Gun control for whom? Given the recent tragedy in Las Vegas, Nevada where a lone gunman killed over 50 people and injured hundreds, the discussion of gun rights has engulfed our country. This dispute in the country’s storied culture wars will fail in any substantial changes to current laws. I strongly loathe hearing of gun deaths, especially when they seem preventable with proper legislation. Not to mention, I know of gun control problematic racist past and caution others to address the problem with reasonableness. As Saul Cornell, a professor at Fordham University succulently explained, “Saying gun laws are always racist is just false. Saying that gun laws have never been racist is also just wrong.” Likewise, former President of the National Rifle Association David Keene said, “You know, when you go back in our history … the initial wave of [gun-control laws] was instituted after the Civil War to deny blacks the ability to defend themselves”. Again, gun controls racist origin detracts from and I am fearful of laws that have historically affected African-Americans ability to defend themselves against illegal deprivation of life.
To say nothing of infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) landmark Supreme Court case which rendered Blacks as non-citizens is blasphemous. Scott, a slave sought to sue for his freedom since he moved to a state that outlawed slavery but the highest court of the land had other beliefs. In the majority opinion Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
School should be a place of peace and opportunity, but gaps in the system of gun control threatens the safety of faculty and students. School shootings have killed a total of 297 lives, young and old (Slate Magazine). Gun control has been a continuous nationwide debate for many years. It seems that no one wants to take a stance against guns unless they are personally affected. In order to take control of the matter and prevent more incidents from continuing schools need to change. To achieve a safe environment in schools need to educate faculty, safe and students, heighten security, and assess mental health issues.
My grandfather was born and raised in the backwoods of Louisiana during a turbulent time for African Americans. As a black man he lived in perpetual danger. Through race riots, physical exploitation, and attempted rape, he has developed a much different opinion about gun reform than mine. So much so that my mother carries the many of the same opinions.
The earliest forms of gun control in America had barred the sale of guns to Indians, African Americans, Catholic, and indentured servants. Now the anti gun movement uses these early forms of gun control to justify their actions against guns, but the early forms of gun control had targeted groups and ethnic minorities of people who being oppressed because they didn't want those groups to rise up against their racist and oppressive system. Spitzer, Robert J. “Five Myths about Gun Control.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 Dec. 2012. Even after the colonial period in America gun control such as the black codes were used to suppress African Americans right to bear arms and it also left them defenseless to the terror that was being imposed on them by white supremacist groups and corrupt local governments.
Every so often the media and news feeds flood with reports of a mass shooting. Families mourn. In the days that follow, calls to action can be heard, and there is a demand for change. Sometimes minor legislation passes, but in the United States extreme change is rarely seen. Other developed nations provide an opposite comparison. Following the Port Arthur shooting in Australia and the shooting in Great Britain, both countries organized for significant gun reform.
According to Nicholas Kristof’s article “our blind spot about guns” gun control is a lot like cars regulation such that if we can regulate cars we can regulate guns. It took a lot of time and effort but thanks to regulations cars are safer than they were many years ago, and the same is very possible with guns. We need to keep our country safe. The first steps to gun control are improving on background checks and also requiring trigger locks on all guns.
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
Throughout the past several decades gun control has been put under scrutiny by the media and the general public. While the first major piece of gun control legislation was passed in 1911 in New York, it was not until the 1960’s that the gun control movement was truly galvanized(“Gun Control Reform”).This occurred because of a series of major political assassinations that led to the Gun Control Act being signed into law in 1968(“Gun Control Reform”). To this day the gun control movement lives on and many Americans believe that harsher gun control laws should be put into effect. These supposed gun laws range anywhere from a nationwide ban of assault weapons to a complete ban of guns. Supporters of gun control argue that taking away guns from
There is a huge epidemic that is taking place in the United States and our government has to put a stop to it. This issue is the mass shootings that take place in America. There has been numerous amount of mass shootings in the United States and many of them could have simply been avoided if there were stricter gun laws. This last decade has made Gun Control an unavoidable topic in society for Americas citizens and politicians. Our politicians must take a stand against these senseless crimes and ban these pointless weapons once and for all.
