On December 14, 2012, the community of Newtown, Connecticut was shattered by a mass shooting at Sandy Hooks Elementary School which claimed the lives of 26 people. Of the 26 people gunned down, 20 of the victims were small, defenseless children. In January 2013, a Georgia mother was home alone with her nine year old twins when an intruder forced his way into her home. The mother and her children attempted to hide in a closet, but the intruder discovered them. In self-defense and to protect her small children, the mother shot the intruder five times. Since these events and many other home invasions and mass killings, the concerns of gun control advocates and opponents have been like two sides of a coin. Advocates have raised concerns …show more content…
This study showed that the states with the least restrictive gun laws did have the highest rates of violence. On whitehouse.gov, the president has said, “’Our nation has suffered too much at the hands of dangerous people who use guns to commit horrific acts of violence’” ("Now is the time | The White House", n.d.). The President is proposing a 9-step gun control plan that would create a universal background check system, limit gun ownership, ban certain assault weapons, and ensure that mental health patients receive the quality care they need. While the president’s plan sounds like a good strategy, many gun control critics argue that the president’s strategy does little to fix the problem with gun violence, and his policy violates American’s Second Amendment rights. On the other side of the gun control debate, one of its major opponents is the National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA along with 50 percent of Americans are not in favor of the government’s intervention in gun control. The NRA opposes the President’s plan to reduce gun violence for two main reasons. Firstly, the NRA says President Obama wants to dilute the political influence of the NRA. Secondly, he has a hidden agenda to expunge the Second Amendment from our Bill of Rights. The NRA believes the President’s plan to undermine their political influence by neutralizing voting gun
Gun control in America is one of the most fiercely debated topics in today’s political sphere. Nearly everyone has an opinion and there is a mind-boggling amount of information typically discussed regarding the matter. Media hot takes and campaign talking points aside, far too many lives have been lost to gun violence. A total of 12,902 in 2016, to be exact. The fact that more lives have been lost to gun violence in the United States this year than the 5,000 lost in the almost 10-year war effort overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan is appalling. Is sensible and reasonable gun control progress attainable in our near future? That remains to be seen, however it is my intention to respectfully dissect an argument presented by none other than an essay
There are gun control laws to try and reduce the number of violent shootings that occur. They are trying to put limits on weapons that Americans can own. The government is trying to take our guns away mainly because of people that are criminally insane. Most of the people who commit crimes don’t even have the weapons legally. If the government takes away the rights of people who are allowed to have firearms in their possession, it will most definitely cause an outrage. Most people believe that the people should be more capable of maintain proper use of the firearms instead of having them all taken away. Taking the firearms from Americans away would cause a lot more problems than there actually are. The people will be upset with the
In a speech regarding the Charleston, South Carolina shooting in June of 2015, President Obama stated, “More than 11,000 people were killed by gun violence in 2013 alone.” After the Sandy Hook shooting, in Newtown, Connecticut with a death toll of 26, Congress has still failed to pass these regulations which 90% of Americans wish to have. While tightening the gun control may not guarantee the complete absence of mass shootings or gun violence and crime, it has definately been shown to significantly reduce these rates. America is in need of tighter gun control laws because current regulations do not deter violence and crime, and the interpretation of the constitutional right has since been misconstrued.
America needs to institute, and initiate gun control laws throughout the entire nation. But not everybody who inhabits the United States believes in regulating arms. Those who are against establishing gun laws argue that gun control directly infringes upon their “right to bear arms” granted to them by the 2nd Amendment. Anti gun control supporters, such as the National Rifle Association, often claim that the act of regulating guns is a sufficient reason why such an Amendment was introduced in the constitution; to protect themselves from any and all forms of violation of civil liberties and freedom. Supporters of anti gun laws are unwilling to welcome any interpretations of the 2nd Amendment that do not match up “word for word,” as was written in the Bill of Rights.
