Gun Control In America Pros And Cons

Literature Review- Gun Control
Gun control has been a very controversial issue in American history in part, because America is the most armed nation in the world, with American citizens owning about 300 million fire arms. In fact, this is even more than a quarter of the whole world’s firearms. Besides, Guns have always been a hobby of Americans because of the gun culture that is unlike other states. American gun culture has survived since the earliest days of the republic because hunting has been a popular pastime, and also because guns were a means of protecting its citizens from tyrannical government. In addition, various militias have also played a major role in gun culture in terms of defending citizens from criminals. Therefore, gun
control is often considered one of the most controversial subjects in the American polity.
There have been lots of arguments about gun control but most importantly arguments have related to the Second Amendment. One of the reason Americans own so many firearms 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 J). The ability of American citizens to have a gun and use them will continue to be a point of argument if the Second Amendment doesn’t change or intends to have regulations because it guarantees the right to own firearms. Even NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre declared “Our founding fathers wrote and intended the Second Amendment to be an individual right”. The Supreme Court has also confirmed that the Second Amendment is a real and permanent part of American Constitutional Law. Therefore “Anti-gun politicians can no longer deny that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental right,” said NRA chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox. “All law-abiding Americans have a fundamental, God-given right to defend themselves in their homes. Washington, D.C. must now respect that right” (NRA –
Institute for legislative action 2008).
This literature review will concern the contrasting extent to which a well-armed community creates a hazardous environment with the private use of guns. To begin with a main disagreement, “fewer guns mean fewer gun homicides”. An increase in gun ownership is leading to a higher gun-homicide rate and, legislation allowing citizens to carry concealed gun doesn’t reduce the crime, according to Mark Duggan (2012). In theory, gun ownership crimes don’t literally reflect on the individual buying the gun, and the ability to own firearms should be allowed or not allowed for citizens. Should there be a regulation about gun control or should gun owners be made to undertake some training or should there be national standards about gun control?

The essential place to start a review on the literature relating to gun control in America is with the constitutional Second Amendment that has brought guns to such an important issue in political controversy: “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 J). A great deal of the literature is concerned with the founder’s intent in inserting the aforementioned statement, “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state”. It is believed that to preserve freedom, it is fundamental that the whole body of people are always permitted to possess arms and this is supported by the Second Amendment. In general, there are two opposing viewpoints on whose rights framers of the Constitution intended to protect. Firstly, that the Second Amendment was intended to defend individual rights. Individuals protect themselves by possessing guns in their rights to own. Furthermore, an important author on this topic Robert E. Shalhope argues that the NRA clearly states that issue “the NRA, the foremost guardian of the traditional American right to ‘keep and arms’, believes that every law abiding citizens is entitled to the ownership and legal use of firearm”. Secondly, the Second Amendment intended to shield states from federal legislation restricting their ability to maintain formal organised militias. Furthermore, author Gregg Lee Carter argues that Second Amendment is a collective right that guaranteed states, not individuals, the right to form armed militias for protection in case the democracy of fledging nation failed (Carter: 2002). This is the first logical disagreement because no one in the congressional debate ever mentioned that the Second Amendment provides an individual right for citizens to possess or carry guns.
As noted previously, the United States of America has got a murder rate that is six times higher than the average economically developed nation. Therefore, gun control has always been a topic of great controversy in the U.S. To argue this, it would be the most important thing to look at some key figures concerning handguns in American society. In this nation, where nearly half of all US households have got at least one gun, nearly 30,000 people die from a gunshot each year. In the early 1990’s the number of people killed or wounded by firearms soared. Since 1993 however the U.S. has seen a steady drop in deaths due to firearm. Fatal firearms accidents have declined as well, nearly 40 per cent in the last decade, and are now at the lowest levels ever recorded. Antigun advocates agree that they would like to attribute this to an increase in gun control laws while pro-gun advocates point to a decrease in unemployment rates along with other social factors. Besides, the main point to argue, in order to fully understand the issue, it is important to look at the current gun control. Do gun laws work? There are different numbers of law at the federal and state level reducing the sale, buying and use of guns. Some of them are restricting the sale to person under 21 years old, some of them require that no person convicted of a crime can own a gun, a person must be 21 or older to purchase a handgun and that “persons who engage in the business of buying or selling firearms must be licensed” (NRA). To give an example, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and most European countries have got more restricted gun control regulations than the United States. Especially, these countries require that guns have to be registered, and guns have to be stored in highly secured stores. For example, to get the licence, gun owners have to pass an exam on gun safety. Most importantly, in the United States background checks are made by federally licenced firearm dealers when selling guns to individuals. In the United States there is no regulation on gun sales between individuals compare to other well developed countries.

