Article _(Have Gun) - Essay Example

As said thesis points out, the crafting of government policies has become a sticky process of compromises and negotiations that involve the three major institutions in the American political system: congressional committees/subcommittees, executive branch agencies and interest groups. Sometimes called by various names as policy subsystems, issue networks and iron triangle, the three entities function essentially by staking out a claim over a specific area of public concern. Politics come into play when the executive branch agencies or bureaucracies go out to compete for scarce resources in the policy making arena in a bid to establish and maintain a “policy domain.

” Apart from being specialists or technocrats, present realities thus require that the bureaucrats be also consummate politicians. It was believed to be the politicians more than the technocrats in CDC in action when the bureaucratic agency started to stake out a claim over gun-related violence as its administrative domain in the early 1990s. The agency found as window of opportunity the growing concern of Americans about the corrosive effects of escalating violence caused by firearms. 1) Firearm-related violence is a public health issue.

As such, this kind of violence is CDC’s legitimate domain owing to its expert knowledge in the health care arena. The problem needs to identify risk factors, to develop, test and implement appropriate interventions. Violence was defined as “the intentional use of physical force against another person or against oneself, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury or death.” It encompassed such acts as suicide, homicide, rape, assault and child or elder abuse which are intentional. 2) CDC has the necessary expertise in this area.

Gun-related violence causes an estimated 35,000 deaths yearly in the US which translates into tremendous health care costs,