Gun Laws Pros And Cons

Imagine being forced to crawl and hide with gunshots near your ears. Imagine seeing people shot to death in front of you. Believe it or not, scenes like these occur on a daily basis in America. In the first 320 days of this year there were 325 mass shootings in the nation, defined as where there were more than four victims at each shooting. (Mass Shooting Tracker). This egregious level of violence is unacceptable in a developed country and major reform in gun legislation to improve the tragic state of public safety in the United States today. Although critics of expanded gun legislation incorrectly argue that easier access to guns increases safety and that gun laws are unconstitutional, it is imperative that America adopts stronger gun control legislation because heightened regulations reduce crime rates and have successfully improved public safety in other developed countries. In a country like the United States, no one

In the dissenting opinion of the court case DC vs. Heller, which struck down bans on handguns, former Supreme Court Justice John Stevens wrote that the Second Amendment was “a response to concerns raised during the ratification of the Constitution that the power of Congress to disarm the state militias and create a national standing army posed a threat to the sovereignty of the several States” (DC vs. Heller). The Second Amendment was intended to provide a state militia made up of citizens, not to guarantee civilian access to guns. Opponents of gun control who claim that the Second Amendment guarantees an unlimited right to bear arms do not consider that the bill was written in a different era of America, when the idea of a centralized military was new and states still fended for themselves. In both the modern and historic context, unlimited gun rights are not at all