Guns in America:
The Vital Importance of Strengthening Gun
Control in the United States
by Lady Rhiannon
Gun laws and gun controls are far too weak in
the Unites States, and the federal government needs to instill and enforce
federal regulations to make gun purchases and ownership safer. Gun control is not a threat to our freedom,
and no reasonable group is calling for guns to be taken away from sane,
responsible citizens, but logical changes need to be made. The United States
has the highest per capita rate and the highest sheer number of gun deaths and
murders in the world, but better laws can change that (Violence Policy Center
2010). Many people are not
aware of how weak gun control laws are in the United States. Over 60% of all
murders in the Unites states are committed with firearms. Research shows that
the implementation of stronger gun control laws leads to restricted
availability to criminals and would-be criminals, and reduces the number of gun
deaths, murders, and other felony use (National Criminal Justice Reference Service
1994). Unfortunately, propaganda and
misinformation has been presented to the public by the NRA and weapons manufactures,
and their congressional lobbying keeps the pressure on politicians to avoid
implementing new federal or state weapons restrictions and regulations (Marty
and Sugarmann 2012).
From a global perspective our gun laws are
extremely sparse and loose. Finland has
relatively relaxed gun laws in comparison with the rest of Europe; even a fifteen
year old can get a gun with parental consent (Associated Press 2008). However,
Unlike the United States, Finland has federal regulations requiring gun
licensing for owners, as well as gun registration requirements. In Finland
approximately 50% of households have guns, while in the United States in 2002,
only 41% of household had guns. In spite of that, Finland’s per capita death rate
(6.65 per 100,000 people) was less than half that of the country that came in
first place for the highest gun death rate in the world with 13.47, which was
the United States of America (Public Broadcasting Station 2002).
The United States of America has more guns
than any other country in the world. Even though the percentage of known gun
owners and households with guns has fallen by about ten percent in the last
decade, many gun owners hoard and collect a huge number of guns. A 2004
National Firearms Survey study found that 20% of gun owners own about 65% of
the nation's guns. Also, in 2007 the U.N's Office on Drugs and Crime found that
the United States owns 50% of the world's guns, despite being only 5% of the
world’s population (Brennan, 2012). So fewer people now own a greater number of
guns.
In 2007, 3,007 children died as a result of a
firearm. 2,186 of those deaths were deemed homicides, while most of the others
were deemed either accidents or suicides (National MCH Center for Child Death
Review 2007). There were 127,521 known cases of robbery with a firearm reported
in 2010 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That number is approximately
six times the number of robberies committed with a knife or by “other means” (Federal
Bureau of Investigation 2011). Also in 2010, there were 12,996 convicted cases
of murder in the United States and 8,775 of them were committed with a firearm
(FBI 2010).
The number
of murders committed with a gun dwarfs in comparison to the number for all known
cases of gun deaths, including accidents, suicides, murders, and homicides not
legally considered murder. In 2009 there were 31,347 people in total in the
United States who died as a result of a firearm. That is a per capita rate of
10.2 people out of every 100,000 in the population, which is coming close to
the motor vehicle death rate of 11.2 (Center for Disease Control 2012). One argument against gun control has been
that cars kill more people each year than guns do, but stronger traffic laws,
car safety regulations, and continued testing and licensing requirements
account for a steady decline in highway fatalities. Now gun deaths outnumber
car fatalities in ten states including Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia, and
Michigan (Sugermann 2012).
Cars are usually necessary for daily adult functioning,
while guns are not. A gun’s sole purpose is to maim and kill, while a car’s
primary purpose is for transportation. More cars are used on a more constant
basis than guns, so the ratio of gun fatalities to gun owners is significantly
higher than the ratio of car fatalities to car owners. About 90% of Americans
have a car, leading the world in car ownership (Auckland, 2007), while only 32%
of households own guns, according to a 2011 study done by The University of Chicago's National
Opinion Research Center (Brennan, 2012). Still the number of people who die in
car wrecks is almost equal to those who die from gunshots.
We license people to drive through safety
tests, road tests, eye exams, and a background check. To drive a car you need
insurance and your car has to be registered with a visible serial number and
license plates. We also have traffic laws for every situation faced on the
streets and highways. Yet we do not bear the same legal or socially cautious
regard for deadly weapons. Thirty-four states in this country do not require a
state license to buy, own, or use a firearm. Only Sixteen states require state
licensing, including Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and California.
