The debate on gun control has become an increasingly routine debate. The Washington Post states that “advocates of tighter restrictions on firearms invariably call for better background checks, banning large ¬capacity magazines and other measures that would make gun deaths less likely. Gun zealots answer that even the most common-sense reforms aren’t relevant because they wouldn’t have prevented the mass shootings that keep horrifying the nation. The forces of “no” keep Congress from acting”. FBI Director James B. Comey argues that the government did not do enough in preventing Dylan Roof, a 21 year old racist who used a .45 caliber pistol to attack of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church from a South Carolina. He states
…show more content…
He goes on to say that “the fact that guns are shockingly efficient killing machines that no responsible government would ignore. Even if better gun laws wouldn’t prevent every rampage or end street crime, they would certainly cut down on gun deaths from all sorts of causes by making it tougher to obtain and use firearms illegally”. There is also the possibility that even if more effective background check system was in place and Roof was denied the sale of the .45 caliber pistol it does not make certain that he would not obtain the firearm in some other way. But, as Comey points out “What’s clear is that it didn’t have to be so simple for him. The country should have tried harder to stop him — and should be trying harder to stop the other Dylann Roofs still out there” (Washington …show more content…
A national weapons register, which Germany has been required to maintain since 2013, along with each of the other 27 member nations of the European Union, reports 1.5 million gun owners, with about 5.5 million weapons. A major difference with the United States, experts say, is that gun ownership in Germany is a privilege, not a right as guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the American Constitution” (The New York Times, Europe). Flamehorse argues that “gun control opponents have long argued that the Second Amendment it was put in place not just for ordinary home defense against burglars but specifically to guarantee that the nation could never be overcome by any military power foreign or domestic. If the five branches of the US military were beaten by, say, a nuclear holocaust, the only national defense left would be the civilians themselves. Any subsequent military invasion—probably armed with AK-47 variants—would find it very easy to overrun civilians armed only with lever, bolt, and pump action weapons”
He goes on to say that “the fact that guns are shockingly efficient killing machines that no responsible government would ignore. Even if better gun laws wouldn’t prevent every rampage or end street crime, they would certainly cut down on gun deaths from all sorts of causes by making it tougher to obtain and use firearms illegally”. There is also the possibility that even if more effective background check system was in place and Roof was denied the sale of the .45 caliber pistol it does not make certain that he would not obtain the firearm in some other way. But, as Comey points out “What’s clear is that it didn’t have to be so simple for him. The country should have tried harder to stop him — and should be trying harder to stop the other Dylann Roofs still out there” (Washington …show more content…
A national weapons register, which Germany has been required to maintain since 2013, along with each of the other 27 member nations of the European Union, reports 1.5 million gun owners, with about 5.5 million weapons. A major difference with the United States, experts say, is that gun ownership in Germany is a privilege, not a right as guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the American Constitution” (The New York Times, Europe). Flamehorse argues that “gun control opponents have long argued that the Second Amendment it was put in place not just for ordinary home defense against burglars but specifically to guarantee that the nation could never be overcome by any military power foreign or domestic. If the five branches of the US military were beaten by, say, a nuclear holocaust, the only national defense left would be the civilians themselves. Any subsequent military invasion—probably armed with AK-47 variants—would find it very easy to overrun civilians armed only with lever, bolt, and pump action weapons”