In America today, many citizens of the United States are divided when it comes to their own stances on gun control. Considering American is home to the biggest acts of gun violence around the world, it is only appropriate that a gun control bill is added to assure the safety of our people. Such as the proposed gun control legislation written by President Barack Obama and his administration. In Mr.Obama’s proposed plan addresses many aspects of gun violence that is seen around America, on a daily basis. Barack Obama’s bill proposes universal background checks, an assault weapon ban, in addition to funds to research mental illness. It is very important that
Americans familiarize themselves with our current President’s ideas, due to the fact that it can change public opinion on where a person may stand on gun control.
A common occurrence that is often associated with the idea of gun control is the Second
Amendment. However when the term of the Second Amendment and gun control is used in the same sentence, people are quick to jump on the idea that their Second Amendment is being infringed upon. In the United States Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment states that a citizen has a “right to bear and keep arms”(NRA-ILA 1). Such as in President Obama’s proposed legislation,
President Obama is not looking to get rid of guns entirely, however create ways in which weapons can be used to protect us, and not be used against our citizen in terror, such as assault weapons used in mass shootings. Even though “ none of these proposals will stop another massacre from occurring”(Wall Street Journal 1) , it is important to adapt such laws into place in order to be able to prevent or protect any incidents such as the Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Aurora...
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...ppening, or just a person that Adam Laza from Sandy Hook , or Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold of the 1999 Columbine killings could of talked to, things might of gone a lot differently. All in all, it is essential to adopt President Barack Obama’s proposal in to our past, and our future. That by looking at the horrible gun related events that have happened in the past can help create options that might of stopped them entirely. Even though no one can change what happened in the past, President Obama is giving Americans options to stop events such as mass shootings from occurring more frequently as they already have. It is important for all Americans to realize that a change in gun control needs to happen in order to protect those around us. In addition to bringing together the people who disagree on gun control, in order to create compromises to decrease gun violence.
Peters, Jeremy. "Months After Massacre, Obama Seeks to Regain Momentum on Gun Laws." New York Times. N.p.. Web. 3 Dec 2013. .
In America guns have been a part of the country’s society since it’s birth. Throughout history the citizens of the US have used firearms to protect the nation, protect their families, hunt for food and engage in sporting activities. The issue of Guns and gun control is complex. Weighing the rights and liberties of the individual against the welfare and safety of the public has always been a precarious balancing act. In the United States, gun control is one of these tumultuous issues that has both sides firmly entrenched in their positions. Those parties in favor of gun ownership and the freedom to use and keep arms, rely on the fact that the provision for such rights is enshrined in their constitution. In this climate of growing violence, rife with turmoil and crime, gun advocates feel more than ever that their position is justified. As citizens of the “Land of the Free” possessing a gun is a fundamental right, and may even be a necessity... Anti- gun lobbyists point to the same growing violence and gun related crimes in an effort to call on the government to take action. By enacting more laws and stricter control, these people not in favor of guns feel society would be better safer.
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).
Opposing sides have for years fought over the laws that govern firearms. For the purposes of this paper "Gun Control" is defined as policies enacted by the government that limit the legal rights of gun owners to own, carry, or use firearms, with the intent of reducing gun crimes such as murder, armed robbery, aggravated rape, and the like. So defined, gun control understandably brings favorable responses from some, and angry objections from others. The gun control debate is generally publicized because of the efforts of the Pro-Gun Lobby or the Anti-Gun Lobby.
...n promoting stricter gun laws, government needs to find out what is causing the problem and addressing it. Parents need to take into consideration what video games there children are playing and which movies they are watching. Spending too much time examining and enforcing stricter gun laws can be costly, while taxpayer’s wealth money can be used on drug warfare or other beneficial objectives for the country. An alternative for strict guns law is a stiffer prison sentences for individuals who commit a crime with a firearm and therapy for the mentally ill. Wayne LaPierre introduced the famous quote “Guns do not kill people, people kill people.” The quote demonstrates that firearms cannot kill an individual without a human intervention. Rather than screening firearms in a negative light, individual should change the concept of human nature from violence to peaceful.
Tushnet, Mark. "Interpreting the Right to Bear Arms---Gun Regulation and Constitutional Law." The New England Journal of Medicine. 3 Apr. 2008. Web. 15 Oct. 2011.
