Semi-automatic weapons should be banned for civilians in the United States because they are designed primarily for killing a lot of people in a short time, because there are too many guns in this country, and because assault weapons are the weapon of choice for mass shootings of innocent bystanders.
Assault weapons are military weapons, designed pretty much exclusively for killing people. Because of that, civilians should not own them. In the United States, the most common type of assault weapon owned by civilians is the semi-automatic weapon. Fully automatic weapons, which fire continuously when the trigger is held down, have been strictly regulated since 1934. Semi-automatic weapons, which reload automatically but fire only once when the
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Australia did it. In 1996, Australia had a horrific mass shooting, the Port Arthur massacre, where 35 people were killed by a gunman, Martin Bryant, using semi-automatic weapons. The Prime Minister of Australia at the time, John Howard, said of the massacre, “We have an opportunity in this country not to go down the American path.” Then he led the country into radically changing Australia’s gun laws, enacting some of the most comprehensive firearm laws in the world. Less than two weeks after Port Arthur, all six Australian states agreed to ban semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, set up a 28-day waiting period and thorough background checks, and made a requirement that a person wanting to own a gun present a “justifiable reason.” Self-protection is not accepted as a justifiable reason. They also set up a buy-back program. In 19 years after the laws were passed, about 1 million semi-automatic weapons--about one third of Australian firearms -- were sold back to the government and destroyed. The comprehensive firearm laws worked. Mass shootings dropped in Australia from 11 in the decade leading up to 1996 (which is actually pretty tiny compared to the 372 mass shootings in the United States in 2015) to zero in the years since. Zero. Homicides and suicides are also down, though the rules were designed to deal specifically with mass shootings
Since Martin Bryant’s massacre on Port Arthur, the legal system in Australia is amended and reformed gun laws to create a more effective legislation. Gun-related deaths have since been drawn to more efficient attention in Australian psyche, whilst the issue of gun-laws on a global level still remains as a conspiracy in many countries. The massacre left the Australian nation in shock, with a heavily involved attitude on behalf of local and national police, and thousands devastated at the aftermath. The legislation of gun-laws and amendments continues to be controversial, with punishments including Bryant’s being one of popular debate, and the general ownership and use of guns causing conflict within the interrelationship of the legal system and society.
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...
Assault weapon control is becoming an unavoidable topic in the United States. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation more than nine hundred people have died from mass shootings in the past seven years and an assault rifle was used in twelve of the forty-three mass shootings in the past four years. The U.S. Department of Defense has long defined assault rifles as fully automatic rifles used for military purposes. The National Firearm Act of 1934 prohibited fully automatic weapons in the United States. The 1994 Assault Weapon Ban prohibited semi and fully automatic weapons and any weapon with military style characteristics. California Senator, Dianne Feinstein, is leading the charge in the American government to pass a bill that will limit the capacity of ammunition in a magazine and ban assault weapons that are too dangerous for public use. It is time for the American government to act swiftly and acknowledge the dangers assault rifles pose.
The word assault means to make a physical attack on someone, but how does a weapon with the purpose to provide food for your family become classified as an assault weapon? If a weapon is used to assault another person is it then classified as an assault weapon, or is it still just a weapon used to bring harm to someone? The classification of an assault gun should be changed.
Since 1996 Australia’s number of gun related deaths has decreased from 634 people a year to 226, which is a drop of 63%. This huge drop in gun related deaths is due to new legislation which was put in place due to the Port Arthur massacre where Martin Bryant cruelly killed 35 people and injured 23. This new legislation involved a gun buy-back scheme where people who owned now illegal guns were paid compensation and their firearms were taken and destroyed. Over a period of 7 years, the government bought and destroyed 660,959 fire-arms. This legislation has proved to be highly successful as for the past two decades gun-related deaths in Australia have dropped by 63%.
Gun-control laws are a very controversial topic right now in the U.S., especially when it comes to allowing concealed-carry holders on college campuses. Nevertheless, guns should be permitted for concealed carry on college campuses if the carriers have concealed-carry licenses because mass shootings occur mostly in gun-free zones. There have been many incidents in which concealed-carry holders have disarmed attackers, and concealed-carry holders are overwhelmingly law-abiding citizens. However, the argument’s opponents believe guns should not be allowed on college campuses for various reasons, including: professors might be afraid to issue bad grades, a gun may go off by accident, college
Taking privileges away from the majority of mentally stable, healthy, hard working Americans just because a percentage of alcoholics, drug addicts, gang members, and mentally ill individuals are to blame for the school shootings, murders and suicides, would just be insane. So, why is the government trying to implement more strict gun laws for the people that don't do these heinous crimes. The debate on if the government should take the guns away from all the citizens in order to stop these crimes would not stop those who are committing the crimes in the first place. Then, the question would be, how would we know who really has the guns and where they are?
