Gun violence has recently become an issue of the United States as more and more tragedies have arisen with relation to gun use. United States are among the top armed nations around the world, and roughly 270 million guns are held by US civilians (Brussel). With such a mass number of guns, it could become unpredictable without proper gun control. As an example, one of the most tragic events was brought upon the nation on December 14 2012, twenty children and six staff members were killed by a single man at Sandy Hook Elementary school. New York passed the Ammunition and Firearms enforcement act of 2013 becoming the first state to respond to the tragedy in Newton, Connecticut (Rosebrugh). Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who signed it into laws now requires gun licenses to be renewed every five years and background checks on all gun sales which makes New York one of the most challenging place to obtain a gun. The recent bill passed by New York should be a model for the Federal Law because strict gun laws could protect innocent lives from being taken away by groups of people such as criminals, or those who are mentally unstable; better gun enforcement and stronger gun laws are both needed to reduce gun violence.
New York enforced gun laws to provide better safety for their people. After the tragedy in Sandy Hook Elementary school, New York was the first state to change its law in response to the mass shooting (Kaplan). The law broadens the ban on assault weapons to semiautomatic weapon, reduces the size of gun magazine to seven rounds from ten, and requires background checks for all gun sales. By banning semiautomatic weapons and reduce its magazine to seven from ten, is going prevent mass shooting like Connecticut elementary school from happeni...
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Kaplan, Thomas. "Sweeping Limits on Guns Become Law in New York." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 July. 2013.
Rosebrugh, Heidi. "New York Is the First State to Pass Stricter Gun Legislation." Examiner.com. N.p., 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 July. 2013.
Sowell, Thomas. "Do Gun-Control Laws Control Guns? - Thomas Sowell - National Review Online." NRO. N.p., 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 16 July. 2013.
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Carter, Gregg Lee, ed. “Federal Gun Laws.” Gun Control in the United States: A Reference
"New York Passes Major Gun Control Law -- First since Newtown Massacre." NBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
Fields, Gary. "New Washington Gun Rules Shift Constitutional Debate." Wall Street Journal. 17 May. 2010: A. 1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
A growing number of publicized tragedies caused by gun violence have caused a great stir in the American community. Recently, President Barack Obama has made proposals to tighten the regulation of and the restrictions on the possession of weapons in America to lessen these tragedies. Should the legislative branch decide in favor of his proposals, all American citizens who do or wish to own the type of weapons in question or who use current loopholes in existing policy would be directly affected. His proposals, which are to “require background checks for all gun sales, strengthen the background check system for gun sales, pass a new, stronger ban on assault weapons, limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, finish the job of getting armor-piercing bullets off the streets, give law enforcement additional tools to prevent and prosecute gun crime, end the freeze on gun violence research, make our schools safer with new resource officers and counselors, better emergency response plans, and more nurturing school climates, [and] ensure quality coverage of mental health treatment, particularly for young people,” have been cause for a large amount of recent debate (whitehouse.gov).
Valdez, Angela and John Ferguson Jr. Gun Control: Firearms Ownership, New York: Chelsea House, 2012. 58-60. Print.
Rauch, Jonathan. “The Right Kind of Gun Rights.” National Journal Vol. 40 Issue 11. Academic Search Complete. 15 Mar. 2013. Web. 6 June 2015.
Taking into account of the recent shooting sprees, the gun control debate has started again. However, people have contemplated: “Why does America need gun laws” and “Why are so many states disagreeing about the restrictions that need to be put in place for civilians looking to purchase firearms.” The reasoning for such contemplation is that the fluxuating strictness of gun laws have led to several incidences within states that have strict gun laws due to the fact that the perpetrators of these incidences have purchased their firearms either from black markets, or states where the severity of gun control is at minimal levels.
Bell, Larry. “Disarming the Myths Promoted By the Gun Control Lobby.” Forbes. Forbes, Inc., 21 Feb. 2011. Web. 6 Mar. 2014
Gun violence has been and continues to be one of the major problems in American. The U.S. has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world and consequently the highest rate of gun violence and fatalities compared to other developed countries. In a study by the University of Sydney it is estimated that there are 270,000,000 to 310,000,000 guns in the United States. According to the same study in 2010 there were 31,672 fatalities caused by firearms and on the following year the number went up to 32,163. Homicides resulting from guns are high in the United States and they are claiming more than eleven thousand lives every year (Guns in the United States: Firearms, Armed Violence and Gun Law). According to Vision for Humanity, an initiative for the Economics and Peace, the United States is ranked 99 out of 162 countries in the 2013 global peace index, homicide rates and violent crimes are among the various criteria used to determine the ranking (Vision of Humanity). Mass shootings at work places, schools, shopping malls and places of worship are happening in an a...
Carter, Gregg Lee. Gun Control in the United States: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
Richman, Sheldon. "The Seen and Unseen in Gun Control." The Freeman 1 Oct 1998: 610-611
The shootings that have happened in the schools throughout the Unites States over the past few months have created a great divide among Americans on what we should do as a nation to prevent further shootings from happening. Many people believe that imposing new laws on purchasing weapons by requiring background checks, holding adults responsible for the actions of their children and requiring gun locks on weapons to prevent children will stop these massacres in our school from happening. There are many issues that need to be looked at in order to decide which laws are necessary.
In the United States, in order for people to legally carry guns, individuals have to pass through background checks but the background checks are failing because some individuals are bringing guns illegally to the state. In Nicholas Kristof article “Some Inconvenient Gun Facts for Liberals” gave some suggestions that having back...
"Gun Control And Gun Rights." US News. U.S.News & World Report. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://www.usnews.com/topics/subjects/gun-control-and-gun-rights>.
"There Should Be Stricter Gun Control Laws." Information Plus Reference Series Spring 2005. Ed. Sandra M. Alters, et al. Vol. 8: Gun Control: Restricting Rights or Protecting People? Detroit: Gale, 2005. 119-124. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 May 2014.