The Never Ending Gun Debate

The Background on the Gun Control Issue

The United States has 88.8 guns per 100 people, or about 270,000,000 guns, which is the highest total and per capita number in the world. 22% of Americans own one or more guns (35% of men and 12% of women). America’s pervasive gun culture stems in part from its colonial history, revolutionary roots, frontier expansion, and the Second Amendment, 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.”

Proponents of more gun control laws state that the Second Amendment was intended for militias; that gun violence would be reduced; that gun restrictions have always existed; and that a majority of Americans, including gun owners, support new gun restrictions.

Opponents say that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns; that guns are needed for self-defense from threats ranging from local criminals to foreign invaders; and that gun ownership deters crime rather than causes more crime.

Guns in Colonial and Revolutionary America

Guns were common in the American Colonies, first for hunting and general self-protection and later as weapons in the American Revolutionary War. [105] Several colonies’ gun laws required that heads of households (including women) own guns and that all able-bodied men enroll in the militia and carry personal firearms. [105]

Some laws, including in Connecticut (1643) and at least five other colonies, required “at least one adult man in every house to carry a gun to church or other public meetings” in order to protect against attacks by Native Americans; prevent theft of firearms from unattended homes; and, as a 1743 South Carolina law stated, safeguard against “insurrections and other wicked attempts of Negroes and other Slaves.” [105] Other laws required immigrants to own guns in order to immigrate or own land. [105]

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution was ratified on Dec. 15, 1791. The notes from the Constitutional Convention do not mention an individual right to a gun for self-defense. [106] Some historians suggest that the idea of an individual versus a collective right would not have occurred to the Founding Fathers because the two were intertwined and inseparable: there was an individual right in order to fulfill the collective right of serving in the militia. [105] [106]

Although guns were common in colonial and revolutionary America, so were gun restrictions. Laws included banning the sale of guns to Native Americans (though colonists frequently traded guns with Native Americans for goods such as corn and fur); banning indentured servants (mainly the Irish) and slaves from owning guns; and exempting a variety of professions from owning guns (including doctors, school masters, lawyers, and millers). [105]

A 1792 federal law required that every man eligible for militia service own a gun and ammunition suitable for military service, report for frequent inspection of their guns, and register his gun ownership on public records. [101] Many Americans owned hunting rifles or pistols instead of proper military guns, and even though the penalty fines were high (over $9,000 in 2014 dollars), they were levied inconsistently and the public largely ignored the law. [105] [106]

State Gun Laws: Slave Codes and the “Wild West”

From the 1700s through the 1800s, so-called “slave codes” and, after slavery was abolished in 1865, “black codes” (and, still later, “Jim Crow” laws) prohibited black people from owning guns and laws allowing the ownership of guns frequently specified “free white men.” [98] For example, an 1833 Georgia law stated, “it shall not be lawful for any free person of colour in this state, to own, use, or carry fire arms of any description whatever… that the free person of colour, so detected in owning, using, or carrying fire arms, shall receive upon his bare back, thirty-nine lashes, and that the fire arm so found in the possession of said free person of colour, shall be exposed for public sale.” [107]

Despite images of the “Wild West” from movies, cities in the frontier often required visitors to check their guns with the sheriff before entering the town. [108] In Oct. 1876, Deadwood, Dakota Territory passed a law stating that no one could fire a gun without the mayor’s consent. [109] A sign in Dodge City, Kansas in 1879 read, “The Carrying of Fire Arms Strictly Prohibited.” [108] The first law passed in Dodge City was a gun control law that read “any person or persons found carrying concealed weapons in the city of Dodge or violating the laws of the State shall be dealt with according to law.” [108]

Federal Gun Laws in the 1900s

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre on Feb. 14, 1929 in Chicago resulted in the deaths of seven gangsters associated with “Bugs” Moran (an enemy of Al Capone) and set off a series of debates and laws to ban machine guns. [110] [111] Originally enacted in 1934 in response to mafia crimes, the National Firearms Act (NFA) imposes a $200 tax and a registration requirement on the making and transfer of certain guns, including shotguns and rifles with barrels shorter than 18 inches (“short-barreled”), machine guns, firearm mufflers and silencers, and specific firearms labeled as “any other weapons” by the NFA. [112] [113] Most guns are excluded from the Act.

