A solution to assault style weapons and large capacity magazines. I would like to see a full ban on large capacity magazines as their practicality for civilian use is minimal. For assault style weapons using the AR 15 as reference. I believe a stricter protocol for selling these weapons could be helpful, as many other countries have implemented stricter gun laws have they have proven successful. I would propose that for someone to obtain a semi-automatic rifle the buyer should go through a mental health evaluation and, a firearms safety test along with a waiting period before you physically can obtain the firearm. This would be similar to obtaining a driver's license but, for that specific gun.
In my research a total number of mass shootings involving the AR-15 is unavailable. Although we can look at how many mass shootings since 2004, when the 1994 assault weapons ban ended. According to the Mother Jones database the 48 total mass shootings since 2004, 13 featured semiautomatic or assault style
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rifles. Six of those, though, were from 2015 and 2016 alone. It seems these types of rifles are becoming the weapon of choice it should be noted, though, that they were not all AR-15s (MotherJones.com). They were although similar in function. I am going to use the state of Oregon as a baseline for my comparison of gun laws around the world as several other states have gun laws similar to Oregon.
Now this does not represent the whole United States but a lot of it. A look at current gun laws for Oregon is that there is no registration of AR-15s required. There is no waiting period to buy an AR-15. A background check is required to purchase an AR-15 in Oregon either by private party, through a licensed gun dealer, or at a gun show. You also only need to be 18 to legally purchase a firearm. So the gun laws of the Beaver state are pretty relaxed (Kirk & Quandt). With this said I could easily go into a store and purchase one of these weapons that can very deadly. Purchasing something that has the ability to shoot at such a fast rate and so accurately should not just be handed out to anyone that can pass such a relaxed protocol. Through my research I found several other states have similar laws (Kirk &
Quandt). Let's take a look at other first world countries that have adopted stricter gun laws. If we look at Australia. In 1996. there was a mass shooting known as the Port Arthur Massacre that took the lives of 35 people. After this had happened Australia's government bought back 640,000 firearms from its people. Since this has happened stricter laws have been put in place a mass shooting has not happened since (Oremus). Along with this gun deaths have also gone down. According to GunPolicy.org there was 516 gun related deaths in 1996 while in 2012 there was only 226 deaths(GunPolicy.org). This strategy of a government buy back could prove useful if it was offered for large capacity magazines, if they were to be banned in the United States. According to Simon Chapman of the University of Sydney and colleagues have watched to see what has happened in Australia since then. Before 1996, there were approximately three mass shootings in Australia every four years. According to Simon Chapman “Had they continued at this rate, approximately 16 incidents would have been expected since then by February 2018” (Fox). Now if we look at Japan, which has very strict laws for obtaining firearms. Japan seldomly has more than 10 shooting deaths a year in a population of 127 million people (Fisher). According to weforum.org If Japanese people want to own a gun, they must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, and achieve at least 95% accuracy during a shooting-range test. The applicant must then pass a mental-health evaluation at a hospital, as well as a background check, in which the government digs into any criminal records or ties. Interviews will also be conducted on friends and family members.Once an applicant has finally finished this process, one can buy only shotguns and air rifles no handguns and must retake the class and the initial exam every three years (Weller). Unlike in the US, Japanese law has long outlawed guns. “Still, the wisdom from Japan seems to be that strict regulations keep guns confined only to those fit to use them.“ according to Weller. This is a more strict system of obtaining a gun as mentioned in the thesis. Let's take a look at Germany who has some of the highest gun ownership, yet one of the lowest rates for gun related death. Germany is home to the fourth-highest number of legal guns per capita in 2013, falling behind just the United States, Switzerland and Finland according to thelocal.de . The US Library of Congress defines the German gun control system as “one of the most stringent in Europe”(thelocal.de). Germans do not have the right to bear arms, unlike Americans do under the Second Amendment, and the country’s violent past including the Nazi era has certainly helped shape the current strict regulations. If an applicant wants a firearm they must apply for a license. According to Emma Anderson a writer for the local.de website “The applicant must be at least 18 years old and undergo what’s called a reliability check, which includes checking for criminal records, whether the person is an alcohol or drug addict, whether they have mental illness or any other attributes that might make them questionable to authorities.” Germans must also pass a “specialized knowledge test” on guns and people younger than 25 applying for their first license must go through a psychiatric evaluation. According to thelocal.de Germans must also prove a specific and approved need for the weapon, which is mainly limited to use by hunters, competitive marksmen, collectors and security workers not for self-defence (Anderson). I have just provided several examples of countries that have had problems with gun violence and mass shootings. These countries took action