Gun Control : A Part Of American Lifestyle Since Independence

Gun control is an extremely controversial issue in the United States, and the debates around this topic has started many decades ago. According to the article “Gun Rights vs. Gun control” by Brianna Gurciullo, these debates are fueled by the people who defend the gun rights and the people who advocate in favor of gun control. It has been difficult to prove that gun ownership is directly related to an increase in violence due to the fact that researches tend to disagree on the impact of gun ownership in the American society. These debates tend to be brought to the spotlight whenever there is a mass shooting in the United States, which according to Abbey Oldham, who is a reporter from the PBS News Hour, happens quite frequently. However, organizations, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), defend that the laws for gun control violate the Second Amendment of the constitution, which states “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” stated Gurciullo. Due to the distinct interpretations of the constitution and the difficulty to agree on the best approach to tackle the issue, this controversy seem to be almost unsolvable.

"You can 't move past it. You can 't sweep it under the rug," expresses a surviving Sandy Hook School teacher. "We have to honor the horror by paying tribute to what happened, what people went through and what it was like for everyone" (Blickley, 2016). The brutal murder of twenty beautiful children and seven brave adults at Sandy Hook elementary school was a tragic event that shook, not only, Newtown, Connecticut, but the whole nation to its very core. However, this grievous crisis was not the first of its kind; since 1999, there have been over 130 shootings at schools. Moreover, the last thirty years, there have been an additional sixty-two mass shootings (each leaving at least four dead). This leaves no room to question the necessity for gun rights reform (as cited in Stinebrickner, pg. 67 CITE). Therefore, America published an editorial titled "Repeal the Second Amendment." The primary purpose of this article is to call for an examination of the implications, advantages, and (potential) consequences associated with the second amendment. Based off of increased mass shootings, extensive research, and keen observation of how other countries have managed the gun crisis, "Repeal the Second Amendement" determines there ought to be increased gun restrictions.

Weapons have been a big problem to the United States for many years now. People have access to many weapons just as easy as the US Military does. The people of the US can both go to a gun store and buy a weapon at the age of sixteen, or they can make a deal with anyone in the streets of the US. Because of the accessibility to weapons, Americans can cause collateral damage in the neighborhood they live in. They can also commit robbery, or go anywhere and start shooting.

December 4, 2015, in San Bernardino, CA, fourteen residents at the Inland Regional Center lost their lives due to Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik shooting many residents. Attending a holiday party at the center for thousands of residents with disabilities, Mr. Farook left the center “angry” over a dispute and came back with Ms. Malik. Armed with .223- caliber assault rifles and semiautomatic handguns, they killed 14 residents and wounded at least 17. Shootings seem to be becoming more habitual, therefore, people fear guns and want to enact gun control laws. Recent attacks from terrorist groups spark the question of who should have the right to own guns. Controversies over interpreting the Second Amendment date back to the turn of the twentieth century because so many viewpoints and regulations have accumulated; it is all in the manner of which interpretation citizens subscribe to- loose verses strict interpretation. Due to the controversies, certain gun regulations have been enacted and fears have risen because of this.

One morning in Newtown, Connecticut, many children and staff of Sandy Hook Elementary were ready to begin their daily routine of attending school, or work. Unfortunately, they were not aware that this would be the last time they do so. The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary ended the lives of several staff and young children. This devastating tragedy added fuel to the controversial gun argument. Parents of the children lobbied to pass gun reform laws which would help provide safety for citizens and prevent awful events similar to this from occurring in the future.

Charles W. Collier’s article, “Gun Control in America: An Autopsy Report”, dives into the controversial topic of gun ownership and gun control in the United States. He uses recent shootings, including the George Zimmerman case and the Connecticut elementary

On March 24, 1998, firing from the woods overlooking their school, 13-year-old Andrew Golden and 11-year-old Mitchell Johnson shot and killed four middle school students and a teacher and injured ten other students in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The two boys had a semiautomatic M-1 carbine with a large ammunition magazine, two other rifles, seven handguns and more than 500 rounds of ammunition which they took from the home of one of the boy?s grandfather, who had a large arsenal of weapons left unsecured. Officers arrested the two boys as they ran through the wooded area near the school, and they were convicted on five counts of capital murder and ten counts of first-degree battery in September 1998.

