Bullet Coding is a Failed Law
Another mass shooting, over twenty dead and even more injured. A police officer is shot during a routine traffic stop. A person crying at court during a lengthy trial for the person that shot a family member. Gun violence is front and center everywhere we look, in the media and the government, but no one seems to have a solution to it. Many are fighting for stricter laws, some say guns aren’t the problem. Across the nation politicians are proposing laws track and stop the shootings. California is usually at the front of that fight, passing first of its kind laws and setting the stage for other states to follow; however, most of these laws are not thought out and only used to get media attention. California's bullet
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The coding is engraved in two places on the gun and will mark the shells with a barcode and the serial number of the gun as a round is fired. When the gun is fired, the shells ejected can then be matched to the gun, then matching it to the registered owner, so criminals will think twice before shooting. While this is a good idea in theory, there are many errors in the actual process. Criminals are getting smarter as the technology to catch them advances, like wearing gloves to not leave fingerprints. Since the technology is not advanced enough, it’s not being implemented worldwide, and the data entry has infinite failure points, the law will not work and waste millions of …show more content…
Over 300,000 cartridges were collected and logged in this database in fifteen years. After spending five million dollars on the program, it was repealed for being ineffective. In an article from All Outdoor, Maryland had only twenty-six matches during the fifteen years, with most guns already known and only used the database as a double check (Reed, “Maryland's 15 Year Old ‘Ballistic Fingerprinting’ Database Ends in Failure”). New York’s law lasted twelve years with only two guns matched to crimes. The thousands of hours, people, and expensive equipment needed to keep such a database going and accurate is unrealistic. Think how many issues the DMV has with its database, and there are more guns than people. How many people would it take to track every gun, who the current owner is, has it been sold or stolen, and was it destroyed? The idea that this database will be able to keep up with demand is ridiculous and a waste of
This story is incredibly heartbreaking to me. The massive shootings continue to become more and more prevalent. I fear that the nation is become desensitized by these horrific shootings because they are almost becoming the new norm. Obviously people continue to disagree how we should handle events like this, more specifically, gun control. I’m not sure what the answer should be either but we cannot continue with what laws or regulations that are currently being employed. They simply are not working. How many more lives is it going to take to effect change?
Once again, the country is awash with shock, horror, and grief. But what this shooting does is demonstrate unusually clearly where America's gun violence problem comes from. The problem is guns.
It appears as though the repetitive and unfortunate tragedies of mass shootings have become incorporated into the everyday life of American culture. We are forced to live in a heightened degree of fear, skepticism, and hesitation concerning our public safety. This phenomenon could reasonably occur in response to the vast ineffectiveness of the country’s current gun laws. Time after time similar misfortunes arise, yet few major changes are implemented to prevent them from reoccurring in the future. We cannot let this trend continue any further. Though some claim that increased gun control is useless and infringes upon the Second Amendment, it limits civilians’ weapons grade, obstructs those deemed unfit to wield such lethal weapons, and insures a greater level of security, thus it should be executed.
As the technology, build, and practicality of the hand gun changed over the past couple of hundred years, so has the increased want and demand. Of course, as more people started owning guns, the crime rate and deaths by gun shot up. Basically, it used to be every man for himself. As the government started worrying farther than just setting the rules but actually having people abide by the rules, laws and restrictions were set to try to regulate who owned guns and why they would use them. In 1934, Congress first started regulating the sale of automatic firearms. Not until four years later did the government think to make it federal law to require gun sellers to be licensed and to prohibit felons from purchasing them (Policy Issue p1). Even with rules that shops were supposed to follow, there are loopholes. The problem with some people in the U.S. is they will go buy guns because they have no criminal record, and then sell it to someone who is willing to pay them for the gun. Different laws over the years, still standing and also withdrawn, have spelled out different ideas of regulations, “The Gun Control Act of 1968 regulated imported guns, expanded gun-dealer licensing requirements, and expanded the list of persons not eligible to buy guns to include person convicted of any non-business related felony, minors, persons found to be mentally incompetent, and users of illegal drugs,” (Policy Issue p1). Gun
Gun registration is a prevalent and serious issue in both the United States and Canada. Numerous attempts have been made to control the ownership and use of guns in both nations with very little results. In 1995 Canada passed a strict-gun control law partially in reaction to a 1989 shooting at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique with a semiautomatic rifle. The long-gun registry introduced in 1995 was estimated to be a certain cost but this was a great undervaluation of the expense of the registry system. Electronic Data Systems and U.K.-based SHL Systemhouse worked to create this gun registration system that eventually needed to be brought to a halt. There are numerous elements of project management that need to be executed correctly in order to successfully complete a project. In the case of Canada’s gun registration system the project failed due to inadequate management of the project scope, the planning of the process, and risk management.
