Gun Control Definition and Purpose
Gun control, or more specifically, gun control laws, are one of, if not the most popular solution people may talk and debate about to put an end to these mass shooting incidents. The base method of this is to prompt the U.S. government to enforce restrictions on one’s ability to purchase, load, and carry any firearm at any point in time. The goal, however, is not to outright ban the weapons entirely and violate our Second Amendment rights as citizens, but to make it so that people can’t easily acquire their own to intentionally harm innocent people. This in turn will ultimately reduce the rate of which suicides and homicides committed with firearms will occur.
Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws
The results of these laws have come to be a mixed bag as time goes on. Of the many laws passed to affect how accessible purchasing firearms may be, it’s been reported that only a fraction of these barricades are able to produce results in which gun related deaths could be drastically reduced, as much as 80 percent. One of the most effective laws is known as the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act, commonly known as “Brady Law”, which requires federal arms dealers to perform background checks on customers. This alone has allegedly reduced suicides and homicides by up to 40 percent since its passing in 1994. The downside is that this is merely one of a select few laws and regulations that apply to federal licensed firearms dealers, not every U.S. citizen. As of now, there are no restrictions on one’s ability to purchase guns from a private arms dealer, nor are there any background checks performed on the customers in question. Furthermore, the National Rifle Association has expressed the concerns that gun enthusiasts have on these laws and their restrictions. To protect their interests, this organization has made all efforts, from lobbying politicians to protesting, to prevent any more developments in passing these laws, even as these incidents continue to occur. Besides this, people from both sides have argued and debated on the point of gun control laws, one of the most prominent points made being that people will still try to harm other people, no matter what. This among other arguments is also part of what stops the progress of passing these laws in their tracks, as well as Americans’ calls for action against mass shootings and other incidents.
Gun Control in Other Countries, and What the U.S. Can Learn From it
Around the world, policies and restrictions on the overall ownership of firearms are considerably more strict, which in turn produces much lower numbers in statistics on homicides and suicides in comparison to the U.S. One of the most well-known actions taken to reduce gun-related deaths was the 1996 gun buyback program in Australia, where the government forcefully bought back and destroyed over 600,000 firearms for $500 million. This resulted in total deaths by firearms being cut to half of its original numbers by 2006. Most other countries, such as the UK, have normally passed laws in which nearly every firearm is banned entirely from the hands of consumers, and have even instilled rigorous tests and training courses to make it more difficult to obtain such weapons. If such restrictions and actions were to be taken in the U.S., instead of promoting gun ownership and its usage, it is widely predicted that the statistics in gun-related deaths would become substantially lower over time.
Mass Shootings 