Preventing Violence with Universal Background Checks On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech students were going through their daily college routine by either attending classes, finishing up what needed to be done for a particular class, or other important tasks that were to be accomplished for the day. However, the mindset of the college students suddenly changed once the college sent out an email informing the students about a shooting that killed two students. According to CNN, It was just within an hour from when the two students who were killed, the school sent yet another email notifying the students that at least 32 students and faculty were killed and that there was a gunman loose on campus (n.p.). From the students worrying about their school …show more content…
People do not want guns being sold to a person who isn’t allowed to own a gun because it isn’t safe and the individual can cause violent tragedies in the future. The use of universal background checks will definitely help prevent selling it to a dangerous person.
Furthermore, people question if background checks actually work, then why are guns still being sold to dangerous people? According to Nichols, a journalist for CNN, “The Virginia Tech shooter, who killed 33 people and himself in 2007, had passed two background checks because Virginia didn't submit his mentally ill status to the database” (n.p.) Not submitting important files to the database that shows that an individual is dangerous or mentally ill is a major factor in why background checks don’t work.
Given that some states don’t submit files to the databases, it is a big loophole that could be fixed to prevent future violence. Nichols explains "As a result of that [Virginia Tech] shooting, the federal government passed a law encouraging these states to submit these records, and a large number of states passed laws. So there's been significant improvement in reporting dangerously mentally ill persons to NICS” (CNN n.p.) The bad thing is, there are still many states that don’t submit these important files because of not having the resources or the political will to require
Right now, the U.S. has a National Instant Background Check System; however, it contains many flaws. This system is meant to act as a filter to stop the wrong people from having guns. In 2007, the Bipartisan legislation was passed to strengthen this system. It relies on data supplied by the states, but the data is often incomplete and inadequate (Merino 104). Unlicensed gun sellers have also created a dangerous loophole. The law makes an exception for gun sellers who aren’t federally licensed gun dealers. These sellers sell guns informally through venues such as gun shows, and are not required to run background checks. This is a dangerous loophole where people who should not have guns can get them (“Gun”). Senator Frank R. Lautenberg once stated, commenting on the gun sh...
We need to continue creating new legislation to regulate gun laws. As previously pointed out, there are loopholes in our current set of laws that allow for people to bypass the background check system completely at times. We first must look into ways of upgrading our current existing laws to ensure problems like this don’t keep happening. After that, as has been discussed earlier and seen in other countries around the world, we must continue to pass gun legislation laws because it will help to reduce overall violent crimes in the country.
Before choosing sides one must always look at the facts. The most important fact to know about the situation at Kent State University is that in the days before the shootings, the campus was anything but calm. It all began on Thursday, April 30,...
April 20th, 1999, Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, experienced a mass shooting. Thirteen people were injured and more than twenty were injured. Twelve were students and one was a teacher. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their high school for forty one minutes before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. School shootings are notorious for making headline news but in 1999, school shooting were not as prevalent as they are in the present day. The media blew up on the catastrophe that was Columbine and many questions were raised, who were these kids and why did they do this? Speculation arose about why they did it. Maybe they were bullied for being goth and social outcasts or maybe they
The columbine massacre the day where no one is safe in school or out of school. The columbine massacre is about two students named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris both seniors 17 years old both two weeks before graduating they killed 12 students, one teacher, and 21 injured to their shooting on April 20, 1999. Both Dylan and Eric were some believe they were bullied by the sport teams in their school so they planned to kill the people who bullied them and other mostly anyone who gets in their way but that wasn’t really why the FBI he said that there target was everyone no one in pacify we will not get in to more details now. Dylan and Eric were both intelligent boys with solid parents and a good home and both had brothers younger than them. They played soccer, baseball, and both enjoyed to work on computers. Both boys were thinking on commit suicide on 1997 but instead started to plan a massacre in 1998 a year before it happened. Then the two boys had got into some trouble for breaking into a van on January 30, 1998 trying to steal some fuses and wires for bombs for them to make, but they got caught in trouble. So the court put them in a program called the juvenile diversion program, but even if they were there they were still planning the massacre and the court also put Eric in some angry management classes and people believe it worked but it didn’t he just did it to look like it work and both boys made it look like they were really sorry but they weren’t. Dylan and Eric both really hated everyone in their school and the court as well after they got caught breaking in to that van that’s when they really started to plan the massacre more and that’s when Harris started he’s journals no one really knows way but they didn’t hate a hand...
Violence and crimes are growing in number and affecting American society. By reinforcing background checks we could reduce crimes and limit easy gun access to mentally ill people. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a database where the names of people that have committed a misdemeanor, are mentally ill or drug abusers is kept to prevent them from attaining guns. Most criminals buy guns from unlicensed sellers at gun shows that don’t do properly background checks through the NICS, making it easier from criminals to purchase firearms. Another problem is missing records or information that was not reported to the background check system. Better background checks could reduce crime and gun violence in America.
With background checks, there is a better chance that guns don’t get into the hands of the wrong people.
news to learn that something so horrible caused this students to kill their own peers.