Assault weapons have been labeled as the number one source for mass killings in America. The idea that a weapon can fire a large amount of bullets at a remarkable speed can be used for recreational use was thought of otherwise. This type of weaponry was made for one reason and that is to eliminate as many people as possible and accomplish it in a reasonably fast time. The problem is everywhere and to help control the issue the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is the nation’s largest organization dedicated to enacting and enforcing gun...
Due to gun laws being put in place in countries such as England and Australia, we find that gun killings do not occur as often, as America. From the statistics of gun murders in Australia compared to the US, I can acknowledge that gun laws do completely make a difference. Australia in 2011, encountered 187 firearm murders. This seems a lot, but compared to the US, who had 8,583 firearm murders, Australia’s seems minimal. This is due to a gun law being put in place, to try to stop firearm murders.
Justin King once stated that “The UK enacted its handgun ban in 1996. From 1990 until the ban was enacted, the homicide rate fluctuated between 10.9 and 13 homicides per million. After the ban was enacted, homicides trended up until they reached a peak of 18.0 in 2003. Since 2003, which incidentally was about the time the British government flooded the country with 20,000 more cops, the homicide rate has fallen to 11.1 in 2010. In other words, the 15-year experiment in a handgun ban has achieved absolutely nothing”. The United Kingdom tried a 15 year ban of guns and all it did was increase the rate of crimes. From 1990 until the ban was put into work the homicide rate went from 10.9 to 13 per million. After the ban was there for a while the homicides reached to 18.0 in 2003. In the same year the UK flooded the country with over 20,00 cops so the homicide rates would decrease. John R. Lott, Jr., PhD, gun rights activist, once said that "The problem with such [gun control] laws is that they take away guns from law-abiding citizens, while would-be criminals ignore them”. While the country takes its time to check and take away every gun that is legal and ignore the fact that just like there are legal guns there are illegal guns as well. Taking away the legal gun would be like unarming everyone to be useless when the time to defend themselves comes.
The second amendment 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.” This means that citizens have a right to bear arms, but since this amendment is not very clear there is some controversy. Many people argue that there shouldn’t be assault weapons because they are too powerful, or that this amendment was not intended to allow high powered assault weapons. There are many reasons on why assault rifles and large magazines should not be banned in the United States, including protection, defense, and past bans have not been effective.
1966, Charles Joseph Whitman climbed to the top of the iconic clock tower in the center of Texas University in Austin and killed sixteen and seriously injured thirty of his fellow Texas Longhorns. 1991, George Hennard, thirty-five, opened fire on forty innocent patrons at a Luby’s in Killeen, Texas, killing twenty-three of his intended targets. 1999, citizens in a small Colorado County of Douglas were distraught when the infamous Columbine High School massacre rocked their town. More recently, campuses like Virginia Tech, Purdue, and even an elementary school in Connecticut have had students and teachers brutally murdered at the hands of young adults (CNN).
43 of 50 states do not require permits in order for individuals to purchase guns. However, statistics show that these states have higher rates of firearm assaults (Pappas). In addition, proper background checks are not conducted on those making the purchase (Teen Vogue). This is significant because perpetrators look for the easiest way to let out their aggression, and complete the task efficiently. With a majority of states providing such easy access to this weapon, the main method of attack can easily be established. If the American Government improves this single factor, it is guaranteed that there will be improvement. In fact, this adjustment has been proved successful in Australia. In the 18 years before the Port Arthur tragedy of 1996, there were 13 gun massacres that occurred (Datz). The Government recognized that there was a fault in the system, and so, a mandatory buyback of all semi-automatic long guns was ordered. Alongside, laws regarding purchase of firearms were modified to be more effective (Datz). In the 20 years since then, there have been zero mass shootings. However, this is an action the American Government is unable to perform, resulting in more frequent reoccurrences. In conclusion, mass murders are rising, and will continue to rise, because of insufficient implementation of gun safety
Over the past year, the United States has been plagued with controversy in regards to gun control legislation. On January 24, 2013, Senator Feinstein introduced the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013. The Assault Weapons Ban was a bill written to stop the acts of sale, transfer, importation, and manufacturing of military styled weapons. The NRA-ILA website quotes an excerpt of Feinstein’s bill, which states, “Feinstein’s new bill are as follows: Reduces, from two to one, the number of permitted external features on various firearms. The 1994 ban permitted various firearms to be manufactured only if they were assembled with no more than one feature listed in the law. Feinstein’s new bill would prohibit the manufacture of the same firearms with even one of the features.” (NRA-ILA) Wayne Lapierre, Executive Vice President of the NRA, said in 2009, “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the guns you want to ban and you don’t want to ban. You’re going to ban these semi-autos, and then it’s going to be handguns, and then it’s going to be pump shotguns.” Lapierre’s statement supports the fact that the recent gun ban legislation across the United States will not solve the problem of increased violence.
Hartigan, Pamela, and Elaine Lammas. "Gun Control." Encyclopedia of Public Health. Ed. Lester Breslow. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. 511-513. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 May 2014.