Liza Wingfield Cygan Honors English 1 December 18, 2015 Living In A Gun Controlled Society According to the Second Amendment, citizens of the United States have the right to bear arms while protecting ourselves. Gun control is set into place to retain firearms from the hands of the ‘good guys’. In most cases, it is highly plausible for a bad guy to reach hands on a weapon, whether it be from black market, cross borders, or illegal street sales. These men won’t be stopped by just any gun laws. As the saying goes: where there’s a will, there’s a way. Gun control is a social injustice because there are not enough laws to protect citizens against absurd, illogical gun use, and The Gun Control Act of 1968 works to address this issue by …show more content…
Due to the Second amendment, these tragedies are hard to prevent leaving the citizens defenseless to criminals. A widely-known study conducted by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz in the 1990s found that there were somewhere between 830,000 and 2.45 million defensive gun used in the US annually (Bell). Gun control proponents often argue that having possession of a gun puts people in risk because the suspect could easily take the gun and use it against them, yet studies have shown the situation is reversed. The Cato data contains only 11 out of 4,699 stories where a criminal took a gun away from a defender, but 277 where the intended victim disarmed the bad guy (Bell). Generally speaking, with more guns there will not necessarily be less crime. In other words, let concealed guns be in the hand of more people, and assaults go up. These explanations are about as credible for the contrasting theory: Put more guns into the picture, and more bad things are bound to happen. The Gun Control Act of 1968 addresses this issue by regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting possession of guns except among licensed manufacturers, dealers, and importers. Sparked by the assassinations of past presidents and revolutioners, President Lyndon B. Johnson
Trevor Burrus from Cato Institute's Center for Constitutional Studies showed how the use of guns for good are far greater than uses for the bad. “In the past 20 years, the cases of permit holders using their guns improperly are quite rare.”(Burrus 3). This is a problem for gun control because the valid arguable point for it is becoming increasingly smaller. This is also a problem for the media because they report vague negative gun usage rather than positive because a large majority of the media's reporters are liberal gun control advocates. Americans who concealed carry firearms are better off in a defense position rather than an unarmed civilian. “studies have found that Americans use guns defensively between 830,000 and 2.45 million times per year.” (Burrus 2). This is a problem because a very small percentage of gun related incidents make it to the news, therefore people think that there aren't as many firearm crimes than there is, and could potentially be unarmed in an emergency situation. Also this means that since there are this many people using guns defensively, there are people who die innocently because they are unarmed. From this, the government had make the laws that prevent people from being able to defend themselves in desperate defense
It seems like mass-killings, accidental firings and highway snipers have snuck comfortably into our society. Have we accepted mass shootings like Columbine HS, Sandy Hook Elementary and especially our local Lindhurst HS? Even law enforcement is not safe with the murder of five police officers in Dallas in one of our latest mass-shootings. With these famous, headline grabbing news stories, there are countless active shooter and murders that don’t reach national headlines. When is enough, enough? Very few social arguments are more polarizing than gun control. In Molly Ivins, “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of Guns”, she takes a strong, passionate position
The term ‘gun control’ is used to show the regulation of selling, owning and use of guns. This means there is going to be a lot of controversy regarding this, making it a very touchy topic for a lot of people in the world right now. Gun control laws vary greatly, for example in places like the United Kingdom, where the gun laws are so strict that even police officers aren’t allowed to use them. Only special task forces within the police departments are. Compared to places like the United States, where there isn’t a federal gun control law in place anymore. Opponents argue that it is unconstitutional to take away kind of gun from an American citizen. They also argue that it is not the guns that commit these horrible crimes, but instead it’s the people behind the guns that commit them. But a gun is a tool that can be used for good intentions or evil intentions. And in most cases, the bad ones have a heavier effect or outcome. The US should enforce strict national gun control laws that will in the end help save the lives of men, women and children because if they do not, they will be seeing more tragedies through the country just like the one that had happened at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Gun control has recently brought a massive uproar to the United States after several tragedies combined mass murder with firearms. Some argue that guns are meant to be used for our protection and it takes someone to pull the trigger while others believe that guns are intended to cause serious harm or death to the intended target. The right to own a firearm stems from the second amendment of the constitution and states that a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to bear arms, shall not be infringed. The first piece of gun control legislature that was passed in the United States was in 1911 when Sullivan’s Law passed to make buying or carrying a handgun without a permit a felony
The battle for stricter gun-control laws has not been without victories. In 1968, Congress passed the Gun Control Act in the wake of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., President John F. Kennedy, and Senator Robert Kennedy. The law mandated stricter licensing requirements, prohibited the sale of
“The left, liberals, believe that if we just have more gun control laws, all the problems are going to go away. Well, I don 't think so. I don 't think so. I think - yes, it will, it will be reduced. There 's no question about that.” (brainquotes). The earliest federal gun-control law was the National Firearms Act of 1934, which restrictive $200 tax on the manufacture or sale of machine guns and sawed-off shotguns. All sales were to be recorded in a national registry. Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to prevent any mafia and bank robbers from purchasing “Tommy Guns” and sawed-off shotguns. Then in 1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson passed two gun-control acts; Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and the Gun Control Act of 1968
Gun control and gun rights are crucial topics that have been debated for years. Some people believe that civilians should not have the right to own a gun while others believe it is our god given right to bear arms. The second amendment of the Bill of Rights states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”(Shermer). This is a right that society has had for years and is one of the main reasons why no solution has been reached yet. There are two main sides to this debate, Gun control advocates focus on the serious negative effects of gun availability on health and safety, while gun-ownership advocates emphasize the lawful use of guns and
To help apply restrictions, the Gun Control Act of 1968, which was the first gun law, was passed in the wake of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy earlier that year (“Restricting” par. 4). The 1968 Gun Control Act established categories of prohibited gun purchasers and possessors, including convicted felons, fugitives from justice, minors, individuals with a history of
According to Lichtenheld, in the year 2002, there were over 30,000 deaths mainly caused by guns and only 163 were estimated to be a reasonable homicide. Which means the possibility of a gun being used in killing its owner is higher than it is being used to kill an outsider. Overall, Lichtenheld feels that concealed-carry laws extend more rights to crooks, guaranteeing that some weapons will fall into the wrong hands, making law enforcement a virtual nightmare.
