The Benefits of Stricter Gun Laws

The invention of guns changed the human species and the nature of street crime by allowing humans to easily murder other people by effortlessly aiming a gun and pulling the trigger. Although many people use guns for the productive purposes of hunting animals or protecting their families, guns also enable violent criminals to quickly and conveniently commit murder. As a result, the easy accessibility and convenient availability of guns in America increase the amount of violence that occurs in society and magnifies the number of citizens that are murdered by guns. The US should establish stricter gun laws because the laws would reduce the number of people in society that possess guns, prevent criminal offenders with violent tendencies from easily purchasing guns, and would minimize the amount of gun violence that occurs among citizens.

Americans have traditionally valued and appreciated guns throughout the nation’s history. Puritans valued the superior power of guns as a way to overcome the Native Americans, and then early Americans utilized firearms to fight the British. As a result, the founding fathers established the right to bear arms in the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution. During the 20thth century, gun enthusiasm continued to rise as many US citizens consistently used guns for hunting, protection, and entertainment. Additionally, many Americans have traditionally appreciated guns because of the antique qualities, unique features, and creative designs of different types of guns sold at special gun shows. During the 20th century, the media further intensified America’s passion for guns, as the constant depictions of guns being used to solve problems in various forms of media entertainment implicitly glamorized guns and glorified the entertainment heroes who used guns to achieve immediate gratification (Dizard, Muth and Andrews, 1999). Thus, the positive perception of gun rights being a traditional value of the country and the favorable depictions of gun users in the entertainment media facilitated a culture that is very tolerant and appreciative regarding the concept of guns.

However, America also experienced excessive crime rates during the 20th century, which caused many citizens and organizations in America to perceive a connection between the prevalence of guns and the high murder rates experienced by the culture. For instance, many research studies demonstrate that the gun-related murder rates among American citizens are dramatically and disproportionately higher than the gun murder rates of any other industrialized nation. In 1993, while the country of Canada had experienced 624 murders, the United States conversely experienced 24,000 murders, which is disproportionately high even considering the larger population of the US. Because about 70 percent of those US victims were killed by guns, the study established guns as the unequivocal leading weapon of choice for murders (Dizard, Muth and Andrews, 1999). Additionally, many studies indicate that more people are killed by guns in America in an average week than are killed in all of Western Europe in the average year.

Many experts consider the availability of guns as a primary factor that increases the number of gun homicides in the country. While calculating the exact number of guns on the streets is a difficult challenge because of the lack of gun registration laws, the Federal Bureau of Investigations estimates that approximately 5 million firearms are purchased each year and that about 245 million guns are owned by US citizens (Dizard, Muth and Andrews, 1999). Because most industrialized countries have fewer guns and stricter gun laws than the US, many experts assert that the higher gun homicide rates in America are facilitated by the absent gun control laws that enable all criminals and violent offenders to easily and immediately purchase guns to perpetrate criminal activities. As a result, many legal and criminology experts contend that the lack of gun control laws in America significantly contributes to a severe crime problem in which the US experiences excessive gun homicide rates that are glaringly and disproportionately higher than the rates of any other industrialized nation. Thus, during the 20th century, many American citizens and organizations began asserting that establishing stricter gun laws would help alleviate the crime problems and reduce the number of gun homicides that occur in the country.

Although society began to detect a connection between the lack of effective gun legislation and the high gun homicide rates in America, the government still failed to establish any meaningful gun legislation during the 20th century. The influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) significantly impaired the ability of the government to pass gun control laws. The NRA began advocating for the expansion and maximization of gun rights in 1870, and during the 20th century, the organization became increasingly more powerful and established itself as a very impactful force on political developments. The NRA was able to infiltrate the government with the vast amounts of money that the organizations possessed, the political connections the members established with governmental figures, the ability to help politicians who supported gun rights get elected, and the ability to obstruct politicians who opposed gun rights from getting elected. In turn, the NRA became a powerful organization that typically used money and political connections to influence the government, citing the 2nd amendment to condemn any gun control laws and oversee legislation to ensure that minimal gun control restrictions were implemented into US policy (Dizard, Muth and Andrews, 1999). Thus, despite the excessive gun murder rates in the country, the traditional appreciation of firearms accompanied by the extraordinary political power of the NRA prevented the US government from passing any substantial laws to regulate or reduce gun purchases in the country.

