Gun Control in the US - Essay Example

Gun Control On the 8th of January, people had gathered at a super market in Casas Adobes,Ariona. Everone was looking forward to seeing U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords at a public meeting event being held there. The crowd inclded young children, teenagers and even a judge. Most just wanted to meet her and wish her well whereas others wanted to ask her questions. But one man, Jared Lee Lougher, had a different agenda on his mind. He arrived at the spot some time after 10 a.m carrying a semiautomatic 9mm glock. He went past the crowd, straight to the senator’s table and he shot her point blanc in the head before anyone could comprehend the situation. After Giffords was shot, Loghner continued with the violence and opened fire at the people present. In the next 15 seconds, six people were kiled while thirteen lay wounded. The killing spree stopped only when Loughner stopped to re-load his weapon and some brave bystanders overpowered him and kept him pinned to the ground till the police arrived. This is the latest incidence in gun-related violence that has revived the gun control debate in the United States (Huffington Post 2011; Doeden 2012). Gun control has been a debatable issue in the United States of America and has sparked many controversies with many people upholding the significance of stricter gun control laws whereas others advocate the permission to lenient gun laws. Loughner had been in trouble with the law many times in the past. He was a troubled student and many of his friends and neighbours described him as mentally unstable. How is it that despite a criminial backgorund and dubious mental health was he able to legally obtain a firearm? Gun control is a complex issue in the United States. Incidences like this have taken place in the United States either in schools, in homes and on the street. The victims may not always be high profile or many, but they are always subject to the rage of an individual who was within an easy reach of a firearm. All Americans have been provided by the right to have guns according the constitution of the United States. But is it really relevant in today’s age when gun toting behaviour depicted in movies has made it “cool” to be able to keep and shoot a gun? Everyone is of the opinion that when wrong people get hold of guns, tragedies happen. Those in favor of gun control say that more guns mean more gun-related deaths. The best way to stop gun violence is to make it more difficult for people to get guns in the first place. Those in favor of gun rights have a simple counter argument- “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. They argue that people need to more educated and then allowed to keep and use their guns. The real question here is how to identify those who are dependable enough to use their guns responsibly from those who may end up being dangerous with guns? (Doeden 2012). When President Regan was shot in 1981, the bullet landed in his lung and he recovered from it soon. However, his press secretary Jim Brady was not so lucky and a bullet ended up in his head paralyzing him for life. (Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: Jim Brady). The shooter was John Hinkley Jr. who had bought the revolver used for shooting at a pawnshop in Dallas, Texas using false information. After the shooting of her husband, Jim Brady’s wife Sarah became an active advocate for gun control saying that if Hinkley had been subjected to a background check, his criminal history would have been detected and this tragedy could have been avoided. Sarah Brady became the Chair of the board of Handgun Control Inc. (HCI) and in 1987 introduced the Brady act in U.S. Congress. Once the Brady law was passed HCI was renamed to the Brady Centre for Gun Control and it is still actively working on getting guns off the streets (Brady and McLoughlin 2002). According to information from the Brady Centre, up to 3042 young children and adolescents lose their lives owing to gunfire in the Unites States. This figure can be related to the number of American soldiers that died during combat in Iraq. It is also more than four times higher than the number of American combat-related deaths in Afghanistan. Gunfire kills more preschoolers under the age of five than it kills the law enforcement officers while on duty (Protect Children Not Guns 2010). The Brady Centre is promoting laws that advance gun safety, such as necessitate childproof locks on gun triggers. It is because of their continuous efforts that the renowned gun maker Smith and Wesson have started manufacturing guns with safety features. According to the Brady Centre, the only way to make guns better for the American society is to make sure in foolproof ways that children never get to access guns (Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence: Smoking guns 2003). On the other hand is the National Rifle Association or NRA that is against everything the Brady Centre stands for. NRA is a 124-year-old organization, made up of millions of members who support gun ownership. NRA is against any piece of legislation that may lead to gun control because according to them it will ultimately bring about complete restriction on gun ownership. According to a research produced by the NRA, gun ownership actually brings about a decrease in crime and protects from crime. According to them, much of the figures produced by the Brady Centre are overstated or downright false. Their biggest argument perhaps is that when more people have guns, crimes are automatically reduced. And there are some figures to support their views. A study that was conducted by Dr. Gary Kleck, who holds the position of a professor at Florida State University, showed that women use their handguns about 416 times every single day to protect themselves from rapists. This is 12 times more than the number of guns being used by the rapists for their criminal act. Guns are also used 1145 times in a day against robbers and thieves while 1510 times in a day protecting from criminal assaults. The NRA has also spoken out strongly against Smith and Wesson for putting safety features on their guns. Their position is that the federal government will make it mandatory to include safety features in guns if the gun manufacturers’ start making their guns with these built in features (Schulman 1995). According to CDC, deaths from gun-related injuries have been on a steady decline (Gotsch et al 2001) Washington put a stringent ban on handguns around 34 years ago because of the prevalent violence. Despite