The Federal Firearms Act of 1938 made it illegal to sell guns to certain people (including convicted felons) and required federal firearms licensees (FFLs; people who are licensed by the federal government to sell firearms) to maintain customer records. [114] This Act was overturned by the 1968 Gun Control Act.

In 1968 the National Firearms Act was revised to address constitutionality concerns brought up by Haynes v. US (1968), namely that unregistered firearms already in possession of the owner do not have to be registered, and information obtained from NFA applications and registrations cannot be used as evidence in a criminal trial when the crime occurred before or during the filing of the paperwork. [112]

On Oct. 22, 1968, prompted by the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (1963), Malcolm X (1965), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968), and Robert F. Kennedy (1968), as well as the 1966 University of Texas mass shooting, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) into law. [115] The GCA regulates interstate gun commerce, prohibiting interstate transfer unless completed among licensed manufacturers, importers, and dealers, and restricts gun ownership. [114]

The Firearm Owners’ Protection Act of 1986 (FOPA) revised prior legislation once again. [112] [113] The Act, among other revisions to prior laws, allowed gun dealers to sell guns away from the address listed on their license; limited the number of inspections the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (now the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) could perform without a warrant; prevented the federal government from maintaining a database of gun dealer records; and removed the requirement that gun dealers keep track of ammunition sales. [114]

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 (also called the Brady Act) was signed into law on Nov. 30, 1993 and required a five-day waiting period for a licensed seller to hand over a gun to an unlicensed person in states without an alternate background check system. [116] The five-day waiting period has since been replaced by an instant background check system that can take up to three days if there is an inconsistency or more information is needed to complete the sale. [114] Gun owners who have a federal firearms license or a state-issued permit are exempt from the waiting period. [114]

The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act), part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on Sep. 13, 1994. The ban outlawed 19 models of semi-automatic assault weapons by name and others by “military features,” as well as large-capacity magazines manufactured after the law’s enactment. [114] The ban expired on Sep. 13, 2004 and was not renewed due in part to NRA lobbying efforts. [114] [117]

Federal and State Gun Laws in the 2000s

Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act and Child Safety Lock Act of 2005 was enacted on Oct. 26 by President George W. Bush and gives broad civil liability immunity to firearms manufacturers so they cannot be sued by a gun death victim’s family. [114] [118] The Child Safety Lock Act requires that all handguns be sold with a “secure gun storage or safety device.”[119]

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 was enacted as a condition of the Brady Act and provides incentives to states (including grants from the Attorney General) for them to provide information to NICS including information on people who are prohibited from purchasing firearms. [114] The NCIS was implemented on Nov. 30, 1998 and later amended on Jan. 8, 2008 in response to the Apr. 16, 2007 Virginia Technical University shooting so that the Attorney General could more easily acquire information pertinent to background checks such as disqualifying mental conditions. [120]

On Jan. 5, 2016, President Obama announced new executive actions on gun control. His measures take effect immediately and include: an update and expansion of background checks (closing the “gun show loophole”); the addition of 200 ATF agents; increased mental health care funding; $4 million and personnel to enhance the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (used to link crimes in one jurisdiction to ballistics evidence in another); creating an Internet Investigations Center to track illegal online gun trafficking; a new Department of Health and Human Services rule saying that it is not a HIPAA violation to report mental health information to the background check system; a new requirement to report gun thefts; new research funding for gun safety technologies; and more funding to train law enforcement officers on preventing gun casualties in domestic violence cases. [142] [143]

In addition to federal gun laws, each state has its own set of gun laws ranging from California with the most restrictive gun laws in the country to Arizona with the most lenient, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Campaign’s “2013 State Scorecard.” [121]. 43 of 50 states have a “right to bear arms” clause in their state constitutions. [101]

The most common state gun control laws include background checks, waiting periods, and registration requirements to purchase or sell guns. [121] [122] Most states prevent carrying guns, including people with a concealed carry permit, on K-12 school grounds and many states prevent carrying on college campuses. [121] [122] Some states ban assault weapons. [121] [122]

Gun rights laws include concealed and open carry permits, as well as allowing gun carry in usually restricted areas (such as bars, K-12 schools, state parks, and parking areas). [121][122] Many states have “shoot first” (also called “stand your ground”) laws. [121] [122] Open carry of handguns is generally allowed in most states (though a permit may be required). [121] [122]

