Nick Smith
Professor Rocha
Intro to College Writing
15 November 2017
Gun Control
Gun control has been a hot topic for very long time. People on the anti-gun control side believe that gun ownership is a Constitutional right backed by the Second Amendment. The anti-gun believes that you should be able to posses and own any firearm. They also believe that gun laws only restrict the law abiding citizens. Pro-gun control believes that guns are the backbone to our crime problem. They also believe that gun laws help keep guns of the street and deter crime.
The Second Amendment reads, “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” (Caplan). “Underlying this amendment are two goals of an individual and collective defense from violence and aggression, which have been recognized by Congress” (Caplan). The second amendment should help secure right of the people to have a gun in their home. “The government should not be permitted to declare who would or would not be able to bear arms on the basis of vague religious tests or any other nebulous standard or artifice” (Caplan).
The first infringement on the Second Amendment came on November 30, 1993 when President Clinton signed Brady Bill I. The law required that there be a five day waiting period on all handgun purchases. The Brady Bill also banned semi-automatic rifles and other military type weapons. The five day waiting period is supposed to stop felons from buying guns. But, Waiting periods do not stop felons from getting guns. Since 1968 it has been illegal for a felon to possess any firearm. Most of the criminals do not get their guns from stores, most get them by theft or on the black market. “While legitimate users of firearms encounter intense regulation, scrutiny, and bureaucratic control, illicit markets easily adapt to whatever difficulties a free society throws in their way” (Polsby). A study by Professor James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi, showed that, “fifty percent of criminals expected to get a gun illegally the same day they get out of prison.” (Blackman Aug 1985)
Brady Bill talks about recording and keeping track of guns for safety reasons. When people talk
Furthermore, Federal Firearms Act of 1938 brought about congress directing a law involving the selling and shipping of firearms within interstate or foreign retail networks. Nonetheless, after the assassination of President Kennedy the 1968 Gun Control Act was enacted, which tightens legislation on the sales of mail order guns. Moreover, beginning in 1972 was the establishment of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. Facilitating restrictions on gun sellers and the selling of some guns, was the 1986 Firearms Owners ' Protection Act. Eventually, establishing a policy for drug-free school zones was the 1990 Crime Control Act, which was inclusive on criminal penalization for possessing or discharging a firearm in a school zone. Next, implementing a five-day waiting period and background check, 1993 brought about the Brady Bill, which was modified in 1998 to sanction checks to be performed over the phone or electronically with the findings returned instantly in the majority of circumstances. Commonly discussed as the Assault Weapons Ban starting in 1994 was the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Consequently, Colorado voters recall pro-gun control state senators, Democrats John Morse and Angela Giron for their sponsorship of freshly enacted gun-control laws that require background checks on private gun sales and limit magazine clips of 15 rounds, what a reaction from the people tired of the establishment stepping on their
Under the United States Constitution, Article V, Amendment II, all people have the right to bear arms, allowing them to own a gun and use it, but the government believes some types of guns, such as automatic rifles, should not be accessible to people, violating the Constitution ("Gun Control"). On February 28, 1994, the "Brady Bill" was passed by congress to add more conditions on firearms by establishing a five-day waiting period to people purchasing a handgun in order to give enough time for a licensed dealer to conduct a background check on the customer (Agresti). Not only do customers have to wait additional days in order to receive their handguns for protection, but they are evaluated by a stranger to see if they are competent enough to do as much as even own a gun. Associations such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) have been established in order to comply with government concerns of firearms by creating licenses for gun owners and teaching proper use of firearms. As of March 17, 2010, the National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legal Action has released news that House Bill 453 (HB453) and House Bill 542 (HB542) were released and have added the possibility of allowing the storage of firearms in specialized car compartments and increasing voting registration for people with hunting licenses or permits in order to promote pro-gun usage in society respectively. Gun control is a major
When it concerns the economics of gun control, the pro gun control side believe that the loopholes of purchasing a gun illegally are one of the main factors in the crime rates, and that because of this, trace data should be released. One thing both sides may agree on is that there are many flaws in the process of purchasing guns. Around 40 percent of gun owners have not been through a background check. Obtaining guns illegally is not necessarily through a direct purchase of them. Kelly Sampson explained that the two main methods of illegal purchases are the obvious black market, where guns are sold illegally to potential malicious users. However, straw purchasing is another method of obtaining guns illegally, where a person who is allowed to purchase guns, buys a gun with no problem, but later gives that gun to the illegal user. According to ATF director Bradley Buckles, “Virtually every crime gun in the United States starts off as a legal firearm.” However, it is difficult to determine the effect it has on crime due to trace data not being available to the public. This frustration is expressed by Kelly Sampson, who claimed that if the trace
