Why do people agree with gun control?

Answer 1

Generally, what makes people support gun control is fear and desire for instant gratification.

In the minds of many people guns are equated to violence and crime. This is a perception that is especially common among city dwellers. People in the cities often get their image of firearms and firearm owners from television and movies where a man with a gun is either a police officer or a bad guy. It's different in the countryside where a man with a gun is your neighbor going hunting or shooting cans at the trash heap.

People fear crime, and justly so. It is scary when you are robbed or assaulted. Making the connection between guns and crime they fear guns. It is only natural to desire to remove the object of fear. People also like easy solutions, and making a gun illegal seems like an easy thing to do.

There are, of course, major failures in this logic. Guns may be used in crime, but they cannot cause crime - the are inanimate objects and do not have mystical power to control minds. Removing guns does not remove crime.

Politicians like gun control because it makes them look like they are doing something, while actually doing little work. Pro-gun control politicians generally want to be seen as tough on crime. The real causes of crime are social. Addressing them takes a lot of work and a lot of money. The positive effects take a long time to become visible. Tossing off a gun control law is much easier and can be used in a campaign right away.

There are also some people who support gun control because they or someone close to them has been harmed by someone using a gun. Grief is a very strong emotion and it can be hard to be logical about who or what you blame. It doesn't matter that the harmful act was against the law, or that another object would have been just as damaging.