Collective v. Individual Right: Guns and the Supreme Court

Until 2008, the Supreme Court repeatedly upheld a collective right (that the right to own guns is for the purpose of maintaining a militia) view of the Second Amendment, concluding that the states may form militias and regulate guns. [47]

The first time the Court upheld an individual rights interpretation (that individuals have a Constitutional right to own a gun regardless of militia service) of the Second Amendment was the June 26, 2008 US Supreme Court ruling in DC v. Heller. The Court stated that the right could be limited: “There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms. Of course the right was not unlimited… Thus we do not read the Second Amendment to protect the right of citizens to carry arms for any sort of confrontation, just as we do not read the First Amendment to protect the right of citizens to speak for any purpose.” [1] [3]

The US Supreme Court ruled on June 28, 2010 in McDonald v. Chicagothat the Fourteenth Amendment, specifically the Due Process Clause, includes the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and, thus, the Second Amendment applies to the states as well as the federal government, effectively extending the individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment to the states. [123]

On June 27, 2016, in Voisine v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled (6-2) that someone convicted of “recklessly” committing a violent domestic assault can be disqualified from owning a gun under the 1996 Lautenberg Amendment to the 1968 Gun Control Act. Associate Justice Elena Kagan, JD, writing the majority opinion, stated: “Congress enacted §922(g)(9) [the Lautenberg Amendment] in 1996 to bar those domestic abusers convicted of garden-variety assault or battery misdemeanors–just like those convicted of felonies–from owning guns.” [150] [151] [152] [153] 

The National Rifle Association (NRA)

The National Rifle Association calls itself “America’s longest-standing civil rights organization.” [124] Granted charter on Nov. 17, 1871 in New York, Civil War Union veterans Colonel William C. Church and General George Wingate founded the NRA to “promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis” to improve the marksmanship of Union troops. [125] General Ambrose Burnside, governor of Rhode Island (1866 to 1869) and US Senator (Mar. 4, 1875 to Sep. 13, 1881), was the first president. [125] [126]

Over 100 years later, in 1977, in what is known as the “Revolt at Cincinnati,” new leadership changed the bylaws to make the protection of the Second Amendment right to bear arms the primary focus (ousting the focus on sportsmanship). [127] [128] The group lobbied to disassemble the Gun Control Act of 1968 (the NRA alleged the Act gave power to the ATF that was abused), which they accomplished in 1986 with the Firearms Owners Protection Act. [127]

In 1993 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) funded a study completed by Arthur Kellerman and colleagues, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, titled “Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor in the Home,” which found that keeping a gun at home increased the risk of homicide. [129] [130] [131] The NRA accused the CDC of “promoting the idea that gun ownership was a disease that needed to be eradicated,” and argued that government funding should not be available to politically motivated studies. [129] [130] [131] The NRA notched a victory when Congress passed the Dickey Amendment, which deducted $2.6 billion from the CDC’s budget, the exact amount of its gun research program, and restricted CDC (and, later, NIH) gun research. [129] [130] [131] The amendment stated that “none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” [129] [130] [131] The admonition effectively stopped all federal gun research because, as Kellerman stated, “[p]recisely what was or was not permitted under the clause was unclear. But no federal employee was willing to risk his or her career or the agency’s funding to find out.” [130] Jay Dickey (R-AR), now retired from Congress, was the author of the Dickey Amendment and has since stated that he no longer supports the amendment: “I wish we had started the proper research and kept it going all this time… I have regrets.” [144]

As of Jan. 2013, the NRA had approximately 3 million members, though estimates have varied from 2.6 million to 5 million members. [132] In 2013 the NRA spending budget was $290.6 million. [133] The NRA-ILA actively lobbies against universal checks and registration, “large” magazine and “assault weapons” bans, requiring smart gun features, ballistic fingerprinting, firearm traces, and prohibiting people on the terrorist watchlist from owning guns; and in favor of self-defense (stand your ground) laws. [134] In 2014 the NRA and NRA-ILA spent $3.36 million on lobbying activity aimed primarily at Congress but also the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Army Corps of Engineers, and the Forest Service. [135]

