Gun Control Essay, Research Paper

Gun Control

There are no bad guns, I say the whole nation should be an armed

nation. Said by Joseph Foss former governor , and fighter pilot for the US

Air Force, and now the current President of the NRA, or National Rifle

Association. The NRA is a special interest whose members are stereotyped

as truck-driving hunters. I feel that the NRA is definitely progressing quite

well in terms of letting the common people possess and bear a firearm, like

stated in the constitution. There is no reason that we should not be able to

possess a firearm. Because the organization is for guns, it is surprising that

the NRA is powerful and it makes many people wonder. I feel that the NRA

is quite strong in their beliefs. I really don t think that the whole nation should

be armed, but I do feel that people should have the right to bear arms. The

two main things that support this; are the 2nd amendment and the self defense

policy.

As an organization, the NRA s current main objective is protecting

American citizen s rights to possess and operate a firearm, and from being

violated by gun control laws. One of the NRA s main weapons is the second

amendment of the Constitution 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. The amendment in the eyes of the NRA and

many American citizens clearly protects the individual rights of all citizens to

possess and operate firearms. This would easily make any and all gun control

laws unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

This is not accepted by all people, including the United States

government. They believe that the amendment guaranteed no right for

individuals to possess weapons, but allowed for the government to form and

maintain an armed service. Because of the different interpretations of our

constitution, gun control can be viewed by different people in different ways.

Some of the many gun control bans and laws which are constantly criticized

are those pertaining to self-defense. Current laws, like those of Michigan,

require that the victim must retreat and be under threat by the intruder before

any means of force can be taken on the attacker. With efforts from anti-gun

control groups such as the NRA laws have been lifted pertaining to

self-defense and property protection has been enforced.

Another example of unwanted gun violence laws, was the famous

AK-47 crisis. For those people who don t know what a AK-47 is it s a

automatic rifle or more commonly known as a machine gun. Due to

governmental handgun bans, the military issued AK-47 which became easily

accessible, due to the extended barrel which allowed the assault weapon to

fall under more lenient gun bans. The weapon quickly became a favorite

weapon of thieves. In one such case, it was used in the massacre of many

school children. One can begin to wonder just how many of these violent

crimes could have been prevented by a self-defense weapon. The attacks by

the automatic assault weapon eventually led to more strict assault weapon

bans. The percentage of assault weapons related to violent crimes has in fact

decreased only a small amount which tends to lead experts to believe that

many assault weapon related crimes were done with illegal weapons. It

would be somewhat non logical of people to commit crimes which were

easily traced back to them by means of a simple background check of assault

weapon owners. Another interesting fact is that not all forms of gun control

are stoppable. Seventy-three percent of the 70 million gun owners in

America declared that mandatory gun registration should exist, 87% of the

voters stated that background checks should be required2 (Grassroots

Division). Making background checks have definitely lowered the number of

outlaws that can purchase a gun. Which is why the Brady Bill was passed.

The Brady Law orders chief law-enforcement officer for every area to make a

reasonable effort to conduct checks within five days of a handgun buyer s

application. The checks are to ensure that the buyer is not prohibited from

owning the gun because of criminal history or other problems, such as drug

addiction.

Many people make guns out to be a terrible thing to own but when

handled with care they can be a valuable asset. There is a case of a man in

Baltimore, who came to the aid of a 21-year-old premed student who was

being choked to death by two criminals. The man that came to the aid of the

student ran out of is house with an unloaded .32 caliber, and kept the

attackers on the ground while his wife called the police. The man that came to

the rescue never left his property. Instead of being hailed as a hero he was

charged with a weapons violation, and spent 26 horrific hours in a Baltimore

jail cell. A month later, charges were finally dropped. This week marks the

that gun buyers will be able to purchase firearms without waiting five days for

federal approval of the sale. As established by the Brady Handgun Prevention

Act. Gun buyers have been replaced by the computerized National Instant

Check System. Once the initial kinks in the system are worked out, NICS

approvals should take just three minutes, (Federal Bureau of Investigation).

An estimated 12.4 million firearms are sold each year in the United

States. As of this week handgun buyers, purchasers of rifles and shotguns

must also submit to NICS checks. Since 1993, the Justice Department has

given states $200 million to assist in the computerization of criminal and2

mental-health records. However, activists on both sides of the firearms debate

have guestions about the new system of background checks.

The National Rifle Association is suing the DOJ over its plan to

record the results of these checks, a process outlawed by the Brady Act. The

NICS system prohibits the purchase of guns by felons, the mentally ill, and

people convicted of domestic violence. In addition, states can add other

categories of people to the list.

I do believe that assault weapons should be banned from the common

person but to take guns away from people with no intent to cause harm on

individuals should be totally out of the question.