History Of Gun Control In America

The abusive use of weapons has become an alarming issue. The purchase of weapons has become very popular to create trends among young people. Weapons are considered some of the white weapons that cause the highest number of deaths per year. Alarming cases have been unleashed by their misuse. Unrestricted and for sale in an illegal market, weapons are available to anyone, regardless of age. We must make a stop in this fashion. A gun should be used safely and not be in the hands of a teenager who does not know the danger of misuse. One example of its misuse is the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, which occurred on December 14, 2012. This incident claimed the lives of twenty students of first-graders and six adults, trying to prevent future acts of violence by strengthening gun control laws in the United States. This has been an issue that has been an extremely emotional debate with people from both sides who are not willing to compromise. Arms advocates and critics of the proposed new gun laws argue that these new laws violate our constitutional right to bear arms and our freedom in their use; however, the new laws do not eliminate that right, they simply add minor restrictions in the search to end armed violence. Continuing with gun control laws throughout American history, the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act of 1993 established background checks for gun buyers. This law was passed to ensure that firearms are not sold to people listed in the 1968 regulation. These background checks are only required in sales through authorized distributors, not in sales through private, unlicensed sellers who do not sell firearms as a business, with the exception of certain states. Then, in 1994, a ten-year ban was imposed on the production of nineteen new semi-automatic assault weapons with the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Some of these weapons that were banned include the AR-15, some versions of the AK-47, the Uzi, the MAC-10 and the TEC-9. Along with the ban on these assault rifles, large-capacity ammunition magazines were limited to ten rounds. This ban was lifted in 2004 when it expired and attempts to restore this law failed. In the midst of these gun control laws that regulate the sale of firearms, there have been several laws that protect the rights of gun owners, as well as merchants and arms manufacturers. The Firearms Owner Protection Act of 1986 was passed by Congress amid complaints that the government was abusing its power while enforcing gun control laws. This law restricts the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms from inspecting arms traffickers more than once a year, unless multiple violations have been discovered. This law also prohibits the government from creating a national registry of gun ownership. In 2003, the Tiahrt Amendment was passed that prohibits law enforcement from publishing information to the public about where criminals bought their firearms.

Again in 2005, a law was passed in which arms manufacturers had immunity from civil lawsuits related to firearms crimes; therefore, they would not be responsible for the adverse effects of the weapons they manufacture. This law is called the Law on Protection of Legal Trade in Weapons For the Columbine massacre on April 20, 1999, the murderers bought their weapons at a gun show from an unlicensed vendor, so no background checks were performed. April 16, 2007 was the shooting at Virginia Tech and this shooter obtained a weapon from a licensed arms dealer that should have prohibited purchase. He was able to buy this weapon because his records were never reported to the FBI weapons background check system. Again in Tucson on January 8, 2001, a murderer acted with weapons that he should have forbidden to buy because his records were not in the database either. These considerable gaps in our current background check system must be closed. Thirty-four Americans are killed with guns every day and more than 400,000 Americans have been killed with guns since 1968. During a recent speech this month in Colorado, President Barack Obama brought up the fact that there are 'well-organized' and 'well-funded' defenders of weapons that are installing the public on the meaning of these new proposals. Some people feel that these new laws are violating our constitutional right as Americans to bear arms, when, in fact, the proposed new gun control laws do not prohibit law-abiding citizens from owning firearms. It is expected that the number of weapons that fall into the hands of criminals, as well as the mentally ill, will decrease and violent crime in the United States will decrease. Obama said he respects the Second Amendment and that his proposals for new gun control laws do not imply the registration or confiscation of weapons. Looking at this history of gun control in the US, It is not so difficult that now, in the year 2019, we are proposing to strengthen these laws. The new proposed arms control laws include expanding background checks, banning certain assault rifles and limiting the number of rounds in gun ammunition magazines. There is also a focus on safety in schools and on offering more help to the mentally ill. In addition, the government proposes more severe sanctions for people who buy weapons with the intention of selling them to criminals.