The Gun Control Lobby

The start of the modern gun control movement is largely attributed to Mark Borinsky, PhD, who founded the National Center to Control Handguns (NCCH) in 1974. [136] After being the victim of an armed robbery, Borinsky looked for a gun control group to join but found none, founded NCCH, and worked to grow the organization with Edward O. Welles, a retired CIA officer, and N.T. “Pete” Shields, a Du Pont executive whose son was shot and killed in 1975. [136]

In 2001, after a few name changes, the National Center to Control Handguns (NCCH) was renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its sister organization, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, was renamed the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, though they are often referred to collectively as the Brady Campaign. [137] The groups were named for Jim Brady, a press secretary to President Ronald Reagan who was shot and permanently disabled on Mar. 30, 1981 during an assassination attempt on the President. [137]

The 2014 gun control lobby was composed of Everytown for Gun Safety, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Sandy Hook Promise, Americans for Responsible Solutions, and Violence Policy Center. [138] Collectively, these groups spent $1.94 million in 2014, primarily aimed at Congress but also the Executive Office of the President, the Vice President, the White House, Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. [138]

The most-recently available total annual spending budgets for gun control groups were $13.7 million collectively (4.7% of the NRA’s 2013 budget): including Everytown for Gun Safety ($4.7 million in 2012); the Brady Campaign ($2.7 million in 2012); the Brady Center ($3.1 million in 2010); Coalition to Stop Gun Violence ($308,761 in 2011); Sandy Hook Promise ($2.2 million in 2013); and the Violence Policy Center ($750,311 in 2012). [133]

The Current Gun Control Debate

Largely, the current public gun control debate in the United States occurs after a major mass shooting. There were at least 126 mass shootings between Jan. 2000 and July 2014. [139] [140] Proponents of more gun control often want more laws to try to prevent the mass shootings and call for smart gun laws, background checks, and more protections against the mentally ill buying guns. Opponents of more gun laws accuse proponents of using a tragedy to further a lost cause, stating that more laws would not have prevented the shootings. A Dec. 10, 2014 Pew Research Center survey found 52% of Americans believe the right to own guns should be protected while 46% believe gun ownership should be controlled, a switch from 1993 when 34% wanted gun rights protected and 57% wanted gun ownership controlled. [141]

Pro Gun Control 

“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.”

That’s the wording of the amendment, adopted on December 15, 1791. Opponents of gun control insist that regulating guns would violate what they see as the amendment’s protection of the individual right to bear arms. Gun control proponents are equally fervent in interpreting the amendment as protecting only a communal right, not an individual right.

On June 9, 2016 the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-4 that “[t]he right of the general public to carry a concealed firearm in public is not, and never has been, protected by the Second Amendment,” thus upholding a law requiring a permitting process and “good cause” for concealed carry licenses in California.

The Second Amendment was intended to protect the right of militias to own guns, not the right of individuals. Former Justice John Paul Stevens, JD, in his dissenting opinion for District of Columbia et al. v. Heller, wrote, “the Framer’s single-minded focus in crafting the constitutional guarantee ‘to keep and bear arms’ was on military use of firearms, which they viewed in the context of service in state militias,” hence the inclusion of the phrase “well regulated militia.” [3]

Michael Waldman, JD, President of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, stated there is nothing about an individual right to bear arms in the notes about the Second Amendment when it was being drafted, discussed, or ratified; the US Supreme Court declined to rule in favor of the individual right four times between 1876 and 1939; and all law articles on the Second Amendment from 1888 to 1959 stated that an individual right was not guaranteed.

Civilians, including hunters, should not own military-grade firearms or firearm accessories. President Ronald Reagan and others did not think the AR-15 military rifle (also called M16s by the Air Force) should be owned by civilians and, when the AR-15 was included in the assault weapons ban of 1994 (which expired on Sep. 13, 2004), the NRA supported the legislation. [48]

The Second Amendment was written at a time when the most common arms were long rifles that had to be reloaded after every shot. Civilians today have access to folding, detaching, or telescoping stocks that make the guns more easily concealed and carried; bump stocks were used in the 2017 Vegas mass shooting to make guns more automatic and are still legal since, silencers to muffle gunshot sounds; flash suppressors to fire in low-light conditions without being blinded by the flash and to conceals the shooter’s location; or grenade launcher attachments. [49]

Jonathan Lowy, Director of Legal Action Project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, stated, “These are weapons that will shred your venison before you eat it, or go through the walls of your apartment when you’re trying to defend yourself… [they are] made for mass killing, but not useful for law-abiding citizens.” [50]

More gun control laws would 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%). [4] Guns were the leading cause of death by homicide (66.6% of all homicides) and by suicide (52.2% of all suicides).

