Introduction
There is abundant evidence that the United States government should take action on problems such as the number of handguns and automatic weapons in circulation around the country. It is important that gun owners register their weapons in order to control the problem of gun-related killings and violence. The United States has repeatedly and steadily reduced the funds for public agencies that manage gun control and that monitor gun-related laws. American policies, politicians, and pro-gun supporters approach the situation from such opposite perspectives that all discussions about gun control legislation seem to devolve into hysterical rhetoric. Many countries around the world have commenced gun control legislation. However, in the United States almost nothing has been done officially to reduce unregistered gun ownership and sales (Cook & Jens, 2014). America Today Gun control is possibly the most antagonistic problems in the America today. The gun control argument is ongoing between pro-gun supporters and gun control supporters. The positions of these two sets of people are almost completely opposite. The pro-gun supporters refuse to negotiate in any way and the pro-regulation lobby has completely different agendas. This causes a large number of proposals to be dismissed before they can be worked into policy or actual law. The problem is the media campaigns, “to the extent that data rather than rhetoric are brought to bear in public discourse on gun problems, they consist of counts of injuries and deaths, rather than broader measures of effects on society and standards of living” (Cook & Jens, 2014, p. 74). Gun-control supporters often complain that too many people own forearms without permits. The ease of getting firearms in the United States intensifies the problem of mass shootings, murders, and suicides. Gun related killings are the main motivator for gun-control groups (Soraghan, 2000). The pro-gun lobby on the other hand is offended by the idea that any type of restriction should be placed on firearm ownership. They claim that gun laws will not reduce mass shootings, murders, or suicides. The pro-gun lobby additionally and regularly claims that any laws restricting gun ownership are violations of the constitutional rights of America citizens (Webster, 2014).
Democrat versus Republican Democrats tend to be supportive of policies and laws that increase controls and regulation of firearms. In many cases, it is Democrats who are against the easily obtained permits to carry concealed weapons in public locations and schools. The pro-gun lobby is largely Republican. They are against increasing laws and even against existing laws that attempt to regulate gun ownership (Moorhouse et al, 2006). The pro-gun Republicans maintain a steady rhetoric about the Second Amendment of the Constitution. That is the right to bear arms clause. According to scholars, “In spite of extensive recent discussion and much legislative action with respect to regulation of the purchase, possession, and transportation of firearms, as well as proposals to substantially curtail ownership of firearms, there is no definitive resolution by the courts of just what right the Second Amendment protects” (Baldrige, 2009, p. 48). However, the NRA argues that this clause gives American citizens the right to carry concealed firearms in public places. There have been many studies that show that the rate of gun possession is related to the rate of homicide (Moorhouse et al, 2006). However, the reason these two groups cannot negotiate or compromise is because the pro-gun lobby does not believe that mass shootings and gun violence are reason enough to pass laws against firearms. Republican frontrunner for president in the 2016 election in the United States has a post on his campaign website, “Protecting Our Second Amendment Rights Will Make America Great Again” (Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., 2016). Trump claims that U.S. Constitution and the Second Amendment state categorically that people have a right own firearms and that no law should step on those rights. Trump claims that the Second Amendment promises Americans that they can have guns at will. He states that gun ownership is the way Americans protect their rights and that it is the way people have always been able to defend themselves against their enemies (Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., 2016). After that forward, Trump goes on to state that the laws that are already in existence should be enforced (Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., 2016). This is part of the problem. The laws that regulate guns in the United States are fragmented and they vary hugely between localities. Some states enforce a variety of gun-control laws and gun manufacturing laws. There are also regulations and laws about gun ownership and gun sales (Baldrige, 2009). Even though some cities and states have closely regulated policies and legislation concerning gun sales and ownership, others have very few laws. California has the strictest gun-control laws in the nation but their neighbor state of Arizona has some of the most lenient. Therefore, the problem of regulation and enforcement continues (Esposito et al 2014). Hillary Clinton is the frontrunner for the Democrats and she has promised to increase the laws requiring background checks to buy firearms. Other claims from the Hillary Clinton campaign include tougher international laws to stop reckless gun dealers and manufacturers from bringing weapons into the United States. She is also against allowing people with violent criminal records, people convicted of domestic violence, and the mentally ill from owning weapons (Hillary for America, 2016). The NRA The National Rifle Association (NRA) has such extensive outreach and such a huge membership that they have a huge budget with which to lobby against gun control. Around the United States, people embrace guns as hobbies and are determined to make sure their children grow up liking guns too. In 2014, for example, parents took their 9-year-old daughter to an NRA-approved gun range so she could learn to shoot a machine gun (McGee & Santosaug, 2014). Not surprisingly, the little girl was not strong enough to handle the Uzi submachine gun her instructor handed to her. During her lesson, she lost control over the gun and started firing, hitting and killing her shooting instructor. For some reason, like all senseless killings and even in bizarre situations like this one, the NRA claims accidents happen. The NRA maintains that this and other incident like it have nothing to do with gun policy. The NRA made the same statements later in 2014 when an 8-year old little boy was handling a loaded 9-millimeter Uzi and shot himself to death by accident (McGee & Santosaug, 2014). In all of the cases like this, the NRA states that the deaths have nothing to do with gun control. The NRA also states that there should be no law restricting children from having firearms. However, the point is that the NRA has helped to foster such an enthusiastic and frenzied pro-gun culture, that