Gun Violence

The United States is the country with the most guns in the world, and as a result the country with the most gun violence in the world. Every year in the United States, more than 100,000 people are the victims of gun violence, according to The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Guns cost roughly $75 in many states, and are eligible to be sold in stores as common as Walmart! While OFFICIALLY guns are required to be registered and the Federal Gov't maintains a 3 day background check, there are loopholes to this system that allow anyone with access to a gun show or a "salesman" can purchase one independently without any intervention from said government. Of 63 Mass Shootings in the US between 1982 and 2012, 49 of the killers acquired their weapons legally. The US Constitution & Bill of Rights were written over 200 years ago, when weapons were slow and required manual reloading. Today, we have weapons that can fire hundreds of bullets a minute and with clips that can contain that number, a future that the founding fathers of our nation neither mentioned nor could presumably fathom. Weapons of that calibre, 200 years ago would've been relegated to fantasy, not something they would specifically note conditions for should they arise. The 2nd Amendment grants citizens the right to bear arms, a right that I believe is worth protecting, but not at the expense of innocent men and women and children.


(Not a reputable firearms dealer!)

Many among the far Right seem to have the idea that the solution to this problem is MORE guns. They contend that if citizens present at the time of any of the myriad tragedies caused by gun violence had access to firearms, they could've prevented more carnage- to which it must be asked, how much more? Must elementary school security guards be armed? With weapons enough to take down a man with fully automatic handguns and rifles? Firearms are readily accessible in today's society, and yet the people in these situations weren't carrying the weapons that COULD have protected them, but definitely actually DID harm them. These men and women believe guns to be the solution to any security concern- even when guns ARE the security concern. Stymying progress in favor of their ill defined (by design) right to bear some kind of weapon, left undescribed, and indeed, undescribable, the founding fathers having OBVIOUSLY been aware of advancing technology. The 2nd Amendment doesn't specifically preclude weapons that these men and women are desperate to protect, because these weapons did not exist at the time of it's writing.


(http://www.justplainpolitics.com/showthread.php?47848-NRA-s-2nd-Amendment)

I believe that gun rights are currently too lax on citizens. US citizens should be allowed to defend their homes and persons, but carrying weapons, some concealed, is more of a threat than it is security. Firearms should be restricted to the home or to those with the proper training to use them, they're far too dangerous to be used in public for anyone to have. Weaponry such as this should be relegated to those who would use it for it's original intent- trained defense. Allowing laymen to have it is a dangerous tempatation that has proven too much for the citizenry.

http://www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/Facts/Gun_Death_and_Injury_Stat_Sheet_3-Year_Average_FINAL.pdf
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/16/16547690-just-the-facts-gun-violence-in-america?lite