Firearms were the 12th leading cause of all deaths, representing 1.3% of total deaths topping liver disease, hypertension, and Parkinson’s disease, as well as deaths from fires, drowning, and machinery accidents. [4]

David Frum, Daily Beast and CNN contributor, stated, “American children under age 15 were nine times more likely to die of a gun accident than children in other advanced wealthy countries.

About 200 Americans go to emergency rooms every day with gunshot wounds.” [5] A study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that “legal purchase of a handgun appears to be associated with a long-lasting increased risk of violent death” [6] According to a Mar. 10, 2016 Lancetstudy, implementing federal universal background checks could reduce firearm deaths by a projected 56.9%; background checks for ammunition purchases could reduce deaths by a projected 80.7%; and gun identification requirements could reduce deaths by a projected 82.5%. [148]

Guns are rarely used in self-defense. Of the 29,618,300 violent crimes committed between 2007 and 2011, 0.79% of victims (235,700) protected themselves with a threat of use or use of a firearm, the least-employed protective behavior. [16] In 2010 there were 230 “justifiable homicides” in which a private citizen used a firearm to kill a felon, compared to 8,275 criminal gun homicides (or, 36 criminal homicides for every “justifiable homicide”). [17] Of the 84,495,500 property crimes committed between 2007 and 2011, 0.12% of victims (103,000) protected themselves with a threat of use or use of a firearm. [16] \

Countries with restrictive gun control laws have lower gun homicide and suicide rates than the United States. Both Switzerland and Finland require gun owners to acquire licenses and pass background checks that include mental and criminal records, among other restrictions and requirements. [44]

In 2007 Switzerland ranked number 3 in international gun ownership rates with 45.7 guns per 100 people (about 3,400,000 guns total). [45] In 2009 Switzerland had 24 gun homicides (0.31 deaths per 100,000 people) and 253 gun suicides (3.29 deaths per 100,000 people). [44]

Finland ranked fourth in international gun ownership rates with 45.3 guns per 100 people (about 2,400,000 guns total). [45] In 2007 Finland had 23 (0.43 deaths per 100,000 people) gun homicides and 172 gun suicides (4.19 deaths per 100,000 people). [44]

The United States, categorized as having “permissive” firearm regulation by GunPolicy.org, ranked first in international gun ownership rates with 88.8 guns per 100 people (about 270,000,000 guns total). [44] [45] In 2007 the United States had 12,632 gun homicides (4.19 deaths per 100,000 people) and 17,352 gun suicides (5.76 deaths per 100,000 people). [44] [4]

Harvard professor David Hemenway, PhD, wrote “We analyzed the relationship between homicide and gun availability using data from 26 developed countries from the early 1990s. We found that across developed countries, where guns are more available, there are more homicides.” [46]

According to a Mar. 2016 study, gun homicide rates in the United States were 25.3 times higher and gun suicides were 8 times higher in 2010 than in other populous, high-income countries. Additionally, 90% of women, 91% of 0- to 14-year olds, 92% of 15- to 24-year-olds, and 82% of all people killed by firearms were from the United States. [147]

Armed civilians are unlikely to stop crimes and are more likely to make dangerous situations, including mass shootings, more deadly. None of the 62 mass shootings between 1982 and 2012 was stopped by an armed civilian. [41]

Jeffrey Voccola, Assistant Professor of Writing at Kutztown University, notes, “The average gun owner, no matter how responsible, is not trained in law enforcement or on how to handle life-threatening situations, so in most cases, if a threat occurs, increasing the number of guns only creates a more volatile and dangerous situation.”

When police get a call about an active shooter in progress, when they show up, even if you are the good guy with a gun, the cops just see someone with a gun and may take you out not knowing that you are the good guy with the gun. That is why even having a gun in these situations can make it worst, it could confuse people thinking you are a second shooter and therefore a target that needs to be neutralized.

Besides in gun safety, with every pull of the trigger, you better hope that you don’t hurt more people and only hit the shooter, if you kill people around you accidentally as you shoot your gun. you can become the bad guy in this situation as well.

