INTRODUCTION
This thesis examines closely the impact of mass shootings on American gun laws. According to the FBI definition where a mass shooting is an occurrence in which a gunman kills more than four people, there has not been a rise in this absolutely horrific type of crime. On the other hand, for Wing (2013) a shooting spree that injures at least four people, but does not kill them, is still a mass shooting. Under this approach, a mass shooting happens almost every day. Predictably, these incidents have triggered an abrupt obsession with gun violence in communities and on political level. The legal results of this rapt attention to mass shootings are the topic of this paper. The first chapter discusses the role of guns in America.
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citizens seem to favor some kind of gun control. They support background checks (see 3.2.6) and demand proper law enforcement. However, the right to bear arms is so firmly anchored in the American culture that they are not willing to give it up. According to Harris (2007), the gun culture is so firmly established in the United States that there is highly unlikely that it will fade. A powerful argument is also the economic reason. It was firearms that helped America get out of the Great Depression. When World War II started more workers were needed to make supplies for the troops. Today, the estimated revenue produced by the gun and ammunition industry in the U.S. is 6 billion dollars and 5.1 billion dollars is the estimated federal and state taxes generated by the industry (Sanburn 2012). After every mass shooting there is a heated debate about gun control. Numerous bills are passed, with only a fraction being enacted. New pieces of legislation frequently prove to be redundant since it is the effective enforcement that should be addressed. Although Americans are always appalled by mass killings, the national uproar ceases with time proving that cultural background and history prevail over a national tragedy. Apart from that, the NRA is too powerful a group to allow any gun control laws that could negatively affect its interests. It seems like Americans have to learn to live with mass