There are many good people out there, and sometimes they are to good. In some circumstances, someone might buy a firearm and a relative that did not meet the qualifications to obtain a firearm just ask to use it to go hunting. Something that simple as a family member asking to try out another qualified family members firearms can put many lives in danger. Many people will not think a family member would be capable of taking a life or their own and that trust is what put many others lives in danger. Another reason as to why a family background check needs to be enforced is what if the person that obtains the firearm lives in the home with a known criminal? In a short reading from the “American Now” book a short article By James Stancliffe called Guns Act As a Force Multiplier endangering everyone he states that his “main issue with guns is that they act as a force multiplier”, and this is true if falling into the wrong hands. By giving someone with a criminal family member access to a firearm is just like giving that known criminal access to that firearm also. One last reason a family background check needs to be enforced is if there are children in the house. If there are children in the home further precautions need to be enforced, like a lock box with a key in a high area in a low traffic room . Children do not know the dangers of a
One way gun control advocates have tried to reduce the number of guns being issued to citizens of the United States of America is to require background checks. Background checks are performed on some weapons but they want a full background check for felonies, mental issues, proper classes, safety precautions to name a few. Background checks would make sure that if you have any type of police record you will be given a second look and make sure that you are fit to own a gun. (Asa Best) If you have a record this does not mean that you will not be able to own a gun it may just mean that your ch...
It is also a belief that requiring background checks for individuals purchasing weapons at gun shows will stop criminals from possessing guns. This is another misconception. There are over 240 million guns in America. Over 40 percent of all homes in the United States have guns. (Cannon) It would be impossible to enforce any type of legislation to control all of these guns. (Barone) Criminals will be able to obtain guns regardless of any new legislation that is enacted. An example of one of these new laws is the "one gun a month law" that is being introduced in Congress. (Bai 30) Supporters of this law want to make it so no one can purchase more than one gun a month. The intention is that criminals will not be able to go out and buy a bunch of weapons at once and commit a crime. This is ludicrous. The children that committed the high school shootings, and many other crimes that involve guns, were committed with guns that were obtained illegally. (Cloud 35) The only people that will suffer from the "one gun a month law" are the gun manufactures. (Bai 30) This is a bill that is designed to slow their sales and to hurt them financially.
Hence, gun control is a frequently discussed controversial topic in American politics. Although the Second Amendment prevents the federal government from completely banning guns in America, limited restrictions are allowed on the distribution and possession of firearms. Certain groups of people such as criminals, the mentally unstable, and soldiers dishonorably discharged from the military are prohibited from possessing or interacting with firearms (Flynn). These restrictions are enforced by background checks in some states, on both a state and federal level. However, gun laws vary from state to state and are often not thorough enough; the background checks are flawed due to lack of information and misinformation, and guns can easily end up in the hands of criminals and malevolent individuals.
Background checks lay a big role in the ownership of guns and by applying stricter background checks it could most likely decrease the rate of gun crime. Even with stricter background checks criminals will still be able to obtain guns online or at private gun shows but if we were to say make private gun shows illegal that would prevent at risk people from obtaining firearms that are meant to do harm to others. Private gun shows now don’t have to do background checks and this causes a problem because we don’t know who they may be selling these firearms to and what the person they sell them to attends to do with them. With lack of background control within private gun shows there has been a proven increase of guns falling into the hands of criminals in and out of state. If we were to close this loophole by making private gun shows illegal or even making them have to do background checks like any other gun seller we would close the loophole and reduce the gun ownership to criminals and high risk
Well, the actuality of how easy it is to possess a firearm legally. According to 2014 annual report by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; we have more than 54,026 federally licensed firearms dealers here in the United States. In addition, there are also pawn shops that are licensed to buy and sell firearms. Not just that, but the law does allow us to sell firearms online or neighbor to neighbor. Although, all states have different requirements, it doesn’t defeat the fact that in all states there is some type of license to carry a concealed weapon. This means we have people who are allowed to just roam around our streets with a licensed weapon in public and the minimum age for purchasing a firearm is only 18 years old. They do give the requester background checks that they need to pass but how in debt do they go with those background checks? Just because someone has a clean background doesn’t mean they don’t have a negative thought on how to use there weapon. Another fact is that someone who can’t pass the background check could ask a friend or family member to purchase the weapon for
According to the research Pew survey in March 2013, 83 percent of all adults surveyed, and 79 percent of gun-owners; 86 percent of people living with a gun-owner; and 74 percent of NRA households, approved of background checks for private and gun-show sales. As much as 40 percent of all gun sales are undocumented private party gun sales that do not require a background check, otherwise known as the "gun show loophole". 56 percent of all people surveyed approve of assault weapon bans and 53 percent of all the people surveyed approve of high-capacity magazine bans. 90 percent of the people with a gun in their home approved of laws to prevent the purchase of guns by the mentally ill, and 60 percent approved of a federal database to track gun sales. Don Macalady, member of Hunters against Gun Violence, stated, "As a hunter and someone who has owned guns since I was a young boy, I believe that commonsense gun legislation makes us all safer. Background checks prevent criminals and other dangerous people from getting guns." Coming from someone who has been around guns his whole life, having so much experiment in the gun field, he is very wise with his words and I fully agree with