| Gun Control |
| At Issue: Gun Bans: All firearm Handguns, "Saturday Night Specials", Assualt weapons Banning certain types of ammunition sales Carrying concealed firearms Child-safety locks on guns. Background Checks & Brady Law Dealer Sales Private Sales Waiting periods for purchasing firearms Mental health checks as part of background check. Registration & licensing of all 65 million handguns in the U.S. Limitations on private resale of firearms Limiting individual buyers to one per month. Permit/limit lawsuits against gun manufacturers for crimes committed with guns In The Far Corners: LEFT Guns are instruments of destruction. Their purpose is to kill or do grievous bodily injury. Prohibit future sales and ban private ownership of firearms. RIGHT Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Under the Second Amendment to the Constitution, we have a right to protect our families and our property. No prohibitions or restrictions on firearm ownership. Overview: In general, only the most radical factions favor no restrictions or controls whatsoever on gun purchase, useage or ownership. Those politicians and parties identified with the right tend to prefer tougher criminal penalties for use of guns during the commission of a crime and more education for the masses in the safe and appropriate use of guns. Some argue that a universally armed citizenry will discourage violent crime. Political parties and politicians indentified more with the left prefer strong regulation and registration, limitations on the number of guns and type of firearms available for sale. Background checks and waiting periods are also favored. The argument here is that the more guns are available, the more they will be used to commit violent crimes. Statistics: 40% of all US homes have guns Number of Guns in the U.S.: Approx. 200 million firearms, 60-65 million handguns The number of fatal firearm accidents among children in 1996 represents a 75% decrease from all the time high of 550 in 1975. (Source: Bureau of Justice) States that had the Brady Act's waiting period imposed upon them had worse violent crime trends thereafter, compared to others states. New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC have very restrictive gun laws but account for 13% of U.S. murders while representing only 5% of the population. States that have right-to-carry laws have lower violent crime and homicide rates on average, compared to the rest of the country. RTC states have a 24% lower total violent crime rate, a 19% lower homicide rate, a 39% lower robbery rate, and a 21% lower aggravated assualt rate, compared to the rest of the country. About 99.8% of firearms and more than 99.6% of handguns will not be used to commit violent crimes in any given year. (Source: FBI data) Analysis: Gun control is one of those rare issues where the extreme right and left tend to meet in a common bottom line: Keep your hands off my guns! The philosophies and reasons for holding this bottom line diverge wildly, but the essential is the belief in the need for the inalienable right of citizens to keep and bear arms. However, most Americans are not on the radical fringe and a remarkably high percentage of those surveyed support some form of gun control. We'd guess that most Americans are, justifiably, afraid of violent crimes. |
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