In 1982, a survey of male inmates from eleven different penitentiaries, stated that sixty-nine percent of the prisoners knew another criminal that had been scared off, wounded, or decided not to commit a crime because they thought the victim had a gun (Agresti and Smith). As The United States heads to the end of 2013, current gun control debates are striking the nation, leaving everyone to develop their own positions on which side of the debate they want to be on. Gun control is defined as efforts to regulate or control sales of guns; however, most of what we hear from other people is that Obama wants to take away every gun in the nation. That’s not entirely true. Obama’s proposal to Congress is a law that would increase background check protocols, ban assault weapons, high-capacity ammunition, and armor-piercing bullets. The proposal also provides more funding for additional police officers on the streets, first response training, mental health programs, and school emergency plans.
Today in the United States many people argue over the fact of guns being legal or illegal. There are people using guns for personal safety and there are others who use them for crimes, as well as for other situations. Firearm deaths in the United States have slowly been decreasing from year to year with all these bills getting passed to promote a safer country than ever before. Guns are the main weapon for youth suicide, school shootings, and for committing murder. In 2010 there were 2,711 infants, child, and teenage firearm deaths. As in school shootings and in committing murder, studies show shooters often had multiple, non-automatic guns, shootings were planned, most youth tell before shooting, shooters have a history of being bullied or threatened, shooters have mental issues, and shooters have done suicidal gestures before (Gun Control with School Shootings). Although there are people who use guns for murdering, there are also those who oppose guns being used without the proper requirements. 85% of all respondents to the survey supporting requiring states to report people to national background-checks systems who are prohibited from owning gu...
“I believe in 2nd Amendment, but not war weapons on streets”, quoted President Barack Obama ("Barack Obama on Gun Control", n.d., para. 3). The debate on whether stricter gun laws will help deter crime has gained much attention since crime rates started to increase. Many research studies show that stricter gun laws are very effective at inhibiting crime. Arguing on the affirmative side, stricter gun laws will help deter crime by banning ownership of military-style assault weapons, by banning weapons with high-capacity magazines, and by creating new gun regulations that delays the process of gun ownership while significantly limiting weapon access at the same time. If stricter gun laws are incorporated into the system, we will be able to envision a bright and crime-free future ahead of us.
”(Gopinak, 2007, p. 458 ). This demonstrates that United States is just not inclined to take any action on gun control which is leading to deaths of children and adults. Some individuals believe handguns are not needed in American 's society. Then those who oppose gun control argue guns are a necessity to: hunting in the wild, self-defense, and it is part of the American culture. Furthermore, gun violence is having a vast impact on loved ones; losing a family member can have enormous affect socially, physical and mentally.
entitled to the ownership and legal use of firearms, . . . " The NRA does many
America is the most well armed nation in the world, with American citizens owning about 270 million of the world’s 875 million firearms (Marshall). Indeed, this is more than a quarter of the world’s registered firearms. The reason why Americans own so many guns is because of the Second Amendment, 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.” (Rauch) This amendment guarantees U.S. citizens the right to have firearms. Since this amendment is relatively vague, it is up for interpretation, and is often used by gun advocates to argue for lenient gun laws. Hence, gun control is a frequently discussed controversial topic in American politics.
For years proposals for gun control and the ownership of firearms have been among the most controversial issues in modern American politics. The public debate over guns in the United States is often seen as having two side. Some people passionately assert that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns while others assert that the Second Amendment does no more than protect the right of states to maintain militias. There are many people who insist that the Constitution is a "living document" and that circumstances have changed in regard to an individual’s right to bear arms that the Second Amendment upholds. The Constitution is not a document of total clarity and the Second Amendment is perhaps one of the worst drafted of all its amendments and has left many Americans divided over the true intent.
The second amendment states “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The Founding Fathers included this in the Bill of Rights because they feared the Federal Government might oppress the population if the people did not have the means to defend themselves as a nation or individuals.
The debate over gun control in America has constantly been brought up over the years due to gunmen killing large amounts of people in shootings. From Columbine to Sandy Hook, or the shootings of the two reporters in West Virginia, these public shootings are occurring everywhere. Lawmakers and civilians alike are pushing for increased gun control in hopes of preventing the same tragedies. Anyone that has been affected by the shootings has been pushing Congress and state governments to force new sanctions on the government. Over the past three years, Congress has shot down all the laws despite the large amounts of public support.