THE FIGHT OVER GUNS IN AMERICA

“The Fight Over Guns In America.” Junior Scholastic 118.8 (2016): 12. Middle Search Plus. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

After  a series of mass shootings President Barack Obama stated he was using executive powers to stem gun violence. People reacted to this with both applause and anger. The role of firearms in the U.S. has been debated since the founding of the country. The U.S. has many more guns than any other developed country and in 2014, there were more than 33,000 gun related deaths. Gun control is a broad term used to cover many kinds of restrictions. Restrictions like: what kind of firearms can be bought and sold, who can poses and sell them, responsibility of seller to check a buyer’s background, whether a gun sale should be reported to the government, and lastly limits on types of ammunition and size of magazines. The central focus of the debate in the U.S. has three main issues. These issues are: background checks for buyers, laws regulating who can carry weapons in public, and kinds of guns available for purchase. Federal law has prohibited specific groups of people from owning firearms. These groups include convicted felons, immigrants without legal status, and those with certain mental illness. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act requires licensed dealers to conduct background checks on buyers through a database run by the FBI, this is meant to prevent the sale of guns to someone who is prohibited from owning one. Even though this system was put in place, it has major loopholes. The biggest of these loopholes is that small-scale sellers, who claim to be hobbyists are not required to conduct background checks. Since many of these private dealers typically do business at gun shows, this situation is referred to as the “gun show loophole”. From 1994 to 2004, federal law banned the sale of many types of assault rifles and high capacity magazines, but since the law has expired Congress has failed to renew the ban. According to a recent Pew Research Center poll most democrats and city dwellers favor more restrictions, while republicans and people in rural ares favor protecting their gun rights. Though the two political parties are at odds on the issue there is a consensus that private gun sales should be subject to background checks. Gun rights advocates see weapon possession as a matter of individual rights to arm themselves for hunting, self-defense, and sport. People who favor gun control feel the more people who carry guns the more likely it is that everyday disputes turn deadly. Debates over gun rights eventually come down to how people interpret the Second Amendment. Gun rights advocates will interpret it as individuals have the right to own guns. Gun control advocates will interpret it as the people’s collective right, through a militia. In 2008 and 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in two 5-to-4 decisions, that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep a loaded firearm for self-defense. A United Nations study reveled that there were 3.21 firearm homicides per 100,000 people in 2010. Gun control advocates say using tougher laws in other countries keep gun related deaths low. Using Australia as an example, between 1979 and 1996 only 13 mass shootings took place, but after 35 people were killed in 1996 the country passed strict bans on many weapons. Politicians in rural states support gun rights to be re-elected and fear gun rights groups like the NRA. In 2013 after Colorado enacted new gun controls, gun rights groups, or the gun lobby, petitioned for a special recall election targeting democratic senators who supported the new gun controls. The legislators were voted out of office. Fearing additional restrictions would lead to outright banning of weapons, the gun lobby has become more unyielding to change. Most gun controls in the U.S. exist at the state level and some states have more rigorous background checks than the federal one and also require a license or permit to own, but most states do not. After the Newtown, Connecticut mass shooting where 26 people were killed at an elementary school, New York and Connecticut passed new restrictions on assault rifles and large-capacity magazines. Though this happened gun rights groups challenged these restrictions and other states in the country seem to have made it easier to buy and carry guns. In Texas a new law allows people to openly carry handguns in most public places while in Kansas gun owners no longer are required to have a license for a concealed weapon. With such a wide variety of gun regulations, guns are moved across state lines very easily and in New York City where guns laws are very strict two thirds of guns used in crimes are from other states with weaker gun laws. The only way the issue could be addressed is with federal legislation, but lawmakers are at odds on the topic. I felt this source was very informative and unbiased. It covers nearly every detail involving gun control politically, socially, and informatively.