Anti-Gun Control

Gun control laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns or breaking laws. Of 62 mass shootings in the United States between 1982 and 2012, 49 of the shooters used legally obtained guns. Collectively, 143 guns were possessed by the killers with about 75% obtained legally. [69] John R. Lott, Jr., PhD, gun rights activist, stated, “The problem with such [gun control] laws is that they take away guns from law-abiding citizens, while would-be criminals ignore them.” [70] According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics May 2013 report, 37.4% of state prison inmates who “used, carried, or possessed a firearm when they committed the crime for which they were serving a prison sentence” obtained the gun from a family member or friend. [16] Despite Chicago’s ban on gun shops, shooting ranges, assault weapons, and high capacity magazines, in 2014 Chicago had 2,089 shooting victims including at least 390 murders. [71] [72] [73] Approximately 50,000 guns were recovered by police in Chicago between 2001 and Mar. 2012. The guns came from all 50 states, and more than half came from outside of Illinois. [74]

The Second Amendment was intended to protect gun ownership of all able-bodied men so that they could participate in the militia to keep the peace and defend the country if needed. According to the United States Code, a “militia” is composed of all “able-bodied males at least 17 years of age… under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.” [99] Therefore, the militia mentioned in the Second Amendment would have been composed of almost all adult men and, in turn, that most adult men should not have their right to own firearms infringed. [100] A 1792 federal law required that every man eligible for militia service own a gun and ammunition suitable for military service, report for frequent inspection of their guns, and register their gun ownership on public records. [101] Daniel J. Schultz, lawyer, stated, “the Framers [of the Constitution and Bill of Rights] understood that ‘well-regulated’ militias, that is, armed citizens, ready to form militias that would be well trained, self-regulated and disciplined would post no threat to their fellow citizens, but would, indeed, help to ‘insure domestic Tranquility’ and ‘provide for the common defence.'” [100]

Gun control laws are racist. Current gun control laws are frequently aimed at inner city, poor, black communities who are perceived as more dangerous than white gun owners. [94] [95] Charles Gallagher, MA, PhD, the Chair of Sociology at LaSalle University, stated that some gun control laws are still founded on racial fears: “Whites walking down Main Street with an AK-47 are defenders of American values; a black man doing the same thing is Public Enemy No. 1.” [96] In the late 1960s, gun control laws were enacted in reaction to the militant, gun-carrying Black Panthers. [97] Adam Winkler, MA, JD, UCLA Constitutional Law Professor, stated “The KKK began as a gun-control organization. Before the Civil War, blacks were never allowed to own guns” so, after the Civil War, there was “constant pressure among white racists to keep guns out of the hands of African Americans because they would rise up and revolt.” [97] In Virginia, in response to Nat Turner’s Rebellion (also called the Southampton Rebellion, in which slaves killed 55 to 65 people in the most fatal slave uprising in the United States) in 1831, a law was passed that prohibited free black people “to keep or carry any firelock of any kind, any military weapon, or any powder or lead and all laws allowing free black people to possess firearms were repealed. [98].

Gun control laws infringe upon the right to self-defense and deny people a sense of safety. According to the National Rifle Association (NRA), guns are used for self-defense 2.5 million times a year. [57] The police cannot protect everyone all of the time. 61% of men and 56% of women surveyed by Pew Research said that stricter gun laws would “make it more difficult for people to protect their homes and families.” [58] Nelson Lund, JD, PhD, Professor at George Mason University School of Law, stated, “The right to self-defense and to the means of defending oneself is a basic natural right that grows out of the right to life” and “many [gun control laws] interfere with the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves against violent criminals.” [59]Constitutions in 37 US states protect the right to bear arms for self-defense, most with explicit language such as Alabama’s: “every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state.” [60] [61]Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the NRA, stated, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” [62] A May 9, 2013 48% of convicted felons surveyed admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they knew the victim was armed with a gun. [63] Pew Foundation report found that 79% of male gun owners and 80% of female gun owners said owning a gun made them feel safer and 64% of people living in a home in which someone else owns a gun felt safer. [58] Even Senator Dianne Feinstein, a gun control advocate, carried a concealed gun when her life was threatened and her home attacked by the New World Liberation Front in the 1970s. [64]

