One very large controversial topic in the United States has been the opinion on gun control. Honestly, I have never been interested in the topic of gun control because it has not been related to my life in any way. However, as I've grown up, I've met new people who have guns in their home or others who are licensed to use a gun. After this point, guns became an interest to me, especially since I really had no knowledge about them. I was born in Korea and lived there until I was seven years old. With this in mind, I am very familiar with both Korean and U.S. cultures. One major difference between the two countries is that it is legal to own a gun in the U.S. while it is illegal in Korea. In the United States, a gun is used as a threat to injure or even kill someone. However, in Korea this is rare because only the military and police are able to possess guns. In my opinion, when I think of guns, they are much more dangerous than other weapons. This opinion is probably due to one too many TV shows of seeing someone die from a gunshot wound. I have realized after research that I actually support citizens being able to possess a gun. I simply needed to understand both sides of the debate instead of just assuming things. 

The article, "Two Important Arguments from Both 'Sides' of the Gun Debate" by Tauriq Moosa, mainly discusses the claims from the supporters. People that support gun control say that by owning guns, we can stop regime control and protect ourselves from criminals. If there are no guns, governments have a greater chance for despotism. In America, we look down upon this form of strict government control. Foucault, DeBrabander says, "nothing suits power so well as extreme individualism." Without guns, it is much harder to protect the people we care about in case of an emergency, such as a terrorist attack. Another popular argument is that if gun ownership becomes a crime, then the only people who will have guns is criminals. This means that the good people will be disadvantaged because they are unarmed while criminals have a huge advantage with guns. Without guns, the chance of fighting back reduces significantly. 

On January 5, 2016, the BBC, British Broadcasting Center, published an article, "Guns in the US: The statistics behind the violence," which took the side against guns by giving statistics of gun violence in the United States last year. There were 372 mass shootings, killing 475 people and wounding 1,870. A mass shooting is when 4 or more people get killed or injured in a shooting. Another shocking data was that there were 64 school shootings. Out of all the murders in the United States in 2012, 60% were by guns while the next highest was Canada with 31%. Over half of murder cases were committed by a firearm. Within every statistics, the BBC gave a source to where they found the information.

Richard Perez-Pena, a The New York Times writer published, "Gun Control Explained," which gives a point of view from both sides. He clearly states that both sides main focus is preventing children from firing a gun, innocent deaths, and family member to die. Nobody wants gun violence to occur but the criminals are the problem. Nobody can distinguish a criminal by their appearance. Despite needing a license or any other legal documents to own a gun, criminals can make an exceptional fake documents, tricking the gun store owners to sell it to them. 

The arguments for both sides were very strong. There may be two sides that argue whether gun control freedom is right or wrong but both have strong motives, claims, and evidence. They do not want guns to end up hurting anyone, except criminals. People just want security by owning a gun so no one will dare to step into their homes. After researching gun control, I am on the side of citizens being able to own guns. If guns were harder to obtain or illegal for citizens, then nobody could protect themselves from criminals who more than likely will possess a gun. Just because the government makes something illegal does not mean it will be obliterated from all of the public. Many things are illegal, yet lots of people still have access to these things. To think just because something is illegal, it will be gone is absurd. 
