The NRA Killed Gun Control Legislation
By the year 2003, it is expected that firearms will cause the most injury-related deaths in the United States, surpassing even automobile accidents. Poll after poll have revealed that most Americans favor stricter gun control laws. Five recent suburban school shootings have demonstrated that when guns and kids mix, tragedy results. Yet gun control legislation remains at a standstill.
The battle for stricter gun-control laws has not been without victories. In 1968, Congress passed the Gun Control Act in the wake of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., President John F. Kennedy, and Senator Robert Kennedy. The law mandated stricter licensing requirements, prohibited the sale of
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However, the thrill of the above victories could not prevent the agony of defeat that the country faced between October 1997 and June 1998. There were five suburban school shootings in that time, in Pearl Mississippi, West Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansa;, Edinboro, Pennsylvania; and Springfield, Oregon. This unspeakable violence left sixteen dead, including eleven children and teenagers. The shooters ranged in age from 11 to 16 years old.
Although no one can explain the "why" of these tragedies, recent statistics give insight into the "how": A 1990 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) survey found that one in twenty high school students had carried a gun in the past month, while a 1994 Harris poll found that only one in five students would tell a teacher if he or she knew that another student was bringing weapons to school. Where do these kids get their guns? The Harris poll found that only 43% of parents of minors keep their guns safely locked, which means that an estimated 1.2 million latchkey elementary school students can access the guns kept in their houses. The consequences of the latter statistic were brutally obvious in Jonesboro, when sixth grader Andrew Golden and eighth grader Mitchell Johnson opened fire on a crowd of students with guns taken from a glass
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.
Gun control has become more of a hot topic in recent years. Some believe that there is no need for additional gun control. On the other hand, we have some that believe that the government can improve gun laws. Although many believe that gun control will violate their rights, the idea of stricter gun control laws can help communities.
Thirteen people were killed at Columbine High School in 1999, thirty-three died during the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, and twenty-seven people, twenty of whom were children no older than seven, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 (Kirk). These name only a few of the larger and most well-known school shooting incidences. In total, 297 people have lost their lives due to school-based shootings since 1980 (Kirk). Although this number may be small in comparison to death by guns overall, these instances are completely unwarranted and it is likely that they could have been avoided or at the very least reduced. These people, college and high school students, teachers, and even children, might still be alive today if our
There has been an average of one school shooting every week in America since the Sandy Hook shooting. On the fourteenth of December, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, 20-year-old Adam Lanza not only killed his mother in her home, but also twenty children and six members of staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. This was to be the third deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The Huffington Post reports that as of 2014, there have been over 200 school shootings. These have resulted in at least 94 deaths and over 156 serious and minor injuries. And, with an issue as emotive and contentious as the murder of school children, the question has been frequently asked: why do school shootings happen?
To help apply restrictions, the Gun Control Act of 1968, which was the first gun law, was passed in the wake of the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy earlier that year (“Restricting” par. 4). The 1968 Gun Control Act established categories of prohibited gun purchasers and possessors, including convicted felons, fugitives from justice, minors, individuals with a history of
The Gun Control Act of 1968 is a federal law that basically regulates the gun industry. The purpose of this federal firearms regulation is to assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in the ongoing effort to reduce crime and violence ("Gun Control Overview"). The Gun Control Act of 1968 was amended by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. In this
One of the most horrific shootings that scared America was the Columbine High School shooting of 1999. Though not the first mass shooting, this shooting was the first major school shooting with the death of 12 students, 1 teacher, and 21 injured. The two shooters were Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. Both of the killers were white, male, and 18. They had both parents, were both a part of an
Stimulated from recent assassinations of significant figures, such as President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, and urban riots beginning in 1964, the Gun Control Act of 1968 renewed the fight for gun control in the United States. Prohibiting convicted felons, raising age to purchase handguns to 21 are just two of the many actions the Gun Control Act of 1968 put into effect. The law renewed the fight for gun control, and was welcomed with acceptance and disapproval when announced to the United States citizens. Though with President Lyndon B. Johnson issuing such a law he planned to create a more safe and prepared environment for firearms exist, and prevent reckless behavior with firearms inside the United States borders.
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
One of many controversial topics in the United States is gun control. It is clearly written in the Second Amendment of the Constitution that the people will have the right to bear arms. Recently; however, people have been misusing those firearms and have been harming others with them. The government is trying to regulate the sale, distribution, and ownership of guns because of this reason. Some of the arguments being made by the politicians is simply if the government has the right to be able to control, and if it does, the effectiveness of the public policy to regulate guns.
Just a normal day in American schools. Children are in their classes, and all the sudden an armed man comes to the front doors of the school killing many innocent lives. In the United States, School shootings have become increasingly common. Shootings from my perspective are disgusting, and create such harm to the world. However, school shooting statistics show a growing trend in the United States
Let me make one small vote for the NRA. They're good citizens. They call their Congressmen. They write. They vote. They contribute. And they get what they want over time.(qtd. in nra.org) The NRA is indeed all of these things, with programs to benefit a variety of Americans, sponsorship of one of Americas oldest sports, and as an organization that will stand up for its political beliefs regarding the Second Amendment. (www.nra.org)
School shootings have altered American history greatly over the past two decades. From 1997 to 2007, there have been more than 40 school shootings, resulting in over 70 deaths and many more injuries. School shoot-outs have been increasing in number dramatically in the past 20 years. There are no boundaries as to how old the child would be, or how many people they may kill or injure. At Mount Morris Township, Michigan, on February 29th, 2000, there was a 6 year old boy who shot and killed another 6 year old girl at the Buell Elementary School with a .32 caliber pistol. And although many shootings have occurred at High Schools or Middle Schools, having more guns on those campuses would not be a good environment for children to grow up in.
It is a Friday afternoon in Charlesbay High School. Students are piling into the lunch lines awaiting hot pizza, fresh French fries and ice-cold sodas. As the students discuss what they are going to do after the football game and how their 1st hour test was, a gunshot is heard not far away. The students are ordered to stay low to the ground by school security guards. None of the students know what is happening outside the lunch lines. What is going on is a 17-year old frenetic boy who attends Charlesbay, got upset with a couple students. He was sick of hearing them call him “dumb” or “butterball” and pushing him around the hallways. Robby, we’ll call him, took matters into his own hands and
After the recent heartbreaking mass-shooting, the gun control debate has reached its boiling point. Statistically, 33 people are killed with guns every day in America. Many people nationwide asking why so many