Gun Control Essay, Research Paper
Gun Control
There are no bad guns, I say the whole nation should be an armed
nation. Said by Joseph Foss former governor , and fighter pilot for the US
Air Force, and now the current President of the NRA, or National Rifle
Association. The NRA is a special interest whose members are stereotyped
as truck-driving hunters. I feel that the NRA is definitely progressing quite
well in terms of letting the common people possess and bear a firearm, like
stated in the constitution. There is no reason that we should not be able to
possess a firearm. Because the organization is for guns, it is surprising that
the NRA is powerful and it makes many people wonder. I feel that the NRA
is quite strong in their beliefs. I really don t think that the whole nation should
be armed, but I do feel that people should have the right to bear arms. The
two main things that support this; are the 2nd amendment and the self defense
policy.
As an organization, the NRA s current main objective is protecting
American citizen s rights to possess and operate a firearm, and from being
violated by gun control laws. One of the NRA s main weapons is the second
amendment of the Constitution which states a well regulated militia, being
necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and
bear arms, shall not be infringed. The amendment in the eyes of the NRA and
many American citizens clearly protects the individual rights of all citizens to
possess and operate firearms. This would easily make any and all gun control
laws unconstitutional and therefore illegal.
This is not accepted by all people, including the United States
government. They believe that the amendment guaranteed no right for
individuals to possess weapons, but allowed for the government to form and
maintain an armed service. Because of the different interpretations of our
constitution, gun control can be viewed by different people in different ways.
Some of the many gun control bans and laws which are constantly criticized
are those pertaining to self-defense. Current laws, like those of Michigan,
require that the victim must retreat and be under threat by the intruder before
any means of force can be taken on the attacker. With efforts from anti-gun
control groups such as the NRA laws have been lifted pertaining to
self-defense and property protection has been enforced.
Another example of unwanted gun violence laws, was the famous
AK-47 crisis. For those people who don t know what a AK-47 is it s a
automatic rifle or more commonly known as a machine gun. Due to
governmental handgun bans, the military issued AK-47 which became easily
accessible, due to the extended barrel which allowed the assault weapon to
fall under more lenient gun bans. The weapon quickly became a favorite
weapon of thieves. In one such case, it was used in the massacre of many
school children. One can begin to wonder just how many of these violent
crimes could have been prevented by a self-defense weapon. The attacks by
the automatic assault weapon eventually led to more strict assault weapon
bans. The percentage of assault weapons related to violent crimes has in fact
decreased only a small amount which tends to lead experts to believe that
many assault weapon related crimes were done with illegal weapons. It
would be somewhat non logical of people to commit crimes which were
easily traced back to them by means of a simple background check of assault
weapon owners. Another interesting fact is that not all forms of gun control
are stoppable. Seventy-three percent of the 70 million gun owners in
America declared that mandatory gun registration should exist, 87% of the
voters stated that background checks should be required2 (Grassroots
Division). Making background checks have definitely lowered the number of
outlaws that can purchase a gun. Which is why the Brady Bill was passed.
The Brady Law orders chief law-enforcement officer for every area to make a
reasonable effort to conduct checks within five days of a handgun buyer s
application. The checks are to ensure that the buyer is not prohibited from
owning the gun because of criminal history or other problems, such as drug
addiction.
Many people make guns out to be a terrible thing to own but when
handled with care they can be a valuable asset. There is a case of a man in
Baltimore, who came to the aid of a 21-year-old premed student who was
being choked to death by two criminals. The man that came to the aid of the
student ran out of is house with an unloaded .32 caliber, and kept the
attackers on the ground while his wife called the police. The man that came to
the rescue never left his property. Instead of being hailed as a hero he was
charged with a weapons violation, and spent 26 horrific hours in a Baltimore
jail cell. A month later, charges were finally dropped. This week marks the
that gun buyers will be able to purchase firearms without waiting five days for
federal approval of the sale. As established by the Brady Handgun Prevention
Act. Gun buyers have been replaced by the computerized National Instant
Check System. Once the initial kinks in the system are worked out, NICS
approvals should take just three minutes, (Federal Bureau of Investigation).
An estimated 12.4 million firearms are sold each year in the United
States. As of this week handgun buyers, purchasers of rifles and shotguns
must also submit to NICS checks. Since 1993, the Justice Department has
given states $200 million to assist in the computerization of criminal and2
mental-health records. However, activists on both sides of the firearms debate
have guestions about the new system of background checks.
The National Rifle Association is suing the DOJ over its plan to
record the results of these checks, a process outlawed by the Brady Act. The
NICS system prohibits the purchase of guns by felons, the mentally ill, and
people convicted of domestic violence. In addition, states can add other
categories of people to the list.
I do believe that assault weapons should be banned from the common
person but to take guns away from people with no intent to cause harm on
individuals should be totally out of the question.