and passed tougher laws for more strict gun control. People of the United States still bring up arguments such Gun advocates will often say “cars kill people why don't we ban cars too”. Fortune.com said that 40,000 people died in 2016 vehicle accidents (Korsec). Though 40,000 deaths is a lot think of how many more there would be if the process for driving a car was as easy as getting an AR-15. The United States has several steps to go through before you can obtain a driver's license such as having a learner's permit, minimum hours spent driving, a computer test and, a physical driving test. None of that is in place for guns (besides a background check) how many more accidents would have happened If people didn't have to do all that to drive a car? (dmv.org) I believe a similar system for obtaining a firearm could prove effective. Another common comment to see is “If we ban guns they will just find another way” then lets have them find another way. It is way too easy to buy a gun and go shoot up a public place. These mass murders need be forced to find another way that is not so easy. Nothing we do is going to be 100% effective but, it is more effective than what we have now. Nothing changes if nothing changes. One more that is often brought up is home defence. I don't really see the point of an AR-15 for home defence along with large capacity magazines, chances are you probably don't need to pump an intruder with 30 rounds of lead. A large knife or baseball bat could work as effectively. If you do want distance between you and an intruder a shotgun would prove adequate in the situation. It truly baffles me that nothing has been done to slow down the pace of these recurring tragic events. How many more news headlines am I gonna read of children being slaughtered at school because access to guns is so easy and neglected. Either way change must happen for this country. Above I provided several examples of how countries have done away with mass shootings. In my thesis I made a basic protocol that could be followed by the United States of America. If the United states used these countries guns and retrofitted them to work for the American people I belive mass shootings will greatly decline.
Enforcing an assault weapons ban can reduce the all-too-familiar occurrences of mass shooting and massacres. When Adam Lanza shot 26 people in Sandy Hook Elementary School..police say he largely relied upon a Bushmaster AR-15 "assault-type weapon," a semiautomatic rifle that could rapidly fire multiple high-velocity rounds. He was also equipped with magazines that held 30 bullets each (Plumer). As a chart from Princeton's Sam Wang shows, the number of people killed in mass shootings did go down in the years the [1994 Assault Weapons Ban] was in effect...and the number of mass shootings per year has doubled since the ban expired (Plumer). This statistic clearly shows the effectiveness of the ban passed by Congress and signed by former president Bill Clinton as part of the V...
Imagine, a person is sitting in their classroom in college. He or she is focused on listening to the teacher, because he or she needs to pass the final exam in order to graduate. All of a sudden, an intruder charges through the door. The intruder pulls out a gun and starts blasting bullets throughout the classroom. There is nowhere to run and there is no way to fight back. Everyone is hit and on the floor, bleeding. This person is so close to graduating and starting a new life. Now his life has been cut short, because there was someone who illegally brought a gun to a school. Because the school had a symbol of “no guns allowed”. Because the intruder knew there was no one else could shoot back. Now imagine if that student, dying on the floor,
Most assault weapons that are in America aren’t used for assault, but they are used to provide food for a family or protection. There are 300-500 million assault weapons in America and only 82 have been used in a crime. In 2016 assault weapon attacks only accounted for 1 percent of the 18,731 deaths and injuries. The word assault weapon gives a weapon the wrong image.
First off, “In 1984, the assailant who massacred 21 at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, unleashed more than 200 rounds. School and workplace shootings in Stockton, California, and San Francisco in the late '80s and early '90s also involved large magazines, with an estimated 100 shots fired in each case. In 1997, a gunman in Orange, California, fired nearly 150 shots, wielding an AK-47 with a 30-round magazine three years after a federal law banned such assault weapons.” ("A Killing Machine"). This means that after assault rifles were banned, they and high-capacity magazines are being used in mass shootings which is increasing the death and injury rate. The death rate rose because the rifles are rapid-fire weapons that shoot faster with a larger magazine. Also, “Seven states have some restrictions on high-capacity magazines; a new state law passed in New York limits magazines to no more than seven rounds.” ("A Killing Machine"). For this reason some states have banned high-capacity and one has a limitation on bullets. High-capacity magazines are banned unless you have owned one before January 1st, 2000. Mass shootings that have involved high-capacity magazines have made the death rate and injury rate
Most states require you to take a firearm safety class in order to complete your gun license and show that you are worthy of owning and operating a gun. Then you can then purchase a gun and register it with the state, in order to prevent the illegal sale of your gun (smartgunlaws.org). For gun control activists that claim guns are not beneficial to the safety of the American people, I present you with a quote from President Obama saying “I believe in the Second Amendment” (CNBC, Rosenfeld). The president makes the decisions about what is best for the people of his country. Although simple, the words of President Obama can tell us a lot.