These states experience a significantly lower per capita gun death rate than
the states with the fewest gun laws (Violence Policy Center 2010). The only
states that require a permit to purchase all firearms are Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts,
and New Jersey, and New York (“Brady Campaign 2011 Scorecards”, 2011). Arkansas,
Wyoming, and Arizona do not even require a permit to carry a concealed weapon
in public (“Gun Laws”, 2012).
Most states, including Florida, Texas, Ohio,
Montana, New Mexico, West Virginia, and Arizona do not have any laws regarding
record keeping, theft report mandates, purchase limits, storage security
requirements, store inspections, background checks, safety training, or
licensing; of these things Mississippi only has record keeping requirements for
store owners, but that does not apply to independent sellers online or at gun
shows. Only California, Maryland, and New Jersey have and enforce all of the
laws just mentioned. Rhode Island, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Hawaii,
Connecticut, and California are the only states with safety training or testing
requirements of any kind. Florida is unique in that it is the only state which
currently has a gag law placed on doctors. This law forbids doctors from asking
patients if they own a firearm, or to educate their patients on proper gun
safety or the possible dangers of owning and using a gun (“Brady Campaign 2011
Scorecards”, 2011).
One common misconception is that gun laws
will not have an impact on crime, as criminals will always find access to
weapons, but this is not the case. According to an academic study performed by
the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, “In the five year period before
enactment of the Federal Assault Weapons Act (1990-1994), assault weapons named
in the Act constituted 4.82% of the crime gun traces ATF conducted nationwide.
Since the law’s enactment, however, these assault weapons have made up only
1.61% of the guns ATF has traced to crime—a drop of 66% from the pre-ban rate.
Moreover, ATF trace data show a steady year-by-year decline in the percentage
of assault weapons traced, suggesting that the longer the statute has been in
effect, the less available these guns have become for criminal misuse." (Brady
Center to Prevent Gun Violence 2004)
The states that have the most gun laws in the
Unites States, such as licensing requirements, consistently experience a lower
rate of gun deaths within that state. In 2009, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New
Jersey, New York, and Connecticut had the lowest per capita gun death rates in
the United States. Massachusetts was lowest in the country at 3.14 and Connecticut
was highest among these five at 4.92. All the aforementioned states are some of
the few states with enforced gun laws including permit and licensing
requirements (“Brady Campaign 2011 Scorecards”, 2011). Louisiana, Wyoming,
Alabama, Montana, and Mississippi have very few gun laws and have the highest
per capita gun death rates in the country. According to 2009 numbers, Louisiana
rated highest in the country at 18.03 and Mississippi rated 16.5 deaths per
100,000 people (Violence Policy Center 2010).
 |
| Mourners visit memorials for Aurora victims. |
Also, many fatal gun crimes are committed by
those who purchased the weapons in a legal manner, or acquired them from
friends or relatives who did. James Holmes, the shooter from Aurora, CO, purchased
all of his weapons legally without a background check, purchase registration,
or permit. He bought an assault rifle, a shotgun, two handguns, 6,000 rounds of
ammunition, and a 100 round magazine. He was wearing a bullet proof vest, and
he had smoke grenades, 350 shells for his 12-gauge shotgun, and a gas mask
(Healy, July 2012). He killed 12 people and injured 58 others, he could have
killed many others but his clip jammed and he had to switch to a slower weapon.
Ammunition is especially easy to acquire in large amounts online. There are no
laws requiring records to be kept for ammunition sales except in New Jersey and
Washington D.C. (Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence 2012). Only a few states
like Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey, and a few cities, enforce
limitations on ammunition purchases, and at least require permits for buyers or
licenses for sellers (Healy 2012).
The Second Amendment is an important right,
but even the First Amendment does not give a person rights to spread libel and slander
about others, and you are not allowed to enter into a crowded theater and shout
fire either. With all rights there are responsibilities and exceptions to those
rights. The second amendment also does not exclude the premise of regulation as
the amendment precisely 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 qualifier of militia is “well-regulated” (Cornell
Law School, 2012). The founding fathers could also never have predicted the
advances in technology that have produced exponentially deadly weapons capable
of killing dozens and even hundreds of people at one time.