More gun control is not needed; education about guns and gun safety is needed to prevent accidental gun deaths. 95% of all US gun owners believe that children should learn about gun safety. [154] Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. And people need more gun education and mental illness screening to prevent massacres.The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, Inc (SAAMI), stated, “Whether in the field, at the range or in the home, a responsible and knowledgeable gun owner is rarely involved in a firearms accident of any kind.” [82] Heidi Cifelli, Former Program Manager of the NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program, stated, “Gun education is the best way to save young lives.” [83] The NRA states that the Eddie Eagle program is not meant to “teach whether guns are good or bad, but rather to promote the protection and safety of children… Like swimming pools, electrical outlets, matchbooks, and household poison, they’re [guns] treated simply as a fact of everyday life.” [84] According to Kyle Wintersteen, Managing Editor of Guns and Ammo, studies show that “children taught about firearms and their legitimate uses by family members have much lower rates of delinquency than children in households without guns” and “children introduced to guns associate them with freedom, security, and recreation—not violence.” [85]

My View on Gun Control

I wanted to see how the process was at getting a gun. I grew up with a gun (.22 single shot rifle) I was a NRA member for a brief time and even went hunting when I was young for a few years but still prefer fishing over hunting to this day. I remember having to pass a gun safety class in order to get my license. Safety was drilled into my head. Also you eat what you shoot too, that was a big thing as well growing up.

So in 2016 after Trump won, I was concern about the future and my safety. (Call me crazy but many people did a dash for guns when Obama won) So I went to the local gun show at the fairgrounds and they did a FBI / Homeland security background check. I bought a 9mm Smith & Weston single stack hand gun.

I promptly signed up for a full 8-hour women’s only handgun defense safety course. It was tough, there was a lot to keep in mind and safety, safety, safety was drilled into my head. The instructor was ex-police and she doesn’t want anyone to be stupid with a gun. She drilled into us that every bullet that is fired has a name on it, if we accidentally shoot someone or property we are looking at a lawsuit or jail time. Never shoot unless you know what is behind the target and through the target.

We also had to fire I believe 75 rounds for a test at the range. She did not go easy on anyone nor should she. We had to show we could hit a target at various distances and each bullet outside the target counted against us and if we had enough minus points she would deny us the concealed carry license approval.

We had to take a written test as well. I passed. I had to go get my fingerprints done at a place for a background check. I went to the DMV and registered the gun and got a gun carry permit. It was not as easy as my liberal friends make it out to be, it takes a considerable amount of time and effort to be a legal and responsible gun owner.

On Oct. 1, the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since 1949 left 58 people dead and more than 500 injured at the Las Vegas Harvest music festival. Multiple headlines assumed that he was mentally distraught, or that he didn’t “fit the mass shooter profile.”

In the days that followed, the president was clear it was not the time to discuss policy, CBS News’ chief congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.  “Well, we’re not going to talk about that today,” Mr. Trump had said during a news conference. “We won’t talk about that. We’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.” Fox News and many others in my social media said the bodies haven’t even cooled and the liberals are politizing the event for political gain. Many people saying this isn’t the time to be talking about gun control.

In contrast, within hours of Tuesday’s terror attack in lower Manhattan, the president was vowing “to step up our already extreme vetting program” and calling for an immigration overhaul. Habibullaevic Saipov is the man who deliberately plowed down pedestrians in New York City in what authorities described as an act of terror. At least eight people died and at least 13 people, including the suspect, were injured. Yet 58 people dead and 500 injured is not terror and it is too soon to talk about gun control.

From my perspective, both sides took the events for their own political gain, every time something happens with a Muslim in hours GOP folks and Fox news politicalizes it but they criticize the liberal left for doing the same thing if the shooter happens to be white.

In 2017, there were 273 mass shootings and 11,671 deaths as a result of gun violence.  Gun violence has been a leading cause of death among Americans, and yet white male shooters have still never been called terrorists. Because Paddock was a white American, his whiteness has afforded him the ability to be labeled as less of a threat than individuals of minority groups. Before investigations even began, multiple media outlets had already come to the conclusion that he had acted alone, without even conferring that his private devices at home were searched, or that his family was contacted about his motives.

There is a clear double standard in portrayals of mass shootings by media outlets. There is a Double-Standards and Hypocrisy when the murderer is White. He’s mentally ill, he has psychological problems, he was mentally distraught, or “a Lone wolf.” But he will not be called a terrorist by law enforcement or by the Media outlets.