Should the 2nd amendment be revoked or changed? Many Americans would say “No,” stating that guns are dangerous and times have changed. Others might argue that having the right to bear arms keeps people safe and less threated by the outside world. In this debate, both sides of the 2nd amendments constitutional rights will be argued. The upcoming presidential election has been influencing voters to revoke our 2nd amendment rights which could change the democracy on which our country was founded.
For example, according to Dara lind “Officer’s aren’t supposed to shoot to kill. They’re supposed to do whatever is necessary to disable the threat”(Lind). Whenever an officer gets caught up in a difficult situation where deadly force is needed for the most part officers do shoot to kill because they feel like there life is in danger themselves. Yes like they said they are supposed to do whatever is necessary so therefore if shooting to kill someone is necessary to them then for police officers it is the right thing to do. But in reality in some occasions deadly force by a cop resulting in someone’s death is not needed and there should be other alternatives to handle difficult problems like that. In addition, “Usually, the point from where the officer believes he has to use deadly force to the point where he uses deadly force -- where he pulls
Violence in the United States is a major problem, but our politicians only want to focus on gun violence, and some of them believe the solution to ending gun violence is by preventing law abiding citizens from exercising their second amendment rights. Guns are easier to commit a crime with than other weapons, or without a weapon at all, but with an estimated 270 million guns the hands of citizens (11 facts), if they were the problem we would know it by now. It is undeniable that guns are responsible for a high amount of crime, but we already have tens of thousands of gun laws in the United States (How many gun laws are there?), that haven’t been able to curb gun violence. If the current laws were working, then maybe there would be a reasonable
Written on December 15, 1791 was the second amendment of the constitution. It states that "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."(Cite)? United States citizens have used guns for various reasons that include protection, hunting, and sporting reasons. The topic on gun control is a very complex topic that is discussed daily. It is such a big issue that it has both the democrats and republicans firmly established in their positions. One of the main reasons this has been such an important topic in recent years is because of all the murders and massacres that have happened recently in the United States. As our newly nominated president, Donald
There is one reaction that is always to be expected after a mass shooting, and that is the call for an increase in control. This can be defined in numerous different ways, and can include a great deal of different aspects. People who call for an increase gun control in the wake of mass shootings are, in general, people who believe that more guns means more crimes. Gun control advocates cite studies that state, “Higher gun prevalence is associated with an increase in homicides, and suicides, and possibly even more residential burglaries” (Ludwig 17). Often times, after mass shootings, those in favor of more gun control look to countries like Australia, Canada, Great Britain and Japan, and their strict gun policy and cite this as the direction
Gun rights are the source of much controversy in today’s society. People have been skeptic after the multiple shootings that happened in the past few years. Recently, the NRA has been under constant threat by Congress. Background checks are not effective as planned. In order to keep the gun rights, changes need to be made in order to prevent gun control from being created.
Perhaps raising the age limit to purchase guns since a majority of the recent killers were in their late teens to about late 20’s. Another possible solution is to have those who own guns to always have an ID with them showing that he or she owns a gun. The biggest solution is to lower the amount of guns available in the US to citizens. In David Auerbach’s article “The Gun Debate Won’t be Won With Statistics”, Auerbach makes a comment that “States with more firearm laws tend to have fewer shooting fatalities.” By lowering the number of fire-arms available to the public, that means that less people will be able to have a gun in their home and that results in having a low homicide rate. When purchasing a gun, one feels more powerful knowing that he or she is in possession of a war weapon, if limiting that power one will not feel the need to shoot because of irrational decisions made for having power from owning a gun. Recognizing that states with more gun laws have had less fatalities it is time for the government to set those laws in action all across the United States. As extreme as the idea may sound to some, allowing the government to have control over stricter gun laws in the country is a much better solution than giving Americans even more freedom to allow more guns to civilians. The American society must open their eyes to the positive side of
Is ten rounds enough for self defense? Americans own an estimated 265 million guns – more than one gun for every American adult. In 1992, there was an outburst of violence, which was later called The LA Riots. During this period of violence, there were acts of breaking and entering businesses, assaults, arsons, and murder. Business owners looked up to the police for help, but shockingly, the police were nowhere to be found. Since these actions were too dangerous and outnumbered, police officers had no other choice but to pull back. Having no other option, business owners were left alone to defend themselves and their businesses. They shot unlimited rounds of ammunition into the air with their assault rifles sending a message that they will
Guns have a long history in the United States. Guns are used for self-defense but they are also used for hunting. Since guns are a part of the American culture, it is almost impossible to get rid of all the guns in the country. However, by training people how to use the guns properly, give people the right mental care, and limit the people who can have guns could stop school shootings in America.
Gun safety is a subject that has been a main topic in the past few years among many, especially within politics. It is something that has become a substantial topic in the past few years due to many shootings and accidents that have occurred with today’s youth. It is a topic that needs to be addressed.