Guns Banned Or Regulated Essay, Research Paper

More Americans killed by guns than by war in the 20th century. Statistics show that guns have killed more people in an 18-year period, between 1979 and 1997 than in all of the wars since 1775. During that 18-year period, 651,697 people were killed, 334,870 were suicides, 278,865 were homicides, and 28,964 were from unknown causes. Other statistics show 34,000 Americans are killed every year, 393 senior citizens are killed every month, and 13 children are killed every day. All of this is done with guns. How can we, as Americans, help change this? Some people believe the solution to the problem is to completely ban guns from all citizens and make them illegal to own. Many other people, including myself, believe that stricter regulations should be put into action and strongly enforced. I also believe that some kind of safety mechanism should be included with every gun and existing gun owners should be supplied with a free lock, taught how to correctly use the device, and be required to use it. People should also have to keep the gun in a secure place that is not easily accessible to children.

We have many regulations now, but there are many ways to get around them. Loopholes are among the easiest ways to bypass the laws. Others include stores not conducting background checks and stores not waiting the correct amount of time before selling the gun. Even with the National Instant Check System (NICS) that is used today, unauthorized persons are able to purchase firearms. Unless federal computer records indicate a felony arrest record, dishonorable discharge, an illegal alien status, or other possible disability, the purchaser can receive the firearm within a matter of minutes. One loophole in the NICS is that many records are kept only at the state level and mental health records are not computerized at all, as a result, there is an increased chance of someone slipping through the system.

A young man was killed in Chicago by a felon that was able to buy 40 Bryco 9mm semiautomatic handguns. Now, the parents of Young and 3 other families are filing a 1.2 billion lawsuit with the basis that the gun manufacturers appeal to criminals by advertising that a gun doesn t hold fingerprints and that snub-nosed revolvers hide great under your shirt. They call this a very Cozy relationship between gun manufacturers and criminals. This man never completed a waiting period, no background search was conducted; therefore, he never should have been sold the gun he used to kill this boy. If a background check had been conducted, this felon wouldn t have been able to purchase these weapons and young Young would still be alive today. This is yet another example showing that even if the regulations are in place, if they are not enforced, they do no good.

Gun control laws help stop crimes before they happen. For example, background checks, required by the Brady Act, have helped prevent potentially dangerous people from owning guns. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, since the Brady Law went into effect, background checks nationwide have stopped approximately 400,000 felons and other prohibited purchasers from buying handguns over-the-counter from federally licensed firearm dealers. What does this mean? Thousands of murders, spousal abusers, gun traffickers and fugitives from justice have been denied purchase of handguns and apprehended because of the background check required by the Brady Law.

In addition, control measures, like Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws, go a long way toward keeping guns out of the hands of children. CAP laws generally require adults to either store loaded guns in a place that is reasonably inaccessible to children, or use a device to lock the gun. If a child obtains an improperly stored, loaded gun, the adult owner is criminally liable.

Guns should not be banned, they should just be regulated, whereas, not just anyone can go buy one from a place like Wal-Mart. Guns are used for more than just killing people. They are used for sports like hunting for deer, turkeys, and birds; also for skeet shooting and target practice. If they are banned completely, crime would increase and no one would have any self-protection for themselves, their family, and their property.

Remember More Americans killed by guns than by war in then 20th century!