Do We Need Gun Control

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Do We Need Gun Control

Gun control, is it a way for government to control people and limit their rights, or is it a way for the government to protect the people from any harm? There are many laws on gun control in the United States alone that are not enforced that could help protect the people of the United States with out taking away the second Amendment Right to bear arms. The Supreme Court has not ruled on the Second Amendment since 1930 and it has repeatedly upheld gun control measures. I feel that if the congress and legislation would take the time and effort to enforce the laws that we have in place now there would be no need to take away the rights and the firearms that responsible gun owners have.

The factors that contribute to the problem of violent gun crimes in the United States is that the deaths that occur by guns are more dramatized by the media than any other weapon. Another problem relating to guns is that the people think that there are not enough gun laws to protect them. That is false, right now there are thousands of federal, state and local gun laws. One of them, which would help society effectively if it was enforced better, is the Gun Control Act of 1968. This act "prohibits persons convicted of, crimes punish-able by more than a year in prison, fugitives, illegal drug users, illegal aliens, mental incompetents and certain other classes of people from purchasing or possessing firearms." It also prohibits mail order sales, the sale of hand guns to anyone under 21, the sale of rifles to anyone under 18 and prohibits the importing of guns. There are also the Brady Law, Assault Weapon Law, and Mandatory Storage Laws.

I believe if these laws were enforced and the criminals would be punished under Mandatory Sentencing as often as used in marijuana arrests there would be less of a problem with gun control. In 1991, 162,000 criminals that were placed on parole instead of being imprisoned committed 44,000 vi...