Gun Control

Gun Control in the United States

Every single year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns. Whether it is from suicide, domestic violence, a gang shootout, or an accident, too many Americans have lost loved ones, including too many precious children. Many have had to learn to live with a disability, or help a loved one do what was once effortless.

Gun technology

“If we can set it up so you can’t unlock your phone unless you’ve got the right fingerprint, why can’t we do the same thing for our guns? If a child can’t open a bottle of aspirin, we should make sure that they can’t pull a trigger on a gun.” (President Obama)

A significant number of gun deaths occur every year because someone other than the gun’s owner was handling it – whether it’s a child who finds a gun at home and shoots it accidentally, or the criminals who obtain stolen or trafficked firearms.

The Departments of Defense (DOD), Homeland Security (DHS), and Justice (DOJ) prepared a report outlining a strategy for expediting the real-world deployment of smart gun technology, and those agencies released the report in june 2016. These are the highlights:

  • DOJ and DHS have begun a process to define, for the first time, the requirements that manufacturers would need to meet for federal, state, and municipal law enforcement agencies to consider purchasing firearms with enhanced safety technology. They’ve committed to completing that process by October, and will also identify agencies interested in taking part in a pilot program to develop the technology.
  • DOD will continue to help manufacturers test “smart” firearms under real-world conditions at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center in Maryland. Manufacturers may be eligible to win cash prizes through this program as well.
  • The Federal Government stands ready to assist state and local governments as smart gun technology continues to be developed. In the report, DOJ has indicated that state and local governments could apply certain federal grants to the purchase of new firearms, including those equipped with advanced safety technology.
  • Together, these actions have the potential to jumpstart the development of proven gun safety technologies that can save lives and preserve the effectiveness of our firearms. There is no problem that America’s innovators cannot solve, and we are confident that by focusing the private sector’s attention on smart gun technology, we will unlock life-saving innovations.

DOJ’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) will continue to support a broad range of research to better understand gun violence in our country. For example, NIJ has indicated that it anticipates awarding up to $3 million to support investigator-initiated research to “strengthen our knowledge base and improve public safety by producing findings with practical implications for reducing firearms violence.”

Mental illness

“We’re going to ensure that federal mental health records are submitted to the background check system, and remove barriers that prevent states from reporting relevant information.” (President Obama)

In January 2016, President Obama, while recognizing that individuals with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators, he also made clear that we do need to do a better job of ensuring that those who are already prohibited by law from buying a gun cannot obtain one.

In June 2016, the Social Security Administration (SSA) published a proposed rule to help ensure appropriate information in its records is reported to the background check system about individuals prohibited from buying a gun. The rule would also provide a way for people to seek relief from the federal prohibition on possessing a firearm for reasons related to mental health.

Arms Control Agenda

There is much support for stricter gun control, and there are many arguments as to why the President’s proposal is overreaching. Whether for or against the President’s recently stated objectives, there are some obvious issues that the government will have to deal with before crafting any further gun control laws.

The first most obvious concern will be whether these laws violate the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution. The true import of the 2nd Amendment has been debated whenever gun control laws are proposed. The question becomes, does a citizen’s right to bear arms (and what type of arms?) trump the safety and welfare of other citizens? Will these proposed measures even provide for the greater safety they propose to create? In the Sandyhook Elementary School shooting, the shooter obtained the gun from his mother; increased and improved background checks cannot determine whether a gun obtained by one person, who is able to pass the background check, will be used by another.

A second issue is the failure to create a sufficient database to ensure background checks are thorough. In order to create a federal database of people prohibited from purchasing firearms, states must provide the necessary data. Without complete records, some people who should not be permitted to purchase a gun will slip through the crack. Even though a gun seller does all they are required to do under the law, without proper notification guns may still be sold when they should not be.

Finally, and perhaps most difficult will be to define what constitutes an “assault rifle”. On one side, people advocate that any semi-automatic weapon with detachable magazines and “military” features like pistol grips, flash suppressors and collapsible or folding stocks should be deemed an assault rifle. However, gun advocates state that the term “assault rifle” should be used to describe only fully automatic weapons; they believe that many of the features used to designate “assault rifles”, other than being fully automatic, are merely cosmetic. With such debate over what does and does not constitute an assault rifle, manufacturers may be able to side-step restrictions with minor alterations, much as they did under the 1994 ban.

Whether one sides with the President’s agenda or feels it is overreaching, the above issues will have to be dealt with in order to ensure any legislation that is written fulfills its intended purpose: help to prevent further gun violence while maintaining the rights of United States’ citizens. The legislation will have to be drafted to be very specific, and cooperation by all states will be required. The government cannot prevent all acts of gun violence as no system will be perfect, but the government must also exercise caution in creating a law which has no real effect or overly violates citizens’ rights.

