Gun Control is not Answer
With the growing gun-related crime rate in the United States today, many bills have been proposed to control guns. The most popular of these bans is The Brady Bill. The bill focuses on semi-automatic handguns. People wishing to buy a handgun will have to answer a federal questionnaire. The person's background will be checked thoroughly for criminal records or records of past mental illness. The process should only take five days. This five day waiting period, or the "cooling off" period, is supposed to allow a person's temper to cool down. The Brady Bill claims that people act on impulse. A person's temper can interfere with his/her ability to think clearly; he/she is angry, so a gun is bought to get revenge. I have no problem with the Brady Bill, because it has stopped crime, but not enough. A bill was passed by former U.S. President George Bush which banned the production of nine types of assault weapons and the importation of forty-three types of assault weapons. Bush felt that assault weapons were responsible for majority of the violent crimes committed in the United States. Field & Stream writer, David E. Petzal agreed with Bush stating that, "Assault weapons are designed to put out a high volume of fire with
Self-defense leads to inexperienced people owning guns, which leads to accidental shootings. Restricting handgun ownership would also reduce crime, because guns are used most often in robberies and murders (Mayer 28). " New York Times 6 June 1994: 13(A). Therefore, gun control is not enough to eliminate crime and violence. Another possibility of reducing crime with out banning semi automatic handguns is to ban the production and sale of clips or magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition. This would also create more room so prisoners would not have to be released before they serve their full sentence. The Gun Control Act of 1968 made it a requirement for all gun dealers to have a federal license. They might go straight to the black market, and not even try to legally obtain a gun. Department of Justice showed that 34% reported that they had been scared off, shot at, or captured by an armed victim; 40% said they had decided to not commit a crime because they thought the victim was armed (Bender 153). As you can see, there is no way this controversy will be easily solved. The study also showed that for every one hundred prisoners with life sentences, twenty-five are freed before their third year; forty-two are out of prison by their seventh year; and people acquitted of murder by reason of insanity only spend an average of five hundred days in a mental institution before they are released (163). " Field & Stream June 1994: 26-27 Simon, Jonathan. A majority of the American people feel that gun control laws will help reduce crime rates because the waiting period would allow time for a person's temper to cool down.
Common topics in this essay:
Control Act,
Gun Control,
Brady Bill,
Department Justice,
David Petzal,
George Bush,
gun control,
Firearms Act,
,
Field Stream,
gun control laws,
control laws,
York Times,
reduce crime,
black market,
assault weapons,
field stream,
semi automatic,
automatic handguns,
brady bill,
person's temper,
semi automatic handguns,
pass gun control,
types assault weapons,
person's temper cool,
|
Acceptance Essays
