Gun Violence Research Paper Outline

Ever since the ratification of the 2nd amendment to the Constitution, one of ten amendments in the Bill of Rights, people of the United States have right to keep and bear arm in order to protect themselves. However, the extent of firearms’ usage is not limited to just people protecting each other and themselves. Accompanied with the right to keep and bear arm is the thread of gun violence. Mass shooting incidents, apparent evidences of gun violence have been seen all over the country. Gun violence has been causing fear for the people and endless loss for the country overall.
This paper will target and discuss the problem of gun violence in the United States in the last few decades. I will first discuss what is gun violence and the cause of
it. I will also address its effects to the country’s economy and the country itself. Next I will discuss three government policy solutions to the problem of gun violence: The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which requiring background check on individual prior to purchasing handguns; The Federal Assault Weapon Ban, which prohibited the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms and the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, which banned possession of any "high-capacity magazines" regardless of when they were made or sold. The paper will first explain each policy solution. Then I will explain each policy and analyze the pros and cons, and potential strengths and weakness of each solution. Last I will offer some personal observations on the problem of gun violence and the most effective solution.
According to World Health Organization, violence is defined as: “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation." Therefore, the terminology of gun violence could be interpreted as: the intentional use of guns, threaten or actual, against oneself or other people, which may result in injury or death.
On October 16, 1991, in Killeen, Texas, a 35-year-old man crashes his pickup truck through the wall of a cafeteria, shot and killed 22 people. He then committed suicide. On April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, 23-year-old student went on a shooting spree killing 32 people in two locations and wounds an undetermined number of others on campus. The shooter, Seung-Hui Cho then committed suicide. On December 14, 2012, another mass shooting happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School – Newtown, Connecticut. A 20 years old man gunned down 20 children, ages six and seven, and six adults, school staffs and faculties, before turning the gun on himself. Investigating police later find his mom dead from a gunshot wound. The final count is 28 dead, including the shooter. On December 2, 2015, a terrorist attack, which consists of a mass shooting, at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. Fourteen people were killed and 22 others were seriously injured. As we can see, in the last few decades, deadly mass shooting and gun violence has been a very serious issue in our country. It is obviously that people cannot handle all the right and freedom they have. As a result, the usage of firearms is not restricted to just saving lives and protect people. Guns are also the tools that many use to kill others, causing massacres like mentioned above.
Many studies suggest that civilians with guns tend to have more aggressive and angry behavior.
In a research by Harvard Injury Control Research Center, researchers found out that riding with a firearm in the vehicle was a marker for aggressive and dangerous driver behavior. Drivers with guns in their car are 44 percent more likely than unarmed drivers to make obscene gestures at other motorists, and 77 percent more likely to follow them too closely. In another research in Texas, researchers found out that people with concealed handgun licenses were more likely to involve in gun offenses or offenses involving a death. After some serious mass shooting happened in the United States, pro-gun ideologues are calling for ordinary citizens to arm themselves as a solution to mass shootings. They are suggesting that a civilian at the scene of mass shooting who has a gun can stop the massacre. However, in the last 30 years, 62 mass shooting incidents happened in the United States, and none of them were stopped this way. Another research shows that for every time a gun is used in self-defense in the home, there are 7 assaults or murders, 11 suicide attempts, and 4 accidents involving guns in or around a home. Gun kept in homes are more likely to be involved in fatal accident shooting, criminal assault or suicide attempts than to be used to defend
oneself.
Gun violence has been causing endless loss to the United States in many aspects. In human toll, in 2014, the total number of violence incidents is 51823, in which 12589 was killed and 23044 was injured. 627 children and 2374 teenagers was killed or injured in these incidents. In 2015, these numbers increased. 53037-gun violence incidents happened, 13384 was killed, 26973 injured, 694 children and 2690 teenagers were killed or injured. From 1993 to 2011, 67% of all homicide victims in the United States were killed by a firearm. The United States has the highest rate of gun ownership and number of officers, in other words, highest rate of people who are capable of protecting others. However, instead of having the least firearms related death, the United States has the highest rate of firearms related death per capita among the developed countries. Economically, the loss caused by gun violence incidents is enormous. In 2010, the total amount of hospital costs for firearm assault injury was $669.2 million, 72.9% of which or $488 million were borne by taxpayers. In California, the direct costs of hospital use for firearm assault injuries alone was estimated at $87.4 million. 65% of these costs were borne by taxpayers. Every year, gun violence costs the United State $229 billion, in which $8.6 billion dollar spent as direct costs. Direct costs include emergency response, health care, courts, prison. The average direct costs for a single gun-murdered is about $441,000. Taxpayers pay for 32 gun homicides every single day. The indirect costs include victim’s lost wages and productivity: $49 billion, lost quality of life: $169 billion. If the total cost is split among the United States citizens, each citizen has to pay over $700 a year.