On December 12, 2013, a heavily armed man walked into a small elementary school in Connecticut and opened fire, ending the lives of 26 children and teachers, not only shattering the quiet of the small town but leaving our nation lurching at the number of young lives lost. The horror of this event renewed people’s passion on both sides of the fiercely debated issue of gun control and brought the issue to the forefront of American politics once again. While no new gun control laws have been passed since this tragedy, the debate over how to interpret the 2nd amendment continues.

Currently in American society, gun control is a hot topic due to recent gun-related crimes such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. According to CNN, during the shooting 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and murdered 20 children and 6 adults due to gun violence. It was discovered that three guns were used “…a semiautomatic AR-15 assault rifle made by Bushmaster and pistols made by Glock and Sig Sauer” (Sandy Hook Shooting: What Happened?) to shoot his way into an elementary school and killing everyone

According to a World Health Organization study done in 2010, the Unites States of America has the fourth highest firearm homicide rate in the world after Afghanistan, Iraq and the Congo. More recently, a study done in 2013 by the Center for Disease Control found out that there were a total of 33,169 deaths with the use of firearms and more than half were a result of suicide. These statistics have sparked an extensive amount of modern debates on whether we as an American democracy need to amend the second amendment and regulate the purchase of as well as the right to individually bear arms. Two people who analyze this debate very differently but effectively are Zack Beauchamp who wrote “Rethinking the Right to Bear Arm”, and Nelson Lund who

The feeling of losing a loved one or child is a something that no one can imagine without experiencing it. In Newtown Connecticut on December 14, 2012, twenty parents got a call saying their child had been killed when a heavily armed man by the name of Adam Lanza stormed into the elementary school and opened fire. He brought with him two semi-automatic pistols and a semi-automatic rifle. Police later found Lanza dead in the elementary school after he killed himself (Aradillas, 2012). One of the reactions to this mass shooting is to put more restrictions on gun rights. Some people believe that this will help reduce the amount of shooting that happen. Other people believe that putting these restrictions on gun

Many Americans want to restrict the right to bear arms and purchase guns after recent events of gun violence and incidents of dangerous individuals misusing guns for the wrong purposes. After the Connecticut Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting incident in 2012, there has been a conflicting debate between implementing stricter gun laws or allowing gun laws to remain the way they are. This is an issue that was highly debated when Adam Lanza burst into Sandy Hook Elementary wearing combat armor armed with semiautomatic pistols and rifles and murdered 26 people, 20 of them being children ranging between the ages of 5 and 10 years old (Barron). This horrifying event led to many people, especially parents, demanding

The gun control movement in the US has made significant gains in recent years with the implementation of stricter restrictions on gun ownership. The movement emerged from concerns over incidents of gun violence in the US. The US Constitution protects the personal right to bear arms. As such, the gun control movement has been facing resistance from the pro-gun rights advocates, and has not been able to influence major reforms until recently (Luca, Malhotra & Poliquin, 2016). The Parklands shooting that left several school children and their teachers dead is one of the incidences that have shifted the power balance between the gun control movement and the pro-gun rights activists. Incidents of gun shooting are characterized by strong emotions and outbursts against gun ownership in the US. People are demanding accountability by gun dealers and owners on use of firearms. Gun owners have

There are new proposed gun control laws in the aftermath of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut that occurred on December 14th, 2012. This incident claimed the lives of twenty 1st graders and six adults and has set the government in motion to try to prevent future acts of violence by strengthening gun control laws in the United States (Smith). This has been a topic that has been an extremely emotional debate with people on both sides unwilling to compromise. Gun advocates and critics of the new proposed gun laws argue that these new laws infringe on our constitutional

The legality of having guns and possessing firearms in the United States of America is well engraved within the Second Amendment of the nation’s constitution. However, the issue of gun regulation has remained a central topic in America’s public. Some people advocate for a total ban on gun possession, while others are totally against this idea. The shooting incident in Las Vegas weeks ago has raised controversial debates in the United States of America. In fact, the White House is concerned on the stand that President Trump will take on the issue of stricter gun laws. One of the cities that has gained the attention of both the legislators on this topic is Chicago. For its reputation for its low rate of gang arrests, lax punishments for gun law violations, and comparatively weak laws in accordance with surrounding states, it is justifiable to say that Chicago’s daily shootings are a clear indicator that strict state gun laws don’t work.