From 2014 to October 2017, there have been 213,787 gun related incidents. Nearly 54,000 of those incidents have resulted in death. In my lifetime alone, I’ve experienced 42 mass shootings resulting in 414 deaths and 851 injuries. Although the location and number of victims changed, I still felt the same mixture of sadness and anger wash over me every time I heard about a shooting. Another constant through the years was the phrase “worst mass shooting in American history”. Living through the different iterations of mass shootings negatively shaped my views on the state of gun control. Coming from a
Tragic Death. Weak Government. This is the beginning, middle ,and end of the ignored “epidemic” of Gun Control. The misleading effects of gun control and other such violences. Violence affects everyone is a small-big scene and at the time when we least expect it. According to Bradycampagn.org, there are over 100,000 deaths each year by guns. Violence is something we shouldn't put aside to wait any longer. Americans need to see the big picture that violence is making and take a step forward to being considerate and responsible for their actions and how it may eventually affect
California passed some of the nation’s toughest gun laws over the past two decades, and gun deaths across the state have declined by more than half, according to a new study by a California-based nonprofit research group.
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.
In essence, attempting to figure what can diminish and prevent fatal shootings all through the states is a challenging achievement. Efforts like applying armed guards in public places, metal detectors at schools, and fire arm licenses with extensive background check has done some bit in decreasing gun violence. All of these policies that are mentioned are debated back and forth between citizens that it violates our rights or that guns should be banned in general. An advocate for trying a tougher policy was Barack Obama in his term, he tried to make stricter background check, but he was outvoted because people felt violated of their rights. There is many debates that keep reoccurring and not much of a common ground found to prevent fatalities.
To coincide with prior restrictions of gun control the Brady Bill, which was passed in 1993, required all background checks on gun buyers (Schwartz). According to Schwartz, such states as California and New Jersey have been creating stricter laws. California had manufacturers stamp every gun with an individual code; therefore, if a specific gun was questioned in a crime, they would be able to trace it back to the owner. New Jersey, not taking as extreme measures as California, enforced penalties for illegal gun possession as well.
Sandy Hook Elementary. Aurora, Colorado. San Bernardino, California. Las Vegas, Nevada. Orlando, Florida. (Words with Negative Connotation) These are just some of the biggest mass shootings that have swept America in the past few years. Hundreds of lives are lost each year to gun related violence in the United States alone. Gun control has been a topic in our country since our founding fathers adopted the second amendment to the US constitution. Although recently controversy has sparked to an all-new extent in America due to the recent spike in mass shootings and gun related homicides. So many families and loves ones are affected each year in the United States because of gun related violence and other mass killing events, because of these events gun control laws need to be revamped and strengthened in American in order to protect the citizens.
Gun control in the U.S has been a highly talked about topic the past couple of years. Through the development of technology and social media; many people across the country have been more involved in voicing their opinions about this issue. America is known as the land of the free, many people take pride in being able to bare arms. However, this right has been abused by not only civilians, but law enforcement as well. The United States has the 31st highest rate of gun violence in the world and it is not decreasing anytime soon. The phrase “America's largest mass shooting” has been reassigned to numerous occurrences that have taken place over the past decade. It is apparent that through these tragedies it is time for a serious change, innocent lives are being lost for no reason.
The Orlando nightclub shooting in Florida on June 12, 2016 was the single largest massacre in U.S history, taking the lives of 50 individuals, including the shooter himself, and injuring 53 others. This is one extreme example of the gun violence that has been occurring in this country, but mass shootings like this and the one at Newton in 2012 are only a small part of our gun violence issue. The everyday gun violence that takes place in cities all across the United States claims the lives of thousands every single year. According to The Guardian, 33,500 civilians die each year because of gun brutality- “that’s about 1 life every 15 minutes” (Beckett). Between the years of 1999 and 2013, there were 464,003 gun deaths in the U.S, about 58% of them were suicides 37% were homicides. (ProCon.org) Gun violence and the consequences of that violence, have become a real and dangerous problem in the U.S , why else would the CDC list the United States as having the highest rate of gun violence out of all developed countries today? (Gale Opposing Viewpoints) This issue is not just attributable to a single factor, there are several that play an important part in why gun violence is such an issue in the U.S, namely laws and poverty; and in these causes we can also find solutions.
The United States could learn how to keep citizens safer by examining other areas’ regulations. “California has America’s strictest gun laws. This means that prospective gun owners must hold a Firearms Safety Certificate, submit to a waiting period like in Canada, buy weapons only through licensed dealers, and possess only a ‘California legal’ gun that complies with restrictions on what can and cannot be sold inside the state.” (https://www.nationalobserver.com/2015/12/04/news/how-american-gun-deaths-and-gun-laws-compare-canadas). Compared to Canada’s gun laws these are seen as fairly lenient. According to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, California is on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to gun violence per capita, evidence shows that (as of 2014) California's death rate is 7.4 per 100,000 people, compared to a much smaller state with lenient gun