Nonetheless, a very popular phrase said in the gun control debate in these days is that "guns don 't kill people, people kill people". Moreover, proposals for stricter gun control never just contain regulations on manufacturing and selling certain types of particularly deadly firearms, they also focus on controlling who can obtain those firearms. It has been argued that since 1993, when Congress passed the Brady Handgun Prevention Act, federal law has required licensed gun dealers to perform background checks on private individual intending to buy firearms. The law listed nine groups of people who are immediately disqualified from purchasing guns, including individuals who have been charged on domestic violence charges and those who have been ruled "mentally defective” (Brady Handgun Violence Preventing Act 1993). Even though the Brady Handgun Violence Preventing Act of 1993 has been effective since 1993, the NRA repeatedly stressed strict gun laws, especially “registration and licencing” would have no effect on criminal violence, “as criminals, by definition, do not obey the law.” (Carter: 2012).
It has also been argued that a great deal of newspapers and other media outlets criticized the Brady Bill for not going far enough than for going too far. Some commentators argued that the bill didn’t require chief law enforcement officers to conduct background checks bur merely urged them to do so. Moreover, some gun control proponents argued that the Brady Prevention Act of 1993 would be so ineffective and urged to repeal of the Second Amendment and prohibition of all civilian ownership of firearms (Jacobs 2002, p 68). For example, great controversy still exists over the Brady Handgun Prevention Act. It has been claimed that is not effective enough and also that individuals are still able to possess some guns a wide range of guns, from military style, high calibre machine guns to small, easily concealed handguns.
“By requiring background checks on only 60 per cent of gun sales, with the rest almost completely unregulated, we make it too easy for dangerous people to obtain dangerous weapons," the Brady Campaign argued in a 2009 report. "We are long overdue for instituting the rational policy of requiring a background check before any gun is sold. “However, the NRA 's Institute for Legislative Action notes that under federal law, it is illegal to sell firearms without a license from the ATF. Violations of the law are punishable with up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, which makes us ask the question, would universal background checks do anything more to limit unlicensed dealers?(NRA:2012)Nevertheless, polling suggests that requiring sweeping background checks is a very popular proposal. A CNN poll released in July of this year showed that 96 per cent of Americans supported requiring background checks on anyone buying a gun. "I think that even among die-hard gun owners, there is strong support for universal background checks," said Adam Winkler, author of "Gun Fight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. Further to this argument that everyone agrees, even gun owners, that felons and the mentally ill should not be able to easily get their hands on guns," Adam Winkler said. "So laws that are designed to make it more difficult have the best chance of getting through Congress."

The controversy related to gun control is highly variable in the United States. Many organisations, such as highly effective NRA, focus on less data and more ideological conviction. Also the debate between pro-gun and anti-gun advocates is hugely controversial. Particularly, on the pro-gun right side of the debate, the fact that the Second Amendment appears to indicate that individuals have got the right to bear arms in order to protect themselves. That is to mean, restricting the ability of individuals getting armed by the government seems highly negative. Also gun control regulations are highly unsatisfied. Moreover, the Brady Handgun Prevention Act is allowing states to background check it is still controversial that the NRA still stresses restrict gun control laws, as NRA declare many times “registration and licencing” would have no effect on criminal violence. Highly funded and very effective organisations such as the NRA frequently produce and distribute literatures that are linking in opposition of gun control. Nevertheless this topic is highly suitable for the essay question which at this point will be “to what extend has the gun control debate been a result of historical factors and failure of gun laws in the United States?” This question has been chosen because; this research would produce important ideological and historical foundation of the American political system. Although, there are lots of arguments about constitutional intent and historical debate, only few materials were found. For that reason, this question is worthy to answer in the eventual essay.

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