Gun Control Background Checks

A shooting here; a shooting there; an every day occurrence heard in the newspapers and on the news channels on television. New media are reporting a shooting somewhere. Whether the shootings are accidental or intentional; they are happening across the United States. Nevertheless, in today’s society, gun violence is sparking debate and controversy on how to control gun violence. Throughout the country, thousands of laws and regulations have been created to aid in the control of guns. Through much study, the gun laws and regulations in place have very little effect on the number of gun related injuries and deaths. More needs to be done to establish an effective way to control gun violence.

Violence and crimes are growing in number and affecting American society. By reinforcing background checks we could reduce crimes and limit easy gun access to mentally ill people. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a database where the names of people that have committed a misdemeanor, are mentally ill or drug abusers is kept to prevent them from attaining guns. Most criminals buy guns from unlicensed sellers at gun shows that don’t do properly background checks through the NICS, making it easier from criminals to purchase firearms. Another problem is missing records or information that was not reported to the background check system. Better background checks could reduce crime and gun violence in America.

The high rates of gun violence and accidents in the United States have long aroused public concern, in view of the strong correlation between gun prevalence, many people believe that the United States must adopt stricter gun control measures to reduce the huge number of firearms across the nation. These people are known as gun control proponents, or advocates. However, many other people do not think so. In their eyes, the serious firearm problems do not result from gun prevalence, and many people would say it is not gun’s problem, people are pushing our

Gun control is a controversial issue for a long time around the world, particularly in U.S. because of a lots of mass shooting in school and public places. The second Amendment of the U.S. constitution is one of the shortest in all of the bill of right, it was written by the time period of American’s birth and it is the spirit of self-defense that help the new citizens of U.S. win their own freedom from the British. But now as the gun shooting problem happening every day in America, this gun control problem has gradually become to a hot issue. Compare to other countries like Britain, Canada, Japan, China, the difference between U.S. and those countries is in these countries to get a firearm is a very difficult thing

Across the nation, many states have begun to reassess their mental health policies and how they affect gun control. One state in particular is Maryland. In 2012, Maryland began a legislative task force to investigate the access of individuals with mental illness to regulated firearms (Maryland, 2013). Under current state law, access to firearms is denied to anyone who has been confined to a mental health facility for more than 30 consecutive days. The law also states that the individual must be determined to be dangerous to themselves or to others along with their mental illness in order to be denied access to firearms. The other question asked is what access law enforcement officers should have to mental health records. In an article by Gostlin (2011) he states “Successfully reducing firearms-related

People with mental illnesses are referred to a wide range of mental health conditions disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behavior. Examples like Autism, Anxiety Issues, and many more that affect them. It is so easy for anyone to get guns. About over 300 million have been made and sold to people in 2012, so there is a large supply of them. (My Turn: Should People with Mental Illnesses Own Guns?”, 2015). You can easily get one by just bribing a stranger or from a family member so it’s very easy to get one. There should be stricter gun control laws for those individuals with a mental illness history because guns are falling into the hands of people whose actions are unpredictable, research shows that many of the crimes committed are by those with a known mental illness, and the current wait time for owning a gun allows people with a mental illness to act without seeking help first.

Gun control is among top controversial issues that affect the people of USA (Lund, 2015). The battle on who is allowed to own a gun has received debates from different sides. This has therefore called for constitutional reforms in bills and laws that govern the use of firearms. Firearm regulations help to set policies which govern, regulate on acquisition and access to guns by civilians. In the USA many changes have been made concerning manufacturing, selling and transportation of

A majority of the American people feel that gun control laws will help reduce crime rates because the waiting period would allow time for a person’s temper to cool down. They also feel that gun control will prevent repeat offenders because when a person tries to purchase a handgun, he will have to fill out a lengthy questionnaire. The questionnaire will include questions about the buyer’s past, for example, if they have a criminal record or a record of any mental illness. If there is a criminal record in that person’s history, he will not be able to make the purchase. Restricting handgun ownership would also reduce crime, because guns are used most often in robberies and murders (Mayer 28). They are very easily concealed under a coat, or even in the waistband of pants.

