With the United States having roughly 88 guns per 100 people the concern for gun control is relatively high. Through many school shooting and just plain violence having more than 11,000 Americans die of gun shots each year, public opinion has changed to stricter views on gun control. Although it might seem like common sense that strengthening gun control would lower gun violence this is just not the case.

Gun control only limits the ability for citizens to protect themselves while criminals just do as they please. As John R. Lott, Jr., PhD states, “The problem with such [gun control] laws is that they take away guns from law-abiding citizens, while would-be criminals ignore them”. Increasing gun control would only increase the ability for criminals to take advantage of the public.

Gun control clearly doesn’t work in other countries, why would it work in the United States? Mexico being a country with the strictest gun control laws only having one legal gun store in the whole country. Mexico still happened to have more gun related deaths than the United States. In 2012, Mexico had 11,309 gun murders while the United States had 9,146 murders.

Creating stricter gun control laws won’t solve anything but create more trouble. The government should play a bigger role on capturing the criminals who sell illegal guns on the black market rather than attacking law-abiding citizens who are just trying to protect themselves.