However, the gun law debate was reignited in the 21st century as the consistently high crime rates were compounded with the relatively new phenomenon of mass shootings. In recent decades, the frequent occurrences of mass shootings in America have raised public awareness regarding the lack of gun control laws in the US. Mass shootings refer to instances in which a shooter accesses a public location crowded with innocent and unsuspecting people, begins randomly shooting the gun into the crowd, and kills as many people as possible despite not necessarily having any specific conflicts with the people being killed or with the venue where the shooting is taking place. Shootings with 4 or more victims are considered mass shootings, and the vulnerable and innocent nature of the victims makes the homicides especially deplorable to society. Although other countries experience rare mass shootings, again the rates at which mass shootings occur in the US dramatically exceed the rates of any other industrialized nation. For instance, during the recent decades, America has constantly been shocked and disgusted by frequent stories about new mass shootings occurring in the country, such as shootings in a movie theater, a temple, an army base, a manufacturing facility, a mall, and several schools. Since 2006, the US has experienced 30 mass shooting incidents, the vast majority of which were committed by gunmen who had purchased their firearms legally (Follman and Aronsen, 2014). Therefore, the lack of gun control laws is also contributing to the severe problem in which the US is inflicted with mass shootings at higher and more intense rates than any other nation.

The mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School stimulated contentious debates regarding the lack of gun laws in the US. In December of 2013, a young man entered an elementary school in a suburban neighborhood of Connecticut and randomly began shooting children until 20 kids were murdered, with the ages of most victims averaging from around 6 to 8 years old. The high death count accompanied by the innocent nature and young ages of the victims shocked and appalled the nation. The emphatic response to Sandy Hook caused the public, the media, and government officials to address the issue of gun control laws with a more serious tone than ever before. Additionally, the gun control debate was amplified even more when police revealed that the killer conveniently purchased the powerful firearms that killed 20 innocent children from legitimate gun stores. Thus, the events of Sandy Hook facilitated a fervent national discussion about the implementation of strict gun control laws, the overwhelming majority of citizens demonstrated support for more effective gun laws, and the government attempted to pass new gun legislation through the political system. However, the influence of the NRA and the largely Republican Congress curtailed the progress of the bill and circumvented the legislation from passing. As a result, the so-called “Sandy Hook” gun bill was eliminated, no new federal gun laws were established, and the country was left with the same federal gun legislation as before the Sandy Hook shooting and before the gun debates.

The current gun legislation of the United States consists of gun control laws that are among the weakest of any industrialized country. The futile and ineffective federal gun laws of the US do not require background checks, registration records or gun capacity limitations (Carter, 2002). As a result, the laws fail to sufficiently prevent violent offenders from purchasing guns, limit the types of guns that people can purchase, or provide a reliable method for the government to maintain records and accurately monitor the gun market. Additionally, the government has eradicated the “waiting period” law that previously required all gun customers to wait for a designated period of around 3 days before completing the purchase and officially owning the guns (Carter, 2002). Because the waiting period prevented people from being able to quickly buy guns to immediately commit a crime or harm other people, eliminating the waiting period further reduced the efficacy of federal gun legislation. Thus, high gun homicide rates in the US are significantly facilitated by the weak and ineffective gun laws that do not mandate background check evaluations for customers, establish registration requirements for purchases, or enforce reasonable gun capacity limitations.

Although the federal gun laws are futile compared to most other industrialized nations, individual states are generally permitted to determine their particular gun control laws. As a result, currently, some states have developed relatively strict gun regulations while other states have implemented very lenient gun control laws. This disparity of different gun control laws being established in different states has allowed researchers to study the possible impact that strict laws can have in reducing murder rates among the citizens. A comprehensive study conducted by the Boston Children’s Hospital demonstrated that states which have established stricter gun laws experience distinctly lower incidents of gun homicides compared to other states with more lenient gun laws. According to the study, the homicide rates of states with stricter gun laws were 40 percent lower than the rates of lenient states, and the firearm suicide rates were also 37 percent lower in strict gun law states. For example, Massachusetts and New Jersey have some of the most strict gun laws in the country, and from 2007 to 2010 Massachusetts experienced 3.4 gun-related deaths per 100,000 citizens and New Jersey had 4.9 gun deaths per 100,000 citizens. In contrast, Louisiana and Alaska have among the most lenient firearm laws in the country, and during those years Louisiana experienced 18 gun deaths per 100,000 people and Alaska had 17.5 gun deaths per 100,000 people (Alcindor, 2013). Thus, the study utilizes crime data to indicate that implementing strict gun laws can lead to a decreased firearm homicide rate.

