For decades there has been a constant debate between gun control advocates and 2nd Amendment advocates, liberals against conservatives. Liberals argue that by minimizing or eliminating firearms in the general population, homicides and violence will decrease. There are approximately 30,000 gun related deaths a year, 20,000 of those are suicide related. These numbers add to the argument of the left that more gun laws and gun control need to be put in place. There are many flaws with the quick fix solutions put forth by gun control advocates and liberal politicians. All crime is complicated. The most extreme liberal approach of gun control is to ban all types of firearms and accessories. The claim is that without firearms then there will be less
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Saturday Night Specials came into the crosshairs of gun control activist because of the belief that since they were small and concealable, easy to operate, and relatively cheap, they were popular among criminals. In 1996, Los Angeles was the 14th city to outlaw Saturday Night Specials. A study by Gary Kleck found that Saturday Night Specials only made up about 10 to 27 percent of the handguns used in crimes. The banning of Saturday Night Specials only caused the criminals to use a different, more powerful handgun. The assault weapons ban of 1994 was similar to the ban of Saturday Night Specials. Prior to the ban, the assault weapons were used in about 2-8 percent of crimes. The ban was lifted in 2004 and crime has continued to decrease. Advocates claim that the ban decreased the amount of crime committed with the banned weapons by 66%. This is possibly due to the limited availability and the great American crime drop. Also, there is no proof that the ban reduced violent crime in itself; other weapons not affected by the ban could have been …show more content…
Between 1999 and 2009 1.6 million people were denied purchase of a firearm from a gun dealership because of background checks. Background checks are not required for individual gun sales; an estimated 500,000 and 750,000 private gun sales occur every year. These efforts only affect one avenue of firearm acquisitions. Universal background checks have been sought for by gun control advocates for years. Greg Ridgeway, acting director of the National Institute of Justice, stated that the only way universal background checks could be enforced is through gun registration (Kopel, 2015) (Davidson, 2015). Law enforcement would not be able to tell who sold the firearm or when it was sold. The only way this could be enforced without gun registration is if law enforcement found a private transaction in progress and discovered that a background check was not conducted. In 2013, a senate bill was introduced with the intent to expand background checks to “all firearm transfers” (Kopel, 2015). This bill would have made it mandatory for any permanent or temporary transfer of a firearm to include a father lending a firearm to his son for recreational shooting for a few
Saturday Night Specials came into the crosshairs of gun control activist because of the belief that since they were small and concealable, easy to operate, and relatively cheap, they were popular among criminals. In 1996, Los Angeles was the 14th city to outlaw Saturday Night Specials. A study by Gary Kleck found that Saturday Night Specials only made up about 10 to 27 percent of the handguns used in crimes. The banning of Saturday Night Specials only caused the criminals to use a different, more powerful handgun. The assault weapons ban of 1994 was similar to the ban of Saturday Night Specials. Prior to the ban, the assault weapons were used in about 2-8 percent of crimes. The ban was lifted in 2004 and crime has continued to decrease. