Should civilians possess guns legally?

The issue of whether civilians can possess firearms legally has been controversial for a long time. This agenda undergoes severe arguments in the gun-friendly countries, especially the U.S. Civilians of the unsteady public security countries claim that they strongly need the firearms to protect themselves. Otherwise, they may be killed and die hopelessly. On the other hand, some people consider possessing firearms dangerous for every individual and the whole society, except for the police or militia because it will make killing easier. With the outburst of the incident of Virginia Tech, the U.S. government start to think whether it is decent for civilians to own a gun or the society needs a stricter gun law. In my opinion, I disagree that civilians could own a gun legally because of the increasing gunshot victims, gunshot accident, and suicide problem.


Gun involved crimes often result in lethal death. According to the Jeffrey A. Roth’s Firearms and Violence Report, NIJ Research, almost sixty percent of murder victims, which are about twelve thousand people, are killed by deadly firearms. With the increase of crime rate, the number of the victims killed by gunshot rise year by year. For those who are seriously injured by firearm attack, though not dead, some of them suffer from life-long illness or permanent disability. Beside the increasing victims, the free access to guns makes the situation even worse. In Arizona, U.S., it is legal for civilians to won a gun for self-protection. However, last year, a student of University of Arizona shot three professors and killed himself only because he failed the class. Together with the incident of Virginia Tech, it gives us an alert that maybe we should retrieve civilians’ rights to possess the dangerous firearms


Although the original purpose of possessing a gun is self-defense, more and more people die of accidental shooting. The firing mechanism of most of the guns nowadays is not well-designed. The trigger is very easy to pull, so even the five-year-old kid will be able to shoot. As the result, some people would get hurt by the accidental shootings. Moreover, the NIJ Research notes us that a gun kept in the house is forty-three times more likely to kill a member of the household or a friend by accident. Besides accidental shootings, the phenomenon of using firearms to commit suicide within a gun present household is five times more than those without guns. Ironically, guns, whose original aim is to protect human life, become the tool of suicide. Once guns are used, it would definitely lead to user’s lethal death. Why we should have such a dangerous weapon in our house. The U.S. government should take immediate action to prevent the situation from happening.


No matter how severe anti-gunner criticizes the possession of guns, a lot of people still insist on owing firearms to be legalized because of self-defense. Self-defense is commonly cited as the reason to possess firearms and about forty percent of the gun owners purchase gun for this reason. Indeed, the NIJ Research shows us that murder victims who defend themselves with guns are less likely to report being injured than those defend themselves with other means or takes no protection measure at all. With guns, victims can protect themselves but not wait to die hopelessly. Also, sometimes it is too late when the police and investigator come to rescue them. Moreover, however strict the gun possession legislation may be, the villains will always get a gun. One gun dealer in New York claim that more than half of the legal purchased guns make their way into the illegal market. Seeing that strict law can’t avoid felon and criminal from obtaining guns, pro-gunners declare the need of possessing a fun for civilians is necessary.


Whether civilians could own a gun is still under severe argument in the U.S. Though I disagree to have citizens possess gun legally, if the law eventually passes and civilians could own a gun legally, I think it should be legalized under certain circumstance. The national system for registering gun and ammunition would be a good example. In the U.S., different states have different laws. Even though people are unable to get firearms in one state, they can still get them “legally” in another. Besides the system, stiffer sentence for gun crime, instant background checks of purchaser, and gun education are preconditions to allow civilians to possess firearms legally.

What a week!!

This week is really a week of “Inconvenient Truth.” Last Thursday, Donna showed us a film called “Inconvenient Truth,” which talks about the problem to global warming. Though I had heard the title of the film before, I watched the entire film until my teacher showed that on Thursday. After watching the film, I had a lot of reflections. With the comparison of the pictures of glaciers Mr. Core showed, I realized how dramatic our earth has changed. However, since I have to take the six p.m. high speed railway back home after my five p.m. class, I soon forgot about the film. Then, if the film just slips out of my mind, how can this week be a week of “Inconvenient Truth.” The reason is that when watching television last Friday, I discovered that HBO was playing the tidbit of “Inconvenient Truth” and began to watch it from the middle of the show. It contains some materials that are not included in the film. After reviewing the film, next day, I went to buy the Time magazine Donna mentioned in class. After that, I found out that we human beings can do a lot of things to help solving the problem but not just stand by with folded arms. Moreover, that night, I saw HBO play the tidbit again and I finished watching the entire piece. HA! What can I say? It must be the destiny that I am doomed to have a weekend of “Inconvenient Truth.”

Reflection to globalization

In order to prepare for the midterm exam for oral, I have read many articles and magazines about the phenomenon of globalization. After reading all the materials, if you ask me whether globalization is good or bad, I would say that it is really hard to decide. Globalization helps the commodity worldwide to be exchanged, promotes the economy growth, and allows us to receive more information through E-mail and World Wide Web. Though it has so many benefits on the general public, in my opinion, I still feel that the drawbacks would be much larger than the benefit. Though the economy growth in the developing countries makes a huge increase, its environment is seriously damaged. The developed countries often set the manufacturing factories in the developing countries because of the cheap labor and land. The waste produced will seriously destroy the environment. Once the environment is destroyed, it would be hard to restore. Also, as I mentioned before that E-mail and World Wide Web allows us to get information around the world quickly. Internet allows us to learn no matter where we are. Someone says that it will help mitigate the gap between the rich and poor. However, I think the gap between rich and poor becomes even wider than ever. In the developing countries, there is little access to Internet. For example, in Africa, there is only one person out of a thousand who has ever used Internet and, in south-east, it is one out of five. For these countries, which are eager to progress, there is no tool for them to use. Therefore, the problem remains and the gap becomes even larger. It is time for us to contrive a solution to deal with the problem as a whole.

Relief after midterm

Same as usual, most of my midterm exams were held in the midterm week. Therefore, I studied very hard the week before midterm week. This time, again, I spent most of my time reading novels required for introduction for novels because I haven’t studied week by week and the pages needed to be read is about four hundred. Though I tried hard, there were about a hundred and fifty pages left. Reading novels is really hard to keep as a habit. Once I concentrate on reading a novel, I can even read one hundred pages a day. However, when busy with other trifles, I will just leave it until the exam comes. The novel teacher chose is quite interesting. The reason why I can’t finish the novel is that I can’t read it routinely. When preparing for the midterm or final exam, I always have a feeling that twenty-four hours a day is really not enough. Once I finish eating and laundry, there are only two to three hours left. Therefore, I need to postpone something to next day. Uh~ What will be the best way that I can finish all the things. Anyway, it is just the week after midterm. I will first have some fun and then go back to think about this problem. HA!!