the ban, Washington was known as America’s murder capital. The NRA stand is that gun laws cannot stop murderers. After all, laws against murder are stronger than laws against guns, but if the former cannot stop a person from committing murder, the latter cannot either. Guns are not the real cause of violence. Instead, the blame must go to the people who use guns to satisfy their anger. Anti- gun laws should also consider the mental instability, drug and alcohol abuse and a dysfunctional lifestyle when making laws against gun rights. The National Academy of Sciences conducted extensive research on the issue of gun control measures consulting more than 200 journals and books. Yet, their researchers could not discover a single piece of law, legislation or regulation that has reduced gun-related violent crimes and suicides. A CDC report studying ammunition bans, waiting period laws, gun licensing and child access prevention reported similar findings. The CDC report finished off saying that there is no conclusive evidence to support claims that laws reduced gun violence (Levy 2011; Gotsch et al 2001). United States reports nearly 500,000 crimes involving guns every year. Americans own about 250 million guns. Even if we assume that a different gun is used in each crime that would mean only 0.2 percent of American-owned guns are involved in crime annually. The laws and legislation against gun ownership would be abusing the rights of other 99.8 gun owners in America (Levy 2011). The proponents of gun control argue that the only way law enforcement agencies can track down rogue gun dealers is by imposing a statewide licensing law for gun-dealers. This measure will decrease illegal trafficking of guns and make it more difficult for criminals to acquire firearms. They also want to make it mandatory to sell child-safety locks on all guns. Research is also being conducted to make guns with more personalized safety technology that would mean that only authorized people could operate a gun. Legislation is also underway to make it illegal to possess guns at college campuses (Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence: Federal Gun Laws Gun Lobby-Backed Efforts n.d.) The opponents of gun control dispute that statewide licensing of gun-dealers as they claim that it would only add to the bureaucracy as the federal government already has such programs in place. NRA and its supporting organizations are also against child safety locks, as they seem to be a form of government intrusion. NRA also believes that laws against carrying guns to the workplace or college go against a person’s right to self-defense. These laws put innocent people in a clear path of violent activity without any means of defending themselves (Lott 2010). The truth of the matter is that NRA’s education programs have been just as ineffective in stopping gun violence as the Brady Bill. The “United Nations Report on Firearm Regulation, Crime Prevention, and Criminal Justice” states clearly that "America has weaker firearm regulations and higher numbers of deaths involving firearms than all other industrialized nations." The report goes on to state that in 1995 the death rate was 14 per 100,000 people in America. This figure is approximately three times higher than the death rate trend presented from other countries that were a part of this survey. More than two thousand individuals lose their lives each year because of gun related injuries. A majority of them are children and teenagers (Firearm Injury in the U.S 2009). It is true that guns are great for protection from crime but the fact of the matter is that a gun at home will almost never be used to safeguard from break ins and other criminal activities. A gun at home will most likely be used to commit suicide or commit a criminal assault against a person. It will also be used in an unintentional shooting before any real protection can be had from it. Statistics show that despite the measures put in place by the Brady bill, guns are still being sold without a background check, making the legislation ineffective ("Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence: Facts Gun Violence n.d.). The fact of the matter is that guns can be used for wrong acts or from preventing these wrong acts from happening. A middle road needs to be taken on this issue. While law making is important to make guns less accessible, it is very impractical to stop people from carrying firearms as only law-abiding innocent Americans will follow this and the criminals will find guns through their illegal channels. Preventing people from carrying guns will prevent them from defending themselves from mishaps. On the other hand, it is important that gun manufacturers realize their responsibility in this problem and are subject to much stricter laws along with gun sellers. Works Cited "Biographies Jim Brady." Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: Jim Brady. Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . "Facts Gun Violence." Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . "Federal Gun Laws Gun Lobby-Backed Efforts." Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence: Gun Lobby-Backed Efforts. Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . "Smoking Guns." Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 2003. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . Brady, Sarah, and Merrill McLoughlin. A Good Fight. New York: PublicAffairs, 2002. Print. Doeden, Matt. Gun Control: Preventing Violence or Crushing Constitutional Rights?Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2012. Print. Firearm Injury In The U.S. Firearm & Injury Center at Penn. 2009. Web. 27 Mar 2012. . Gabrielle Giffords Shot: Congresswoman Shot In Arizona. Huffington Post. 25 May 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . Gotsch, Karen A., Joseph Annest, James A. Mercy & George W. Ryan. "Surveillance for Fatal and Nonfatal Firearm-Related Injuries - United States, 1993-1998." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Cdc Surveillance Summaries : Mmwr. Cdc Surveillance Summaries. 50 (2001). Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . Levy, Robert. "Gun control measures don't stop violence." CNN. 18 Jan. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . Lott, John R. More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2010. Print. Protect Children Not Guns. Washington, DC: Children's Defense Fund, 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . Schulman, J N. Self Control, Not Gun Control. Santa Monica, CA: Synapse-Centurion, 1995. Print. Read More