The Gun rights topic is a current relevant issue as the congress last week converged
to vote on the way forward. Last month there was a shootout in an elementary school massacre that claimed the lives of 26 people, 20 of them children all aged six-seven years. that left so many school going children dead and some hurt. In the last few years there has so many shoot outs in American schools and in estates, some being by young teenagers. Many people claim that this has been brought about by having so many guns in the communities. An idea that brings controversy because in Canada there at least three guns per person, the federal government is majorly involved in the issue trying to come up with regulations that will solve this problem.
Debate over the constitutional right to own and keep arms has raged since the formation of the federal government however the major discussion has concentrated on the esoteric wording of the Second Amendment and its contemporary relevance towards the light of high violence in our cities. It is believed that over 10,000 people die annually due to gun violence. Putting this as a federalism issue will not be the lasting solution for this menace.
The responsibility should lie with the federal government together with the state governments. This is an issue affecting all communities and it doesn’t matter which state one lives in. This should be a collective responsibility where the government and community come in to work hand in hand to eliminate this menace once and for all. For now the issue seems to be leaning too much on the federal government, rather than been equally distributed on the state and federal control. Many law courts have ruled that cities cannot set gun control rules and implement them. This puts too much pressure on the federal government to control gun ownership.
Many people still believe that the U.S constitution holds all the solutions to the country’s many challenges. However, there is a need for communities to come together and analyze the issue in an open manner and find a more lasting solution. The laws have been there since the federal government was formed and they haven’t been effective. The topic of gun rights as a federalism issues is wrong, it should be analyzed as a Second Amendment concern. This will not back the victims of gun violence. Maybe by recalibrating the debate around more practical issues for all parties involved, perhaps legislators and the governments can arrive at better solutions by asking more relevant questions.
The current amendment aims at making gun violence and gun rights a health care issue. Gun violence has been robbing the American people around $100 billion annually when the indirect costs such as lost productivity, mental health treatment and legal costs are factored in. making gun control a public health issue is certainly a feasible option for reframing the debate with less constitution boundaries.