After the incident, James Brady devoted his life to the fight for gun control. (Johnson, 2014) In 1993 the Brady Handgun Violence and Prevention Act bill passed. The law requires background checks on firearms purchases from federally licensed dealers in the United States, and imposed a five- day waiting on purchases. (Johnson, 2014) Some have argued that the Brady law has no impact of the gun control issues and the Brady Bill seems to have been a failure. In 2012 after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre government officials and Congress revisit the impact of gun control that Brady Law has. (Johnson, 2014) Yet, other believe that Brady Law had a lasting impact on gun
Next, we have a seven-year gap of gun laws not being changed, but in 1933 The Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act was passed. This “mandates background checks of gun buyers in order to prevent sales to people prohibited under the 1968 legislation... Sales by unlicensed private sellers who are not engaged in gun
The law is named after former White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot in the head during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. 1994: The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act becomes law. The law banned the manufacture, use, possession and import of 19 types of assault weapons, including AK-47s and Uzis. The law expired in 2004. 2007: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rules in favor of Dick Anthony Heller, 66, an armed security guard who sues the district after it rejects his application to keep a handgun at his home in Capitol Hill. District appeals to Supreme Court. June 2008: The Supreme Court upholds the lower court ruling, striking down D.C. handgun ban as unconstitutional. According the changes of gun laws, we can see the law of owning gun and using gun is more and more strict. Also, there are more and more laws to limit people owning gum and using gun.
Those advocating for stricter gun control referred to the the clause, “...well-regulated militia”, to apply only to organized groups such as the National Guard or other reserved military forces. On the flip side are those arguing for the right to arms to all citizens in order to protect themselves. Organizations such as the National Rifle Association, also known as the NRA, and their large number of supporters, have pursued campaigns against gun control at the local, state, and federal levels. Due to the efforts of former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady, congress passed a federal gun control bill, known as the “Brady Bill” named after the secretary after his assassination during an attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981. The passage of the Brady Bill requires a waiting period on all handgun purchases and background checks prior to firearm purchase which became effective on February 28, 1994. During the presidency of Barack Obama, a ban on assault weapons was renewed in efforts to prevent mass
In order to prevent such persons from doing so, the United States created a bill known as the Brady Bill. The Brady Bill was established in 1993 and its main function was to prohibit federal firearm licenses to be sold to person who are considered to be dangerous to the public. People who are considered to be dangerous are people that have been ex-convicts, mentally ill patients and illegal drug user. To obtain a gun, The Brady Bill required a person to go through a background check to see if they were considered to be a dangerous person. They also had to sit through a 5 day waiting period before they could obtain the gun. This piece of legislation was considered to be the most important gun control law ever passed. Even before it was passed, it was predicted that a total of 100,000 out of 3.5 million purchases of guns would be prevented. This soon became true. When the Brady Bill was put into action, 41,000 purchases of guns were prevented due to various reasons. These reasons include felons, people who are illegal aliens, drug users and people who are fugitives from the law. With the background check being implemented into the Brady Bill, these people were denied the right to purchase and obtain a gun. The Brady Bill guided us to where we are today with gun control restrictions in the United States. With background checks and a waiting period, it just proves
Recently, mass shooting is happening everywhere across the country once in a while, notably in Las Vegas and Texas. And even on our campus, a Soka alumni was arrested for threatening a “killing spree” last Friday. The debate about the gun control has been a hot issue throughout the history of the United States, yet during the interview after the mass shooting in Texas, President Trump responded "we could go into the gun control policy], but it's a little bit too soon.", and called the shooter a "very deranged individual" with "a lot of problems over a long period of time" rather than calling him a terrorist. The right to bear arms is one of the unique features in the American society. Only in the United States, Guatemala, and Mexico clearly states the right to bear arms in their constitution. The Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States reads “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.”
