I first looked into researching this topic because it is an issue that has been the focus of many new reports and even presidential debates in the past year. I personally have always believed that making gun laws stricter is not going to do anything to stop those who aim to kill because if they are willing to take another person's life they will have no problem obtaining a gun illegally. As I continue with my research process I am continually finding that there are an array of articles that both agree and disagree with me on this topic. My research question does not personally affect me because I am too young to own a gun of my own; however, I do believe that people's gun rights should not be taken away from them because others cannot learn to control themselves. Growing up my parents and grandparents have always taught my brothers and me gun safety as well as what is right and wrong. Although I am not the most informed person when it comes to gun laws, with research and the experience that I do I have I will be able to argue my claim that gun laws do not affect the rates of deaths caused by firearms.

In order to prove my claim I needed to find sources that show history and data pertaining to deaths caused by firearms as well as articles that argue the same point as me. The first article that I found gives information about a survey that was conducted in order to determine the number of people that own guns in the United States, as well as providing a source for anyone trying to show a correlation between gun ownership and deaths by firearms. This is a beneficial source because it is strictly informational and contains no bias since it was only research that was conducted to inform the general public. Many of the authors are credible because they are professors or have involvement with the media, which allows them to stay up to date on current information and events. 

While my first article focused on informational data my second article concentrates on whether or not there is not enough information to prove that removing fire arms from homes, in Australia, will lower the number of accidental deaths as well as deaths caused by fire arms. The authors of this article use evidence to support this claim by researching death rates of people since the Australian Firearms Legislation of 1996. Although this article talks about research of Australian gun laws I thought it could be beneficial to include in order to show other countries attempts at stricter gun laws. The authors of this article are involved in research units, Supporting Shooters Association of Australia, and Australia and International Coalition for Women in Shooting and Hunting. All of these factors give the authors the knowledge and experience that they need in order to correctly and effectively relay the effects of gun laws in their country. 

My final article is the most beneficial for my research because it is one that has the same claim as me and has been able to refute an opposing argument using collected data. Throughout this article Tomislav V. Kovandzic claims that a previous article he studied contained no statistical information to prove that there was a negative relationship between gun control laws and deaths by firearms in their data set. He uses the previous authors own information along with other research studies to prove that from the beginning their claim was incorrect. Kovandzic is a Professor at the school of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University which gives him insight to many of the laws in Florida. There is no bias in his work because he always proves a claim with research and information that was previously proven by another researcher other than himself. For all three of these article I do not think many people would disagree because they are mainly studies to inform people. Nevertheless I do think that anyone who disagrees with these articles will do so because it goes against their moral values and beliefs.

My research question is arguable because you have to look at history of deaths caused by fire arms and its relationship to gun laws to know if there is a significant correlation or not. Many people disagree on this topic, therefore making it debatable. All of my chosen articles look at the subject from a study point of view in order to find a statistical correlation between gun laws and deaths caused by firearms. In the beginning I was just interested in gun laws in general; however, that topic was too vague so I narrowed it in to the correlation between gun laws and mass shooting. After finding sources and reading my peer memos I have decided that it is better if I focus more on all deaths by firearms, in the United States, rather than just the mass shootings.