Author: Paul Venard

Further Reading

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Further Reading about Militia, National Rifle Association, National Guard, National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice, Special interest politics, Public institutions and Gun ownership

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Gun Control

United States Constitution

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled GUN CONTROL”Gun control” is a constitutional issue because of the second amendment : “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.” Does this rather oddly phrased language place genuine constraints
(read more about Constitutional law entries here).

Some Constitutional Law Popular Entries

Gun Control: Other Gun Control Efforts

Introduction to Gun Control

Most attempts to reduce gun proliferation have relied on governmental regulation. However, in the late 1990s gun control advocates attempted to use financial sanctions, rather than regulation, to minimize gun violence. Several cities filed lawsuits against gun manufacturers and distributors, arguing that gun dealers should pay for the cities’ increased costs of law enforcement and health care resulting from gun violence. Some of these lawsuits, such as those filed by Chicago, Illinois, and Bridgeport, Connecticut, alleged that gun manufacturers acted negligently (not carefully enough) when marketing and distributing their products.

The cities contended that gun manufacturers oversupplied gun dealers in areas with weak gun restrictions, knowing that individuals from areas with tougher laws would purchase the guns. Other cities, such as New Orleans, Louisiana, and Atlanta, Georgia, used a different approach in lawsuits against gun makers. These cities alleged that gun makers failed to include sufficient safety devices in their handguns, making the guns “unreasonably dangerous” and increasing gun violence and the cities’ costs to address the violence.

Gun manufacturers and other opponents of gun restrictions objected to the cities’ lawsuits, claiming the suits would unfairly bankrupt gun makers who were operating legal businesses. They argued that gun makers and dealers should not be blamed for misuse of their products. Opponents of the litigation lobbied for legislation prohibiting lawsuits that attempt to hold gun manufacturers and distributors liable for the results of gun use, and several state legislatures adopted such a statute. Members of the U.S. Congress also introduced federal legislation on the matter.

In another new strategy, in 1999 gun control advocates began efforts to subject gun manufacturers to federal product-safety regulations. For example, lawmakers introduced federal legislation that would eliminate the gun industry’s exemption from product-safety regulation and give the U.S. Department of the Treasury authority over design, manufacture, and distribution of guns. Industry representatives and gun enthusiasts objected to federal regulation, stating that existing design standards that the gun industry had voluntarily adopted made guns sufficiently safe.

To reduce the threat of continued litigation, some gun manufacturers have begun to consider self-imposed changes in their manufacturing and business practices. In 2000 one of the largest handgun manufacturers in the United States, Smith & Wesson, agreed to changes in its handgun design and distribution. Under the terms of the agreement with federal, state, and local governments, the company pledged to include child-safety locks on all of its handguns, to design new guns with a safety device that would prevent them from being fired by unauthorized users, and to implement a feature that would allow users to tell whether a handgun is loaded. In return, several states, cities, and counties agreed to drop Smith & Wesson from lawsuits they had filed against gun manufacturers and to exempt the company from future lawsuits.

In 2004 the gun control lobby claimed a major victory when a gun manufacturer and a retail gun store agreed to pay $2.5 million in damages for gun-related violence. The payments went to relatives of six victims of sniper attacks that were carried out by two men in 2002, and to two survivors of the attacks. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence brought the lawsuit against Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. of Windham, Maine, and Bull’s Eye Shooter Supply in Tacoma, Washington. In agreeing to the settlement, Bushmaster denied any wrongdoing.” (1)

The United States Gun Control Laws

This text summarizes gun control laws in the United States; including information on firearms the United States legislation and conditions or requirements for gun ownership bans in the United States.

Resources

Notes and References

Guide to Gun Control

About U.S. Federal Departments

Federal Departments, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense (including Department of Defense Purpose, Department of Defense Organization, Department of Defense Liaison of Command and Department of Defense Supporting Agencies), Department of Education, Department of Energy

(including Department of Energy Purpose, Department of Energy Organization and Department of Energy Research and Development), Department of Health and Human Services (including Department of Health and Human Services History and Department of Health and Human Services Agencies and Services), Department of Homeland Security (including Department of Homeland Security Organization and Functions, Department of Homeland Security Origins and Department of Homeland Security Supporting Agencies), Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice (including Department of Justice Functions, Department of Justice Structure and Department of Justice Associated Agencies), Department of Labor, Department of National Defence, Department of State (including Department of State Administration and Department of State Bureaus), Department of the Air Force, Department of the Army, Department of the Interior (including Department of the Interior Functions and Department of the Interior Principal Agencies), Department of the Navy, Department of the Treasury, Department of Transportation, Department of Veterans Affairs (including the Department of Veterans Affairs Service Categories, Department of Veterans Affairs Benefits Available and GI Bill of Rights) and Department of War.

Gun Control in the Criminal Justice System

This section covers the topics below related with Gun Control :

Crime

Public Order Offenses in relation with Gun Control

Weapons Violations

Crime

Violent Crime

Gun Violence

Resources

See Also

  • Crime
  • Public Order Offenses
  • Weapons Violations
  • Crime
  • Violent Crime
  • Gun Violence

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