Despite the danger guns are in the hands of criminals, the safety they can provide is hard to measure, but diffidently there. Over nine-hundred eighty nine thousand incidences are reported every year where a firearm was used to prevent a crime, including robberies, rapes, and murders (Geneva, 2000). A study was also done on how likely a felon is to commit a crime with even the possibility that someone else might have a firearm. Around forty-percent of criminals admitted to not committing a crime because they believed that a potential victim might have a firearm. Thirty-four percent of criminals have been had an incident where they were shot at, scared off, wounded or even captured by a victim that was armed (Armed and Considered, 1994). These people were not protected by sign of encouragement or Security Theater. They were saved because they had the ability to protect themselves. There was no one else to protect them but they were allowed to be able to ensure their own
Stimulated from recent assassinations of significant figures, such as President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, and urban riots beginning in 1964, the Gun Control Act of 1968 renewed the fight for gun control in the United States. Prohibiting convicted felons, raising age to purchase handguns to 21 are just two of the many actions the Gun Control Act of 1968 put into effect. The law renewed the fight for gun control, and was welcomed with acceptance and disapproval when announced to the United States citizens. Though with President Lyndon B. Johnson issuing such a law he planned to create a more safe and prepared environment for firearms exist, and prevent reckless behavior with firearms inside the United States borders.
In 1968, the “Gun Control Act” was passed for a specific purpose which was “keeping firearms out of the hands of those not legally entitled to possess them because of age, criminal background, or incompetence.” The Act was made particularly to control imported guns, expand some requirements on the gun-dealer licensing and record keeping, and to place specific limits on sale of handguns. In 1977 the District of Columbia passed an anti-handgun law which required that all rifles and shotguns within its district should be registered. Just like these, there are many more laws that have been passed through the years, so that the government can have more “control” over the people buying guns, and using them. The most recent case filed was in June
A survey conducted from the early 1990’s into the 2000’s showed very little fluctuation in the number of crimes prevented by the victim being armed. As reported, between 990,000 and 1,000,000 crimes were prevented, per year, because the assailant either knew the victim was armed, or the victim used their firearm to prevent the crime. These numbers do not include the nearly 500,000 home invasions that were prevented or stopped in the act when the homeowner was discovered to be armed. (Agresti, 2010). Over the last thirty years though, gun ownership has shown a steady decline. Statistics show that in 1980, gun ownership was one out of every three Americans; in 2010 that rate had fallen to one in five (Lepore, 2012).
Gun control is a controversial and important issue all over the world. A gun, as a weapon for defense and protection, has been misused by many resulting in unlawful acts. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dedicated protect public health and safety, in 2010, there were roughly 31,670 gun-related deaths in the U.S. About 11,100 were homicides (35%) and about 19,400 (61%) were suicides (Jim). Every day, a lot of people lose their lives unnecessarily to gun violence. Congress should amend gun laws to take guns out from the hand of criminals and irresponsible persons. It is apparent that guns have had both negative and positive outcomes, but it has also
The citizens of the United States have enough pride to say that they have the right to carry their rifles and hand guns for self-defense. However, the Second Amendment is not unlimited to the use of all guns. Criminals and people who are mentally ill have found their ways of receiving a gun because of how flawed gun restrictions are in the United States. Because of the loose ends of gun restrictions, public shootings will continue to occur despite the alternative preventions available. The purpose of gun control is to manage the distribution of licensed weapons to people who qualify and have the right to carry a weapon with them for self-defense or sport.