However, even in the 18th century, many abused this right, murdering and provoking grief throughout thousands across the country. Therefore, limitations were inflicted upon the people, later termed as gun control laws. The “Gun Control” database defines gun control laws as regulations that “can hinder certain individuals from gaining access to firearms and can limit possession of certain types of weapons to the police and the military,” which is a resolute statement, but is overly optimistic and fails to address those whose sole purpose is to inflict harm upon society in every way possible. Since the the creation of the United States, many laws, such as the National Firearms Act of 1934, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, have been passed for one sole purpose; to diminish gun brutality as much as possible (“History of Gun-Control Legislation”). Unfortunately, they have not always produced their desired effects, either having loopholes that allowed criminals continue their work, or simply being unable to thwart motivated villains. These unavoidable facts create the enigma of whether it is necessary to augment the security of guns with supplementary gun laws, or if it is best to rely on the American people and stop raising attention to the
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and leaving 17 injured at Virginia Tech. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza went on a shooting spree in Newtown, Connecticut, killing his mother before shooting 20 1st graders and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary. On June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured 58 others. Most recently on October 1, 2017, 58 people were killed and another 489 injured when Stephen Paddock fired onto the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest music festival. Many more mass shootings have happened where more innocent people have lost their lives. Gun control has been in debate for some period, some people advocate for it while others dissuade it. Now more than ever, changes must be made to better protect people from losing their lives to a shooter. To prevent future tragedies in the United States, there should be stricter gun laws enforcing a more advance psychological test, imposing a federal gun license, and have a 1 month waiting period to receive the gun.
Over the course of three years, approximately 160 school shootings have been recorded. Including fatal and nonfatal assaults, suicides, and unintentional shootings. In all, the incidents resulted in 59 deaths and 124 nonfatal gunshot injuries (Analysis of school shootings). It is unreasonable how many innocent lives have been taken away because of these tragedies. Oftentimes when a mass shooting occurs, people debate gun control laws more profoundly. Controlling the gun laws and the way guns are obtained may be a solution to help control school shootings and save many precious lives.
Do you realize the number of firearm deaths is steadily increasing each year; in 2000, there was 28,663 deaths, in 2010 there was 31,692 deaths, in 2014 there was 33,599 deaths (Alpers, 2016). Today, the chance of you being killed by a firearm is equivalent to the chance of you dying in a car accident. The dialogue on firearm importance, becomes a more discussed topic everyday. We must be aware of the supporting and opposing arguments, for the better safety of our society currently. We must also be aware of the physiological needs after a gun related incident. The American Psychological Association mentions coping with the aftermath; discussing the event, turning away from news and gathering your emotions with a break, or even helping others do something good (Managing, “n.d.”). Firearm violence prevention is crucial; not only to save lives, but also to prevent hurting individuals psychologically. American Psychological Association, and The Prevention Institute, have different perspectives on firearms, but all the same intent, to end the violence between Americans.
Introduced to the New World in approximately 1607, firearms and America resemble siamese twins; you can’t have one without the other. Over time, guns have become a crucial part of American society, and to many, the ability to carry a firearm defines their liberties as a citizen. For example, without the ability to carry weapons freely, winning the American Revolution may not have been possible. But, on the contrary, many of the school shootings that occur in today's society could be prevented should the individuals that commit them be restricted to purchase a firearm. For negative reasons like that, the government has been forced to step in and try to regulate the average citizen’s right to carry a concealed weapon through the picking apart of the 2nd amendment and the addition of the Brady Bill in 1993. Because of this, many feel that by limiting their ability to carry weapons, the government is infringing upon their constitutional rights and civil liberties as an
The second amendment was adopted in 1791 and added to the U.S. Constitution to defend themselves from the enemies; Indian, Spanish and especially British who had tried to overturn the activities of the Militia. Americans during that time looked for a written right that allowed them to keep weapons to defend their families and their country. Even though many argue whether guns should be banned or not in Washington D.C., but in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court stated in a case known as “District of Columbia v. Heller”. The ruling established that the Second Amendment to the Constitution -- "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" -- means that individuals, and not just the police and military, may own guns. This rule by the U.S. Supreme Court basically stated that it is ones right to keep a gun at home for self-defense, but didn’t state anything about controlling guns.