The first policy that provides a solution to the gun violence issue in the United States is the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
On November 30, 1993, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The law went into effect in 1994. The Act was named after James Brady, an assistant to President Ronal Reagan, who was shot during an attempted assassination of the President on March 30, 1981. Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act required the Head of the Department of Justice, within five years, to establish a national instant criminal background check system (now known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, operated by the FBI) for firearm licensees to contact for information on whether receipt of a firearm by a prospective transferee would violate Federal or State law; and established an interim five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and procedures for checking with the police official of the place of residence of the purchaser for such information. If there are no additional state restrictions, a firearm may be transferred to an individual upon approval by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System
(NICS).
The law’s strength is supported by its restriction. By requiring a background checks be conducted on individuals before a firearm may be purchased, the system has been blocking numerous attempts of purchasing guns. Since 1998, more than 233 million Brady background checks have been conducted. During this period, approximately 1.3 million attempted firearm purchases were blocked by the Brady background check system. The most common reason for denials are convicting of a crime punishable by more than one year or a misdemeanor punishable by more than two years. Through the Section 922(g) of the Brady Bill prohibits certain persons from shipping or transporting any firearm in interstate or foreign commerce, or receiving any firearm which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce. These prohibitions apply mostly to the people who have potential of using firearms for violent purposes.
Overall, the law is very effective in preventing bad people from obtaining firearms from a federally licensed firearm dealer. However, there is a fatal weakness to this law. There are three other ways that a criminal can obtain a gun: straw purchase, private sales and stealing from people who have guns legally. Straw purchase is when somebody who can pass the background check purchases the gun for somebody who cannot. Just 1 percent of these bad gun dealers account for about 60 percent of crime guns. Private sales are sales that require no background check at all. About 40 percent of gun sales occur without background check. This is big commercial business putting guns directly in the hand of criminals and traffickers who cannot pass background check. A big part of this problem is gun shows. These activities are also known as the “gun shows loophole” or “Brady law loophole”. The term refers to the viewpoint that there is an inadequacy in federal law, under which "Any person may sell a firearm to an unlicensed resident of the State where he resides as long as he does not know or have reasonable cause to believe the person is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms". Under federal law, private-party sellers are not required, nor are they permitted to perform background checks on buyers. These kind of businesses go way beyond just transactions in person. These transactions also occur online on websites like armslist.com. The third way criminals can obtain guns is through stealing. Every year, about 200 – 500 thousand guns are stolen.
Even though the Brady Act and the background check system works really well preventing criminals from purchasing guns from federally licensed dealers, there are so many other ways they can buy a gun. In additional, Brady Bill and the background check is harmful toward who does not want to expose their background. In the case of Printz v. United States, the National Rifle Association argued that the Brady Act was unconstitutional because it requires local law officers to conduct background checks. This was a violation of the 10Th amendment. Also, sometimes people who are in need of using firearms for self-defense could be prohibited from buying them.
Another solution to the gun violence problem is the Federal Assault Weapon Ban. Federal Assault Weapon Ban is a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms. The Act prohibited the manufacture, transfer, or possession of a semi-automatic assault weapon as defined or listed under this Act. Set penalties for violations and for use or possession of such a weapon during a crime of violence or drug trafficking crime. Requires the serial number of any such weapon manufactured after enactment of this Act to clearly show the date on which the weapon was manufactured. The ten-year ban was passed by the U.S. Congress on September 13, 1994, and signed into law by President Bill Clinton the same day. The ban only applied to weapons manufactured after the date of the ban's enactment, and it expired on September 13, 2004.