The federal government can establish many gun control laws to help reduce instances of gun-related homicides in the US. Requiring background checks for gun purchases is one of the most crucial laws that the federal government should pass. These checks require gun store owners and government officials to conduct thorough background evaluations on every potential gun customer to determine whether or not each customer has a criminal record, a violent history, terrorist connections, a mental illness, or other circumstances that should prohibit the customer from owning a gun. Currently, there is no federal law requiring background checks, which enables any criminal or violent offender to easily and quickly purchase a gun to commit violent crimes (Benenson and Connolly, 2013). However, mandating background checks would alleviate firearm homicide rates by allowing gun dealers and government agents to share information, conduct evaluations for each customer, and prevent people who have demonstrated violent tendencies or criminal susceptibilities from purchasing guns.

The government can also diminish the excessive homicide rates of the country by strengthening federal registration laws. The lack of adequate gun laws prevents the government from being able to develop a comprehensive national gun registration system, record extensive information regarding gun purchases, or maintain a national database for gun ownership (Carter, 2002). Establishing stricter federal registration requirements for gun purchases can enable the government to more effectively track the distributions of firearms, apprehend criminals, and investigate suspicious situations in which an abundance of firearms or ammunition are being purchased in a short amount of time.

High-capacity magazine restrictions can also help reduce gun homicide rates in the US. High-capacity firearms refer to extremely powerful automatic guns that can rapidly shoot a plethora of bullets to swiftly kill or injure a multitude of people. Currently, gun customers in the US can legally purchase almost all types of high-capacity magazine firearms, including military-style assault weapons (Benenson and Connolly, 2013). Whereas standard pistols or shotguns limit the number of victims that a violent predator or mass shooter can strike, powerful high-capacity magazine guns instead magnify the destruction and maximize the number of victims that a shooter can strike. Thus, prohibiting citizens from owning such powerful and unnecessary high-capacity firearms would reduce the number of people who are murdered during violent shooting incidents.

Many advantages would accompany the implementation of stricter federal gun control laws. Stricter gun laws would decrease the number of emotional conflicts and citizen disputes that result in murder, the number of violent offenders that own guns, and the number of guns circulating the streets. Opponents of gun regulations often contend that gun violence would still exist even with the establishment of increased gun laws. Many other factors besides guns contribute to the excessive rates of violence experienced by the American culture, including the hostile anger permeating through society, the lack of empathy among citizens, and the dramatic economic inequality problem that causes many areas of the country to suffer from a drastic lack of resources and that causes many people in these areas to engage in criminal activities to achieve financial success. Although eliminating any instances of gun violence would be an unfeasible and unrealistic goal, society should still exert intensive efforts to reduce the number of citizens who are victimized by gun violence (Korwin, 2005). Thus, the federal government should pass stricter gun laws because the regulations would reduce and minimize the firearm homicide rates in the country. Additionally, many gun-rights supporters cite the 2nd Amendment to resist any gun legislation. However, gun laws do not violate the 2nd Amendment because the laws allow safe and law-abiding citizens to possess guns while also allowing the government to more effectively track gun ownership, apprehend criminals and prevent violent offenders from using guns to harm others.

Murdering inflicts damage upon the entire American society, for the country loses a valuable life, a family is devastated, and the violence impairs communities with a detrimental atmosphere of fearful distrust. The high firearm homicide rate of the American society is largely facilitated by the weak and insufficient federal gun laws that enable any violent citizen to purchase guns and that impair the ability of government officials to regulate gun transactions. However, passing gun laws regarding background checks, registration requirements, and high-capacity limitations can help provide a safer atmosphere among the various American communities, prevent violent offenders from easily obtaining guns, and minimize the number of people who are murdered by gun violence.

References

Alcindor, Y. (2013, March 7). Study: States with more gun laws have less gun violence. USA Today. Retrieved April 2, 2014, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/07/gun-violence-study-chicago/1969227/

Benenson, J., & Connolly, K. (2013, April 6). Don’t Know Much About Gun Laws. The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/opinion/sunday/dont-know-much-about-gun-laws.html

Carter, G. L. (2002). Guns in American society: an encyclopedia of history, politics, culture, and the law. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO.

Dizard, J. E., Muth, R. M., & Andrews, S. P. (1999). Guns in America: a reader. New York: New York University Press.

Follman, M., & Aronsen, G. (2014, April 2). A Guide to Mass Shootings in America. Mother Jones. Retrieved April 3, 2014, from http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map

Korwin, A. (2005). Gun laws of America: every federal gun law on the books: with plain English summaries (5th ed.). Phoenix, Ariz.: Bloomfield Press.