On the other hand, Terrorism is, in the broadest sense, the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror, or fear, to achieve a political, religious or ideological aim. Many of these “lone wolf” events are not doing it for known political, religious, or ideological purposes. However, in the sense that these events are terrorizing, it seems fitting to many people.

The headlines after the killing of three Muslim UNC Chapel Hill students in 2015 are symptomatic of the larger problem of media narratives disregarding the experiences of minorities and victimizing the perpetrators. The crime, perpetrated by a white shooter, was labeled a parking dispute. The words “hate crime” were avoided. This, in turn, has perpetuated stereotypes that have protected white shooters who have been partially freed of blame although they must be held as accountable as any other individual.

The Washington Post, only 12 hours after Paddock shot and killed multiple people, wrote that he “liked to gamble, listened to country music, lived a quiet retired life.” An article by The New York Times was titled, “Who Was Stephen Paddock? The Mystery of a Nondescript ‘Numbers Guy.’” An ABC News headline reads, “Friend of Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock describes him as a caring person who sought to ‘make people happy.”

In stark contrast, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown, all victims who were people of color, were in one way or another held accountable for their own deaths by the media. The narrative that media outlets adhered to portraying these individuals as criminals, in having cigarettes and wearing hoodies, or acting “badly.” They were not victimized, but rather systematically criminalized for their decisions to do drugs or wear certain clothing that has been stereotyped.

In telling news stories, many media outlets have chosen to frame the narrative that normalizes white male shooters, propagating bias even by writing the headline that called Stephen Paddock mentally distraught before reaching conclusive facts about his mental health. Media outlets are quick to characterize Muslim suspects as terrorists, and African Americans as “thugs.” A Muslim suspect will be tied to extremist terrorist organizations, and the entire religion and its followers are at once vilified and subject to a systematic violence perpetrated by racism that denigrates people of color and favors white individuals.

Clearly, the right to bear arms goes back to the earliest days of the United States. But so, too, does the power of legislatures to regulate it in the name of public safety.

We have a problem in America, I am a responsible gun owner and I fully support common sense gun laws. We don’t need 30 high caliber or tracer bullets to kill a deer. We don’t need bump stocks and military weapons like the AR-15 should stay in the military. Every side just politicalizes what event they can cherry pick that goes with their political views.

Despite some initial GOP interest, a Senate bill banning bump stocks has 40 Democratic co-sponsors but no Republicans. And the Senate Judiciary Committee says it won’t even hold a hearing on bump stocks until the Las Vegas investigation is further along. In the meantime bump stocks are sold out across the country as people are buying them up.

I think gun control has the best arguments as America does have a problem, we do need change. I think we need some restrictions but also as a gun owner, taking all the guns away won’t change the fact that it is a heart/mental health problem, not a gun problem. All these trucks running into crowds are becoming more and more commonplace with terrorist, should we outlaw trucks too? This is complex in our current culture to address and it could very well never be addressed to the satisfaction of either side.

We need better mental health care in this country, By itself, it won’t cure the problem but it will slow down the mass murders.

The GOP wants a bathroom bill because a trans person might be a pervert so all make a law for everyone because any lone wolf means everyone could be in danger but when it comes to guns they don’t follow that. When it comes to Muslims though, one lone wolf terrorist means we need to redo the whole immigration system to keep the bad people out since we don’t know who is good or bad. The same logic used by the right to be against Gun control is not used in other areas.

We can do better, we can do it that allows guns and protections at the same time but both sides will have to compromise.

I think it is safe to say both sides want the mass shooting to stop. The politics is how we do it, there are Republicans that support some gun control and I have hardcore liberal friends with guns. It is a messy topic with no good solutions that are likely to be actually implemented. All the guns won’t go away nor will criminals give theirs up. You can hook everyone up with a gun but a good person with a gun to a bad person with a gun can happen at any moment. How can you stop such uncertainty?  Not everyone would be a “good guy” with a gun. Neither extreme solution will happen in America. Somewhere there is a balance between responsible gun owner and mental health services with the right amount of gun control. How it plays out is to be seen, so far nothing but thoughts and prayers from every side and likely that is how it will always be.

Sources:

http://gun-control.procon.org/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/16/opinions/second-amendment-debate-strum/index.html