Welcome to Trigger Happy: Gun Control in the United States, the Civic Issues blog where I will be discussing the importance of understanding the current gun control (or the lack thereof) climate that our nation is enveloped in. This is a particularly opportunistic time
to discuss it, as the elections are moving closer, and each candidate
has his or her stance on the issue (81% of Americans say that gun control is an important issue to help determine which candidate to vote for). However, each candidates stance will be in later post. We must first understand the issue completely to form our own options before we can back someone else's. To move forward, we must first go back. Why is this issue so prevalent in our society today? Firearms have been around since their creation in 1364, although the automatic handguns most seen today weren't invented until 1892. Since that time, guns have only become more advanced, and subsequently more dangerous. Our military currently uses M16A2 Rifles most frequently, with almost every solider in the combat zone equipped with one. These guns can shoot up to 45 rounds per minute when in semiautomatic mode, to a distance up to 800 meters. However, this is not the most deadly firearm in the military, that is reserved to the DSR-Precision DSR 50 Sniper rifle.
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| Via World Defense Review |
What about regular people then? The military has access to, and utilize, some of the most destructive weapons in the world, but the majority of gun violence cases in the United States do not occur with military grade weapons. Country wide, the percentages of types of gun ownership are divided by these statistics; 58 percent own pistols, 63 percent own shotguns and 59 percent own rifles. However, The most common civilian gun is the Colt AR-15 rifle. According to industry figures, almost 1 in 5 guns sold in the U.S. are the semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle. Not suprisingly, it is also the weapon of choice in most mass shooting that have overtaken our nation, which I will discuss in a later post.
Every American has a right to bear arms, as stated in 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". However, the current debate is questioning if the pros of owning a gun outweigh the cons, which would be the increase in mass shootings.
Oddly enough, which all the tension brewing between pro and con supporters, there has not been a Supreme Court case to address it. Actually, the last case brought to the Supreme Court pertaining to infringement of the second amendment was in 1939, in a case called "U.S. vs Miller". The case addressed the unconstitutionality of the 1934 National Firearms Act, which imposes a excise tax on the manufacturing and transferring of specific firearms, and mandates that those firearms must be registered. Also, all transfers of ownership of registered NFA firearms must be done through the federal NFA registry, and permanent transport of NFA firearms across state lines by the owner must be reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This act was put into effect following the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929, and the attempted assassination of president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. The Supreme court ruled in favor of Miller, who had brought this case to the Court because he had been arrested for illegally transporting firearms under the NFA. They said that he had the right to transport his guns without notifying the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, since they were not technically military grade, which would have prohibited him from moving them.
This case, although it was a long time ago, still effects how people view gun laws today. In the next few posts, I will address every aspect of gun control in the United States, from the increase in gun violence to each side's argument.