parents are deliberately training their children to use guns (McGee & Santosaug, 2014). The NRA has invoked the Nazi Holocaust against Jews as if NRA members were being threatened in the same way Jews were persecuted during World War II. They had a famous actor as a spokesman who “ officially began a crusade to defend gun rights and frontier masculinity, battling gun control advocates and liberal culture war foes” They had speakers representing the right to own guns like a right to religious freedom “ casting gun rights as a religious and moral imperative. “ I remember when European Jews feared to admit their faith. The Nazis forced them to wear yellow stars as identity badges. So,” Heston questioned, “what color star will they pin on gun owners’ chests?” (Melzer, 2009, p. 34). Proposals for Resolution Some propose handling the gun control problem by connecting to gun control movements worldwide. According to these activists, that would enable lawmakers to increase regulations that reduce the number of gun owners overall. By working with the international gun control community, people in the United States could move away from the Republican versus Democrat debate and the U.S. Constitution debate and focus on expert international opinions that increase public safety overall. Many see this as a way to coordinate a campaign to halt the problem of mass shootings (Stone, 2002). International Manufacturers By waging a more broad campaign that makes international firearms manufacturers more accountable, they may be a way to slow gun sales in the United States. This would be a larger group that could oppose the NRA and others at the international level rather than endlessly debating the topic in America and making little headway. One of the ways this would work would be by sharing facts, data, and information about the arrest records of people who have committed violent crimes. That way, people would not be able to go online, for example, and easily avoid gun laws in California, for example, by buying a gun from Arizona or China. must be disseminated internationally so that background checks are complete. This type of a data sharing would let United States authorities protect people better because they could monitor people who are attempting to buy guns from other states or from outside the country (Stone, 2002). Buybacks Gun buybacks have been proposed and have been tried at various times in history. They seem to have limited effects, however buybacks certainly take some guns off the street, and they certainly do not increase the chance of shootings (Leigh & Neill, 2010). If these types of campaigns are going to be effective, they need to have the support of community members. Unfortunately, whenever a buyback campaign is attempted, fanatical pro-gun activists swamp the effort with hate rhetoric. The frightening rhetoric of some over-zealous gun-owners scares not only gun law supporters by also makes it difficult to have a sensible conversation gun control laws (Leigh & Neill, 2010). International airports are apparently a place where it is common for people to misuse their carry-concealed weapons permits. There are many concealed-carry laws that need to be more energetically enforced. Anyone who is possession of a concealed-carry permit should be made to renew those permits regularly and they should be subject to international regulations (Moorhouse et al, 2006).
2016 U.S. Presidential Election The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign has come out in favor of increasing security at international airports. This would be a measure that would stop military-type firearms and weapons from being imported to the United States or from being exported. Military assault weapons such as machine guns and other automatic and semi-automatic weapons would not be street legal under her plan. These weapons, according to Clinton, are not only a danger to public safety they are also a danger to law enforcement. The Clinton campaign has promised to ban assault weapons for personal use, and this could be a huge election year issue. Clinton also wants to stop international parcel services from being the vehicle by which people evade international gun-control laws (Hillary for America, 2016). Candidate Hillary Clinton is actually the only candidate who is taking a big stand on gun control laws. Trump and the Republicans mostly just cite the Second Amendment and leave the discussion alone. Clinton has confronted the NRA pro-gun lobby directly and their rhetoric against her as President is virulent. Clinton has joined with many groups in favor of increasing gun laws including the Mothers of the Movement Coalition which is a group of women whose children or grandchildren have been the victims of “gun violence, police and racially charged incidents” (Bauerlein, 2016, p. 1). What Clinton is trying to do is unite loosely linked groups like this one that represent people whose lives have been affected by mass shootings and by reckless gun violence. It is interesting that Clinton is willing to confront the NRA in this way because other candidates are usually overwhelmed by the incredible publicity the NRA manages to muster. Clinton has become dedicated to her stance against the NRA and consistently states that she will increase laws that enlarge background checks and she will pass legislation against swamp meet style gun show where sales are often cash or credit card with limited background checks (Bauerlein, 2016). The NRA has criticized Clinton’s stance on the mentally ill owning guns. The problem of mental illness is interesting especially in light of the fact that several young men who have committed mass shootings and mass murders plead insanity. It seems strange just based on those events that the NRA would be against banning mentally ill people from having weapons. In addition, in many cases, these people have large caches of weapons and there is no legal point to having stockpiles of forearms in the United States. After all of these mass killings there are “task-force hearings, legislative debates, and difficult private conversations” (Webster, 2014, p. 17). However, nothing is resolved at the legislative level. Conclusion The international gun control lobby and the gun control lobby in the United States must work together to set up laws and check points in order to control firearms. Because the NRA has now made gun ownership a cause and now has international groups and lobbies, the United States control lobby needs to match it with equal force. The NRA uses feverish and illogical arguments that actually work well (Levs, 2013). Therefore, people in favor of gun control laws must cooperate better. There needs to be more organization and more widespread networks of data available. Gun control laws need to be passed that are coherent and that apply across federal levels, because the state laws are so loose and differ so greatly. Americans who have been exposed to mass shootings and random killings must have some kind of coherent program to regulate firearms in eth United States.
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