We need licensing requirements for owning and
using any type of fire arm. Getting that license should take at least as much
effort as earning a driver’s license. Getting a license should require safety
training, range tests, eye exams, a mental health analysis, and background
checks. Background checks should be
required for dealers as well, and all gun sales need to be registered as all
car sales are. Registration would make it easier to track guns back to the
original owner, and even if the gun was stolen, investigators would get one
step closer to apprehending the real offender. We also need to reinstate the
assault weapons ban because that has already been shown to reduce the number of
deaths and crimes involving assault weapons (BCPGV 2004). Laws such as these
are part of the reason countries in Europe and Canada enjoy a lower rate of gun
deaths and gun violence, but still a great portion of households in these
countries are secure gun owners (PBS 2002).
Even gun owning Americans, when asked about
specific gun control issues, agree with basic, common sense gun control laws.
According to a poll of 945 gun owners, including NRA members, 87% of gun owners
are in favor of criminal background checks for buyers and owners, and 80% are
in favor for background checks for shop employees as well. Seventy-one Percent
of gun owners polled and 64 percent of NRA members would be in favor of a
mandate for people to report when their gun is stolen. Eighty-four percent of
gun owners support permits and safety requirements for carrying concealed
weapons, and most of them support a 21 year age minimum as well (Beauchamp
2012). Yet many people still have a generally negative visceral reaction to the
general, abstract concept of gun control and gun laws.
The main reason that we don’t have stricter
gun control laws, like most of the rest of the first world countries do, is
because of a concerted effort on part of the gun manufacturers and retailers to prevent such
things from happening. Since 2005, corporations have contributed up to 52.6
million dollars to the NRA and up to 38.9 million of that came directly from
the firearms industry. Executive Vice President, Wayne LaPierre promised at the
time that his new Corporate Partners Program was designed to suit and appease
corporate interests in order to create a strong alliance. Many weapons
manufacturers hold powerful places of authority within the NRA itself, and both
the National Rifle Association's investors and board members are committed to
an uncompromising resistance to even the most conservative gun control laws (Marty and
Sugarmann 2012).
NRA Board Member Pete Brownell, and owner of
Brownells, “the world’s largest supplier of firearms accessories and gun-smithing
tools,” said this on his website after making it on that board committee of the
NRA: "Having [NRA] directors who intimately understand and work in
leadership positions within the firearms industry ensures the NRA's focus is
honed on the overall mission of the organization. These individuals bring a
keen sense of the industry and of the bigger fight to the table".
MidwayUSA founder Larry Potterfield, created what is called the NRA Round-Up
program, which allows buyers to “round-up” their purchase to the nearest dollar
with the difference going to the NRA. This amounted to over five million
dollars that went to the NRA legal branch for lobbying costs. MidwayUSA, a very
lucrative ammunition, gun, and weapons supply company, also served as
“the Official Sponsor of the NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits” for two years in
a row. There are 22 corporate "partners" in what is known as the
"Ring of Freedom" including,
Arsenal, Inc., Benelli, Beretta USA Corporation, Browning, DPMS Panther
Arms, Doug Turnbull Restoration, Inc., and many others including 12 who make
assault weapons (Marty and Sugarmann 2012).
The National Rifle Association represents
itself as a representative for the average American gun owner, but in reality
they receive most of their funding from large scale weapons manufacturers and
companies involved with the sale of firearms, and their interests are in
corporate profit. These contributors seek to make the biggest profit possible
by selling as many weapons and as much ammunition as possible. They have a deep
incentive to make sure that weapon accessibility remains easy and legal. So
these corporations align themselves with the NRA by funding almost their entire
organization so that the NRA can better fight any impending legislation against
weapons, both in the courts and in the media (Marty and Sugarmann 2012).
