A large part of the American culture is firearms. The Founding Fathers made the right to bear arms a highly significant component of their agenda in making it second of the first ten amendments, a.k.a. the Bill of Rights. This declared right, by James Madison and the many who supported it, gave “the right of the people [of the United States] to keep and bear arms”. However, in the following years, many believe this right has caused an upsurge of violent crime within our gun crazed nation. Therefore, to protect the citizens of the United States, a solution has been proposed to limit the access of firearm weaponry to the public, or simply put: gun control. The first movement toward gun control in the United States took place in 1837 …show more content…
This Act prohibits persons under eighteen years of age, convicted criminals, the mentally disabled, dishonorably discharged military personnel, and others from purchasing firearms. It was put in place because of an increased number of shootings within the United States. Another factor of the increase in gun violence was the Civil Rights movement as well. Many politicians found it fit to limit those who possess the right to bear arms to “law abiding citizens”. (GCA of 1968). Franklin Zimring, a criminologist and a Professor of Law at UC Berkley School of Law, commented on the Gun Control Act in saying, “It is an attempt to increase our rather modest knowledge of the effects of governmental efforts to control firearms violence. In recent years the rate of gun violence in the United States has managed to grow to alarming proportions without the benefit of sustained academic attention. The 1968 Act-the only major change in federal policy since 1938-seems a natural place to look for clues about the effects of gun controls.” Politicians saw a progressive trend with the gun violence situation in America and decided to act immediately to prevent an outburst of weapon brutality. The Gun Control Act of 1968 was just the beginning step for a future of stricter gun …show more content…
Supporters of gun control argue that more gun laws will reduce gun deaths. There were 464,033 total gun deaths between 1999 and 2013: 270,237 suicides (58.2% of total deaths); 174,773 homicides (37.7%); and 9,983 unintentional deaths (2.2%). Guns were the leading cause of death by homicide (66.6% of all homicides) and by suicide (52.2% of all suicides). (Pro-Con). With stricter limitations on who can purchase firearms, then the rates of gun deaths will begin to decrease, so the argument