Gun Control: Second Amendment Of The United States

1444 Words6 Pages

Gun Control Guns have always been a fundamental piece of American life and culture. The Second Amendment of the United States even asserts that firearms are, “necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”. In recent times President Obama has put forth a few executive actions in order to try and reduce gun violence. His proposals mainly focus on fixing and enhancing the background check system, greater education efforts, and more enforcement from the States. For the first time in decades, a majority of United States citizens believe that the right to own guns is more important than controlling gun ownership. Gun control, by definition, is the set of laws which restrict …show more content…

The gun control debate has been especially fueled in recent years with the emergence of school shootings, foreign and domestic terrorist attacks, and a rise in other gun related violence. With all of this a majority of people, including gun owners, believe that there should be some restrictions in place in an attempt to suppress gun related violence. Through the years it has been difficult for people to agree on any sort of action. All in all, gun control is an immensely disputatious topic in which there will always be controversy. To give some background on the subject, gun control legislation began in 1934 with the installation of new criminal penalties, taxes, and regulations on sawed off shotguns and machine guns as a response to the era’s gang violence related to criminals such as Bugs Moran and Al Capone. Gregory Krieg, in his article for CNN when speaking of a new round of laws just four years later, adds, “The Federal Firearms Act of 1938 put restrictions on the interstate guns and ammunition trade. It required, in many cases for the first time, for dealers to register themselves and keep …show more content…

It makes sense to believe that if firearms are harder to possess than there will be less violence involving them. Well, based on research this is not true and we should not strictly control firearms. I tend to agree with this proposal based on the fact that stricter gun control leads to more violence, for example Mexico has some of the strictest laws in the world when concerning gun legislation, yet has 10 homicides per 100,000 people compared to the United States’ 3 homicides per 100,000 people (Gun Control ProCon.org). This shows that stricter laws may not necessarily work for the United States as it is evident that gun violence per capita is much higher in a country with more restrictions, and the problem is most likely going to need a more complex solution. On the other side, there are theories that extremely strict legislation and even outlawing firearms completely would be the most effective solution. I disagree with this theory because it would be foolish to take away American citizens main form of protection. When most criminals possess firearms illegally in the first place, then the only ones that are being harmed are the innocent, or those whose intentions are self protection. Also, it is proven that every country who has completely banned firearms has seen an increase