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Reasons Why Guns Should Be Banned

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Violence is out of control, and guns are a major cause - Should Guns Be Banned? introduction. This is a belief many Americans now share. This belief is fueling a nationwide movement that could result in a total prohibition on private-gun ownership in the near future. Just imagine if every handgun owner was made to dispose of their gun, how much more peaceful the U. S. or rather the world would be? Ownership of private guns is being banned one step at a time.
The recently enacted Brady Bill mandates a national five-day waiting period and background check for all handgun purchases (Wollstein par. 1). Maryland has just passed a law that requires a state license for any handgun purchase and limits purchases to one per month. Also, President Clinton banned the importation of most foreign-made, semiautomatic rifles (Reynolds 1). On February 28, 1994, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen announced that several 12-gauge semiautomatic shotguns were being reclassified in the same category as machine guns (Wollstein par. ). The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms simultaneously announced that they would trace the owners of 18,000 of these shotguns and order them to be fingerprinted and to register their guns with the ATF within 30 days — or face ten years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine (Wollstein par. 4). On the same day that semiautomatic shotguns were reclassified, Senator Howard Metzenbaum introduced legislation that would require all handgun owners to get a federal license, pass a safety test, and register their weapons with police (Reynolds 3).
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan has proposed legislation that would raise the tax on some ammunition up to 10,000 percent. The price of a single box of Winchester 9-millimeter hollow-tipped cartridges would increase to $15,000( ). Would banning guns reduce crime? According to recent polls, most Americans now support gun licensing as a way to reduce crime. Crime has certainly been increasing — particularly violent crime. Between 1960 and 1980, robberies nationwide increased by 300 percent. In the same period, both the number of handguns and the national murder rate doubled (Wollstein par. ). But is the proliferation of guns the cause of violence or a response to violence?

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