October 1, 2017 marked the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. With almost 500 injured and 58 killed, not only did Las Vegas feel the tragedy of a personal loss, but the incident had rippling effects that shook all of America (Flaherty). With the fresh wounds of the recent Las Vegas shooting, politician's initial reaction is to implement more strict gun restrictions and "lay down the law" to prevent a similar event from happening again. Due to the drastic laws being carried out, the topic of gun control is a current issue in society. Is the solution to implement more firm restrictions on gun ownership or can the government allow the people to be their own advocates? While the opposing views of pro-gun restrictions argue that is up to the discretion of the government, they are often narrow-minded resolutions with no hope to finding a real solution. This particular shooter obtained his guns legally and passed all background checks, going unnoticed until his plan unfolded. Establishing more strict firearm restrictions would not have stopped the Las Vegas shooting from occurring. The number of gun restrictions can not increase, the government needs to either fix the existing laws or do away with gun restrictions entirely. Gun restrictions are not the solution because guns are not doing the killing--people are, the laws only attack the law-abiding citizens, and the gun restrictions add another infringed upon right that the government controls. While voting against additional gun rules will not completely eliminate the controversy behind this topic, voting against these laws will be a milestone to regaining the rights we have already been promised.
The public wants to prevent future attacks but have very different desired methods. On one side you have the gun control advocates, who say safety comes with higher gun regulation. On the other side there are those that promote the idea of personal defense and loose gun regulation. Thomas Jefferson would have fit in the later category, saying
The issue of gun control is one of the hottest topics in the U.S. today. Although it is widely discussed whether citizens should own guns, the founding fathers of our country understood that the right to own and bear arms is a fundamental right and restricting them infringes on the 2nd amendment, which was put in place to protect U.S. citizens. Gun control need to be less strict for the welfare of the U.S. crime rates. Although guns need to be less monitorized some weapons such as military grade assault rifle cannot go unchecked. For the sake of the U.S. gun control needs to be weaker because it’s proven that ownership of guns does not increase crime but scares away criminals, control over firearms denies self-defense, yet, people that are pro gun-control
Gun control has a history dating back to 1791, when the Second Amendment of the Constitution was ratified. However, more recently, the debate over gun control has escalated into a much more public issue to which many citizens can relate. After all, stories about incidents involving guns appear frequently today in newspapers and on television or the radio. One could say that the debate started with the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which banned ownership of guns by certain groups of people and regulated the sale of guns. Since then, two main groups have gradually appeared: people who oppose strict federal
“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.” The right of all Americans to bear arms is a right the Founding Fathers held to equal importance as the Constitution itself. Gun control laws directly violate this right and therefore should not even be under consideration. Even if that issue is overlooked, gun control advocates state that in order to reduce firearm related violence, gun control laws must be implemented to remove the violence caused by firearms. Although this may seem reasonable, the consequences of such laws are ironically counterproductive; they exacerbate the problem instead of fixing it. Besides the fact that the American
“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.” The right of all Americans to bear arms is a right the Founding Fathers held to equal importance as the Constitution itself. Gun control laws directly violate this right and therefore should not even be under consideration. Even if that issue is overlooked, gun control advocates state that in order to reduce firearm related violence, gun control laws must be implemented to remove the violence caused by firearms. Although this may seem reasonable, the consequences of such laws are ironically counterproductive; they exacerbate the problem instead of fixing it. Besides the fact that the American Constitution guarantees its citizens the right to bear arms, the idea of restricting gun ownership in order to reduce firearm-related violence would ultimately fail given the previous experiments of gun control in England and in numerous states.
Obviously, guns have been a very big part of our history but because it was use inappropriately gun control was created. Guns are weapons that can take a life in an instant (“Does Gun Control…”). Guns have been part of American society since the arrival of the first European settlers (“Topic Overview…”). Arms in this country are part of our history, part of our culture. It has been passed down, generations to generations, as just an important part of who we are (“Topic Overview…”). Prior to the civil war, gun control laws were enacted in the slaves states principally due to the fear of firearms in the hands of free blacks and slaves who might rebel against their masters (“Special Interview…”). In the 1960’s