There have indeed been a number of mass shootings recently, at a theater in Aurora, Colorado and an elementary school in New Town, Connecticut, both by mentally disturbed individuals in states that already have gun control. These types of killers obtain weapons in one form or another, and manage to evade background checks and federal laws that prohibit the sale of weapons to those who are judged likely to injure others—or themselves. It is clearly not the laws that are protecting the public from violent or mentally ill perpetrators, and strengthening gun control laws will not likely have any great effect on people like these.
Opposition to Second Amendment rights, which the Supreme Court have recently upheld, is based on the emotional lobbying and blanket partisanship of gun control supporters and the liberal bias of the urban mass media. On both the state and federal levels, there are already laws requiring background checks and waiting periods for the purchase of firearms, so no new laws are going to have much of an effect. In Congress and the media, there is always a predictably outcry after yet another mentally ill gunman goes on a rampage bit almost always the type of gun control measures demanded are of very limited value and do not even provide for adequate enforcement measures (Sheley 2001). After the most recent school shootings in New Town Connecticut, Obama made a television appearance and declared that gun control was a top priority, but this was after ignoring the whole issue for almost four years. Typically, in the election of 2008 he briefly mentioned that the assault weapons ban should be renewed, but hardly mentioned this again once he was in office (Berger 2011). From time to time, after one of these mass shootings like the one against Rep. Gabriel Giffords and eighteen others in Arizona, he called for more regulations of gun ownership and more background checks, but no legislation passed in Congress (Berger 2011). In the wake of New Town, the assault rifle ban is again up for discussion in Congress, along with limitations magazine sizes and other measures, although these are probably not going to pass either.
This has always been the problem with gun control legislation, which is reactive to certain dramatic events that get a great deal of media coverage, at least until something new distracts public attention again. Both sides engage in a great deal of heated political rhetoric, especially on television, but almost always it is “more about symbolism and less about substance” (Sheley 2001). As usual, the NRA will make the same predictable points that gun ownership is a right and that gun control laws will not deter criminals, although it usually has enough political influence to prevent stricter gun control legislation. In the last thirty years, their only major defeat was with the Brady Bill in the 1990s, and even there the assault rifle ban ended after ten years. Even so, the NRA is correct that guns in the hands of criminals and mentally ill persons are the real problem, not the fact that citizens can obtain these legally (Sheley 2001). Even in guns were banned outright, they would still be brought into the country illegally, but that would still not address the problems of mental illness and high-crime areas (Williams 2012).
Although the liberal media supports gun control overwhelmingly, ownership of weapons is beneficial to society for purposes of self-defense. In the mostly biased media reports “we are inundated with bad news about guns are rarely hear about the benefits” (Lott 16). Most of the media coverage only shows how guns are used by mentally unstable persons in mass shootings, such as in theaters and public schools, because these are the most dramatic new stories. Almost never covered is the fact that guns are used several million times a year to prevent to crimes including rape and murder. In all of these incidents, guns made it “easier for people to defend themselves where few other alternatives are available” (Lott 22). Over 90% of the time, guns are being used to prevent crime, not perpetrate it (Lott 24).
Criminals have always been able to obtain firearms one way or another, although there should be stricter punishments for illegal purchases and use of guns. New state and federal laws that further restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens to own weapons will not stop these kinds of crimes, however, and is simply a violation of their constitutional rights. Instead of gun control, there should be stricter controls on criminals and the mentally ill to prevent them from buying firearms, and stronger police and law enforcement measures in areas that have high levels of gun violence. In addition, the ability of honest citizens to own guns has been a deterrent to violent crime on literally millions of occasions every year in this country.
WORKS CITED
Berger, Judson. “Obama Administration Eyeing Gun Control ‘Under the Radar’ Groups Warn”. Fox News, May 28 2011.
Lott, John R. The Bias against Guns: Why Almost Everything You’ve Heard about Guns Is Wrong. Regnery, 2003.
Sheley, Joe. “At Issue: The Politics of Gun Control”. California State University Sacramento Capital University Journal. Spring (2001).
Williams, Timothy. “Brutal Crime Wave Grips Reservation”, New York Times, February 12, 2012.
