Hello fellow readers!
Ever since the Sandy Hook shooting, there has been a large amount of debate in Congress regarding whether or not America should have stricter gun controls. No one could avoid the heated debate. During the Spring semester of 2013, I was taking a Firearms and Marksmanship class at the community college I attend, and part of the class involved going to an actual firing range. Every time I was there, not only would I see a large amount of people firing their pistols and shotguns at targets in the shooting range, but also quite a lot of people glancing at the weapons for sale. My guess was that this possibly occurred because a lot of people thought Congress would try to impose tight restrictions on weapons to the point where no one would be able to posses a fire arm at all. The professor for the class (who was a former DEA firearms instructor) said that people were just getting paranoid. Today I will discuss the views of gun control for the two main political parties, starting with the democrats.
While the Democrats believe everyone has the right to bear arms, they also believe there should be stricter background checks for purchasing firearms, prevent the sale of assault rifles, and cancel the gun show all in all ("Democratic Party on Gun Control"). To me, this is a complicated issue. I do believe that there should be stricter background checks. With tighter background investigations, it will allow sellers to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of those who wish to seek harm upon others. Background investigations are also a good way for tracking down those accused of murder. For example, if the police arrested someone for murder and the firearm was not registered to the murderer, forensics would be able to trace the serial number on the weapon to the person who had illegally sold the weapon.
Regarding the prevention of assault rifles or gun shows is something that doesn't make much sense. If a group of thieves armed with illegally purchased assault rifles were approaching some one's house (for the sake of argument, say this home owner is 100 percent mentally healthy), and all the home owner had was a pistol and few magazines, he/she would not stand a chance of defending their property due to the proposed ban on rifles and the limited amount of magazines a customer can purchase. If the home owner was allowed to carry a rifle with no limitations on the amount of magazines available for purchase, then he/she would be able to defend himself/herself until the police arrive.
This post was not intended to discredit the Democrats in any way, just to show the pros and cons of their proposal on gun control laws. Next, I will discuss the Republican's views on this issue.
"Democratic Party on Gun Control." On The Issues. Jesse Gordon, 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
You make some great points here--not all crimes are committed with registered weapons. But what if criminals stole those registered weapons? There would be a track, at least, on multiple crimes.
ReplyDeleteOne of the bigger issues, I think, is gun safety. It seems as if each week on the news (see, for example, http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/09/heroic-teen-16-and-toddler-3-killed-in-accidental-shootings-a-day-apart-in-indy-area/) we hear reports of children killed accidentally. I do think background investigations can only go so far, as you suggest. Maybe the issue is even bigger: who do we trust in America? At what risk?
I think you are doing a stellar job of discussing the issues--there is no need to be worried that you offend different political parties, especially with such measured discussion.