Join Date: March 1, 2000 Location: Boise, ID Posts: 8,518	I'd certainly explore the creation of "gun free zones" actually resulting in free-fire zones. It's no coincidence that mass killings take place in schools.

March 5, 2013, 11:56 PM	#8
scrubcedar Senior Member Join Date: May 3, 2012 Location: Southwestern Colorado Posts: 507	There's some more good info on German and English Laws here. http://thefiringline.com/forums/show...42#post5373642 __________________ Gaily bedight, A gallant knight In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of El Dorado

March 6, 2013, 06:10 AM	#10
thedudeabides Senior Member Join Date: August 22, 2012 Posts: 1,031	Depending on where you go to school, you may get graded extra harsh for a pro-gun paper.

March 6, 2013, 10:57 AM	#11
Glenn E. Meyer Senior Member Join Date: November 17, 2000 Posts: 20,064	That's a real risk. Use Google scholar for the real lit. A prof might not like internet popular sources. Kleck and Kopel are good names to search on. Lott has some scholarly problems - if the prof knows the lit. __________________ NRA, TSRA, IDPA, NTI, Polite Soc. - Aux Armes, Citoyens

March 6, 2013, 11:11 AM	#12
Gaerek Senior Member Join Date: October 3, 2012 Location: Arizona Posts: 939	Here's a fun graph (and included explanation) that shows the effect of gun control on murder rate since the late 1800's. http://extranosalley.com/?p=40867 It's pretty telling...stricter gun control results in an increase in murder rate. Lessening gun control (as in states laxing rules for obtaining CCW permits in the last 20 years or so) results in a lower murder rate.

March 6, 2013, 02:18 PM	#13
Skans Senior Member Join Date: November 20, 2008 Posts: 11,132	If you want to do a little quantitative/qualitative analysis, I'd plot the rise (or fall) in NRA membership in conjunction with the number of gun ban proposals, state and federal. How about plotting gun prices and / or ammo prices as an indicator of public demand for these things in relation to gun ban rhetoric. If you can get enough quantitative and qualitative variables you should be able to incorporate some sort of regression analysis to prove various cause-affect relationships. A true cause and effect paper is a cheesy topic for an English class. Because it doesn't involve any genuine research, you may just be regurgitating a bunch of other people's opinions. I could think of a bunch of original projects to conduct on a college campus to collect data and write a paper around it developing various surveys and questions. I admit, this would be better for a stats class rather than an English writing class. Have fun with it. If you have a liberal professor, and you don't give him/her the answer they want, don't expect a good grade. If I had to do college all over again, I'd be a holy terror, rubbing liberal professors' noses in their ignorant garbage every chance I got. Last edited by Skans; March 6, 2013 at 02:23 PM.

March 7, 2013, 08:04 AM	#14
Dwight55 Senior Member Join Date: June 18, 2004 Location: Central Ohio Posts: 2,568	Personally, . . . I would take Chicago and Washington DC as example "A" and contrast their "gun control" effects, problems, results against an area in down state Illinois and another in Virginia, . . . example "B". The proximities of each rule out geographical or weather or other natural phenomina affecting the numbers, . . . makes it hinge on the "people" of each of the 4 groups. Look at gun involved crime rates: homicide rates per 100K, suicide rates per 100K, armed robberies, random drive by shootings. If you are brave, . . . take a look at two books by Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape, and The Human Zoo. Both were early 70's works, but show the very different mind set of animals confined to cages, how petty their activities become, . . . and how strikingly they correlate to the inner cities. And, . . . good luck, . . . come back and tell us what happened, how it worked out. May God bless, Dwight __________________ www.dwightsgunleather.com If you can breathe, . . . thank God! If you can read, . . . thank a teacher! If you are reading this in English, . . . thank a Veteran!

March 10, 2013, 10:30 PM	#17
bbqbob51 Senior Member Join Date: November 6, 2005 Posts: 775	Look here for some statistics: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr...t-crime/murder Statistics can be boring but there is some interesting stuff there about violent crime and what is actually used to commit the crimes.