Gun law

It Was a Shot Heard ´round the World

By resident Barack Obama wants to change the gun law to reduce the gun violence that has been troubling America for a long time. Obama wants to focus on gun sales, public health research, and school safety. Here comes the but how will America react to this?
A Broken system You can go to your local supermarket and buy milk, ammunition, and a gun. This is not something that should not be on your grocery list. It is actually estimated that there are a total number of 310,000,000 guns in America which are held by the civilians. 1Out of 100,000 people in America there is a homicide rate of 4.7 murders.2 This has been such a big problem that new proposals on new gun control law are being debated. In the recent US gun debate Obama stated that he wants to reduce the killing by putting a limit on ammunitions. And doing background checks on people who are armed would make it a lot easier to report threats of violence so the police can take action before it is too late. About 40 % of people in America can purchase a gun with no background check. And this is a hole in the system which should be a concern since this explains a lot of the shootings and murders which are happening every day. A proud nation: The Second Amendment in the United States Constitution is part of the United States Bill of Rights that states that any American has the right to keep and bear arms. 3 America has taken this law to a degree where we see guns everywhere. We see the gun in the local supermarket, in movies AND in cartoons. America has a catch phrase that refers to a certain proud episode; “it was a shot heard ‘round the world” Which goes back to the American revolutionary war, but today it is a common phrase used in sports, social and cultural events. In the National Anthem we have ”bombs bursting in air” and being a part from the wild west means that you came with an armed gun. And we show our AK-47 on the side of our pickup truck. This is the American style. And why shouldn’t we be proud of our weapons. It is in our constitution and that made our country. We should be proud that we can protect ourselves without any help, but from our weapon. It is about democracy and freedom we Americans might add when somebody criticizes our second amendment. This is who we are and what made the country.

When do we say stop? America is a gun-loving people. But even though we are proud it is important to face the reality there have been a lot of gun shootings at schools. The most recent school shooting happened less than a month ago in Ronald E. McNair Elementary school. 4School shootings like the ones that we saw at Sandy Hook elementary school and Columbine High school where many people died and were shot at is something that should make the American people rise and stand together against these brutalities, but evidently we haven’t done anything about it. We are still watching thousands of people getting hurt by bullets.
In 2008 16,272 murders were committed in the United States and of these 10,886 were committed with firearms. A study published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology says that the American people use guns to defend others and themselves from crime 989,883 times per year, at least!5 This is such a huge number which should have concerned our nation a long time ago. If we are so afraid of people in our country hurting us then why are we allowing them to carry a gun?

Un-American But how is America going to change this law when every time a proposal to change the American gun bill people are against it and are saying it is un-American. Why are we so blinded by our patriotism that we do not see that America is falling apart. Children from a young age start to learn about weapons and bombs from cartoons and they are laughing. This is a not what you want to teach your children. They grow up with same delusions of guns being harmful and they start to play with their fathers guns and in the end they hurt somebody. Crimes rates are increasing because of the guns and how easy it is to purchase them. Rappers who have this tough attitude, gangster style and being kind of rebellious are becoming extremely popular among youngsters who are looking up to them and this is a problem because they are sending a wrong message through their songs about having a hard time on the streets being in fights and shooting people. And if our youngsters easily can get a gun what won’t they do with it? In America we see that there is a high unemployment rate and poverty which is not a great combination. People will do anything for money which often means crime.

Who are we benefitting? Senator Marco Rubio said the following when Obama took actions on the gun violence ’Making matters worse is that president Obama again is abusing his power by imposing his policies via executive fiat instead of allowing them to be debated in Congress’’6 We have a senator and many other people that are not supporting the president because they do not believe the actions that he is taking. Yes, Obama should have followed the procedure and debated the proposal in the Congress, but we as country should hold each other’s hands instead of pointing guns at each other. In the end we are only benefitting the media who loves a good story and the gun manufacture. Obama has made a great initiative to reduce the gun violence even though his proposal isn’t being supported by a lot of people – especially not by the National Rifle Association who are stating that Obama’s proposal is abusing the American right. Wayne LaPierre is the Chief executive of the National Rifle Assosiation says in his speech ”Obama's gun control reforms abuse rights” ”We believe we deserve the same level of freedom that our government leaders keep from themselves. [...] we believe in out right to defend ourselves” Even though we have a president who wants to make changes we have a lot of people and organizations that don’t support the president’s proposal. But Obama is not quiet alone celebrities like Beyonce, Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Fox are asking the leaders of America to put an end to the gun violence. Beyonce said in an interview with Oprah “We should put an end to the massacres in America that are happening almost every day. We need to send message out to America and tell them that guns are dangerous.”7
There are shootings happening at schools on the streets on the local supermarket etc. and people are losing their lives because of this. Obama want to change the gun law in order to make peace in the country, but a lot of people are opposing to this gun control law and with the lack of support nothing much can change. It would take America a long time before it is even possible to change or even having a gun control law in America. The country is stubborn and too proud to change which is the biggest problem. This country was born with a gun and it would probably go down with a gun as well if nothing changes.