Kopel, David. “Background Checks for Firearm Sales and Loans: Law, History, and Policy.”, vol. 53,

Every year 30,000 americans die from guns while others have the privilege to end up with a disability rather than dieing. The men and women who are diagnosed with a mental illness and obtain guns often commit suicide and crimes such as mass shootings, and murders. Because healthcare providers don't report the mental illness’ of many people to the FBI these people are able to pass a background check when they attempt to purchase a gun. Although the second amendment allows people the right to bear arms, it has become easy for the mentally ill to acquire guns and gun control should be strengthened for this very reason.

The article titled New Oklahoma Law Seeks to Keep Guns from Dangerously Mentally Ill by Jennifer Palmer highlights that mentally ill individuals have not been previously denied gun licenses during background checks. This might however change if a state law seeking to deny people who are mentally ill an opportunity to own a gun is fully implemented. The new law requires applicant’s information on mental incompetence to be included in a national database, which should be made accessible to Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations and gun dealers. Implementing the new law will give courts the authority to provide mental status information of individual’s seeking gun ownership to law enforcement agencies. The author however notes that Federal law prohibits individuals with mental illnesses from buying firearms. The law requiring mentally ill people to be denied gun license is based on the understanding that allowing mentally incompetent people to buy guns undermines the

Therefore, this caused Dylan Roof to buy a gun which he used to kill nine people at a historically black church in South Carolina. In addition, Roof had previously faced drug charges which should refuse his attempt to gun purchase. However, the information was unavailable at the background check system (2015, para. 1). Ressler (2015, para. 4) also states that the current three days’ standard background check time is not enough to process a cross check information between federal databases and states. Furthermore, the author Ferris (2014, para. 3) indicates in his article “Gun Purchase Background Checks: Casting a Wide Net with Many Holes” that NICS has not the complete records, and states have not incentive to report records of people who have prior criminal records and should not own guns. In addition, according to the research in 2012, there is a big part of mental health records from the last two decades can not be found in the NICS. Therefore, the system loophole results in people with criminal records escape the background checks and have access to guns is a significant cause of gun violence (2014, para. 14).

Gun control has become an increasingly controversial topic in the nation due to the continuous debates relating to gun control and whether or not laws should be passed to make it harder for guns to be obtained. Guns serve for a variety of purposes that range from good to bad. Guns are not for everyone. Some individuals cannot handle guns properly, and some choose to use guns inappropriately. Lately, guns have become more of a problem in our society. There has been an increasing amount of shootings that have taken many lives and have wounded people emotionally, not just physically. Although guns are used for protection, firearms are reportedly used more in crimes. More and more shootings are breaking out across the nation. As a result, the

The legislative process is a very long and complex procedure that often results in most proposed bills failing to become laws. Due to this, most domestic policy plans often go unfulfilled. After the Connecticut elementary school shooting that resulted in 20 students dead and 6 adults, many Americans felt that there should be restrictions on the purchasing of guns. When President Barak Obama proposed a mandatory background check for gun buyers, there was an 80 percent support from American citizens. However, the proposed bill began to die out despite the vast support in favor of the bill. This is due to the fact that the legislative process limits the power of the President in reference to law making.

The United States is home to approximately 5% of the world’s population and 31% of all mass shootings. Through these mass shootings and various other methods of gun violence, tens of thousands of people die every year. These gun-related deaths primarily originate from murder and children accidentally shooting themselves. Although those in favor of gun control tend to believe that guns should be terminated completely, the second amendment prevents lawmakers from being able to do so. Therefore, in order to combat these causes, alternative gun control solutions must be made for each one. Gun-related murders can be decreased through the use of universal background checks. Additionally, accidental shootings can be minimized through the