NRA

5 Pages 1179 Words

Gun control has been a big issue since 1981. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan was the target of an attempted assassination, which instead hit the press secretary, James Brady. After this tragedy happened, more legislation on gun control came into congress than had ever been seen before. Out of the most publicized was the Brady Bill, "Known by its full name of The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act." Of these provisions, Act One has stood out to me as possibly being able to solve some of the violence in this country. This provision would require that anyone wanting to purchase a pistol or revolver, since most violence acts are performed with these, would have to go through a seven day waiting period before he or she is able to actually have possession of a handgun or revolver. There are two good reasons why this provision would work. It includes that the seven days would give time for identification or background check to be made the purchase of the gun. This amount of this time also would or possibly give someone time to cool off, assuming they were using it in an act of violence. I believe seven days would be more than enough time for the proper identification to be made on the person who wants to buy the gun. This bill would also require gun dealers to give local police the names, addresses and birth dates of the people seeking to buy a gun. The police would be allowed, but not obligated, to check the backgrounds of these potential customers for criminal or mental health records. I believe that this would cut the use of handguns used in violent acts.
The state of California has had a waiting period put into service, and it seems to have helped or decrease the number of violent crimes throughout the state with guns. Since it is not possible for the FBI computers to be able to keep track of "every criminal case" more than 40 to 60 percent of felony convictions are not immediately accessible by law enforcement authorities. Few crim...