There is an inordinately high amount of gun deaths
and violence in the United States. It is shocking how few laws exist in this
country in most states, and it is irresponsible for such deadly weapons to go
so unregulated. Gun
laws are a logical, affective method of reducing gun deaths and gun crimes
without violating the rights of responsible American people to bear arms if
they so choose. Unfortunately, misinformation and corporate lobbying prevent
most gun regulations from passing into laws. Therefore, it is imperative that
the public be educated with the facts, in hopes that the informed masses can
put pressure on the legislators to pass laws in spite of corporate opposition;
ultimately it is up to the people to make a difference. As Margaret Mead once
said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change
the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has (Lutkehaus 2008)”. It is our safety and
security, and the security of our civilization that is at stake.
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Works Cited
Auckland. “Americans Leads the World in Car
Ownership”. scoop.co.nz. 2007. May 27.
Retrieved 10-27-2012 from <http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0705/S00103.htm>
Beauchamp, Zack. “NRA Members Agree: More Gun
Regulation Makes Sense”. Think Progress. 24 July. 2012. Retrieved 10-1-2012
from <http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/24/577091/nra-members-agree-regulating-guns-makes-sense/>
Brennan, A. “Analysis: Fewer U.S. Gun Owners
Own More Guns”. 2012. 31 July. Retrieved 10-27-2012 from <http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/31/politics/gun-ownership-declining/index.html>
Cornell Law School. “Legal Information
Institute”. 2012. 10 January. Retrieved 10-30-2012 from <http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/second_amendment>
“Gun Laws”. NRA Institute for Legislative
Action. (2012). Retrieved 10-4-2012 from <http://www.nraila.org/gun-laws.aspx>
Healy, Jack. “Suspect Bought Large Stockpile
of Rounds Online.” New York Times. 22 July. 2012. Retrieved 9-30-2012 from <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/us/online-ammunition-sales-highlighted-by-aurora-shootings.html?_r=0>
“International Gun Laws”. Public Broadcasting
Station: Politics and Economy. 15 November. 2002. Retrieved 9-27-2012 from <http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/internatgun.html>
Lutkehaus, Nancy C. “Margaret Mead: The
Making of an American Icon”. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (2008).
p. 261.
Marty, L., and Sugarmann, J. “Blood Money:
How the Gun Industry Bankrolls the NRA.”
Violence Policy Center. (2011). Retrieved 10-4-2012 from <http://www.vpc.org/studies/bloodmoney.pdf>
“On Target: The Impact of the 1994 Assault
Weapon Act.” Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Crime Gun Solutions LLC.
(2004). Retrieved 10-4-2012 <http://www.bradycenter.org/xshare/pdf/reports/on_target.pdf>
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Jeffrey A., “Firearms and Violence.” National Criminal Justice Reference
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<http://www.vpc.org/fadeathchart12.htm>
Sugermann,
Josh. “Gun Deaths Exceed Motor Vehicle Deaths in 10 States. “ Huffington Post.
22 May. 2012. Retrieved 10-4-2012
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If you still believe that being gay
is evil I cannot stop you from thinking that way, but it really should not be a
concern of yours (if you are not gay) so why interfere in the lives of others?
There are couples BEGGING to be allowed to marry their loved one and not have
to move to another state away from their friends and family to do it. You can
live your own life by whatever code you choose, but if they want to rot in hell
for all eternity, let them do it, it is their choice. No one should have the
right to force their faith and beliefs on other people, especially by passing or
supporting legislation that would restrict the freedoms of others.
It has been said a million times by
all those who are rational, but it is still true, that it really shouldn’t
matter who you love. The political right screams about small government and
freedoms, but they ignore those words when it comes to dictating who you can
marry, a woman’s reproductive rights, or the substances you can consume. The hypocritical
right wing is fed by the fears and prejudices of an ignorant populace fooled by
lunacy that is ages old, and in almost all the social problems I come across I
see the same core issue…lack of education. I do not just mean school; I speak
of a general lack of understanding and working knowledge of the world and a
failure to see past one’s own limited experience. Knowledge is the finest cure
against any prejudice. If only knowing were valued more than following, if only
questioning were more valued than obeying. Hate is taught; it is not innate, whereas
the inclination to explore is perfectly natural and should be nourished. So
parents, please teach your children to appreciate the variety of life and seek
a deeper understanding in all things and people, so that we may create a future
where bigotry and prejudice is a thing of the past. Now is the time to give
justice to the homosexual community and give them the same rights and legal
protection that heterosexuals have always had. 