Mass shootings are increasing in the United States, and gun control advocates are seizing the opportunity to push anti-gun legislation to deter gun violence in America. Guns and the Second Amendment have come to the forefront of political rhetoric, leading to conflicting views between lawmakers on the future of gun legislation. Republican lawmakers are encouraging law abiding citizens to acquire firearms and to defend themselves against acts of violence by criminals. On the contrary, Democratic lawmakers believe the only way to slow gun violence in the United States is to remove guns from society. While certain politicians believe strict gun laws would protect the American people, the proposed policies would make our nation more vulnerable
President obama said at a press conference on October 01, 2015 “The solution to such violence is obvious. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun.” (Simple Minded Gun Control). Gun control is a controversial issue worldwide. The reason why this has attracted so much attention is because not everyone is in favor of gun control and each side brings up excellent points about the issue. Research related to this issue strongly supports the claim that there SHOULD be more gun control laws. Three arguments that prove this position are (1) Incidents like Sandy Hook will be less likely to occur (2) It reduces the high rates of accidental deaths (3) As the years pass by and technology updates the laws should be up to date as well. Members from the National Rifles Association state that No law-abiding American should be forced to face evil with empty hands. I say I agree with President Obama there SHOULD be more gun control laws because it should not be as easy as it is for someone who wants to inflict harm on others to get their hands on a weapon.
The debate over the right to bear arms according to the Second Amendment has been a hotly contested issue for many years in American history. The matter has been one of the most controversial issues in the second half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first; disputed between politicians on the liberal and conservative side along with issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and gay marriage. The Supreme Court has officially defined the controversial Second Amendment by stating that states have the right to maintain a militia separate from a federally controlled army (Gale Encyclopedia, pg. 155-162). However, “Courts have consistently held that the state and federal governments may lawfully regulate the sale, transfer,
The Second Amendment of The United States Constitution states, “[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."
Usually when people think about guns they think about crime. But are the two really related? Do guns really lead to crime? And if they do, do laws that restrict firearm ownership and the use of guns stop the crime or protect people? These are the questions many politicians are asking themselves when creating gun control laws. The debate over gun control is nothing new. As you can see this debate still goes on today and is the cause for the beginning of gun control laws.
Guns are one of the most controversial and debated-upon topics in America today. In the Constitution, Americans are given “the right to bear arms,” and many Americans are proud of and believe strongly in that right. Though, that right has been constantly misused. Homicides by gun are at a higher rate in the United States than any other country in the world, mass shootings are at an all time high (many of which have occurred in the past two years alone), and terrorism has been at an all-time high. So, naturally, it is a topic that needs to be discussed. In the articles Change Your Gun Laws, America (1), author Fareed Zakaria provides the readers with some harrowing statistics on guns and insight over how the U.S. laws on guns need to be managed.
Guns have been around for a very long time. People love being able to have the freedom to do what they want, especially when they can possess something that make them feel superior. The introduction of the Second Amendment opens up the controversial, yet well anticipated opportunity for United State citizens to be able to own guns. Americans enjoy the benefit of being able to own guns for decades over people in other countries. People can buy guns and carry them around in public. They own guns for many reasons such as to hunt, to protect themselves, and simply to satisfy their desire of owning a gun, but in recent years, the issue of people carry guns has become a problem. There are so many people get killed by guns in different parts of
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
When we hear the term gun control, we think of opposing sides of the topic arguing whether citizens should continue to have the right to bear arms or not, including the possible consequences of continuing the use of the second amendment. As we know, gun violence is one a the major political issues that has caused public corruption and still continue to this day. During Barack Obama’s eight year term of presidency, he announced his thoughts and plan for change on how to limit gun control violence. He discusses how gun control can affect the lives of citizens physical and mental health, along with overall lifestyle. Barack shares past tragedies of gun violence and how gun control has played a huge role into our society. Throughout this speech Barack Obama gives on gun control, he persuades the public by using ethos, pathos, and logos to highlight the important concepts for change of this amendment.
In the past year, I am sure that you have heard about the issue of gun control. Well, do you really know the full story behind the debate? My goal for this essay is to fully explain everything to you behind this issue and why it is such a big deal in our world today. There are many different problems behind why gun control is such a big issue in the world today, and why some people want gun control and others do not. Through these contrasting opinions on gun control, the world will never fully decide what is completely right.
Living a life in America, we all get to have all the rights that included in the Constitution. One of those was the Second Amendment which is the rights to bear arm, the purpose was to protect ourselves from danger but nowadays a lot of people have take advantage of it and use it in the wrong way. I believe our government need to have a strict limit on guns possession.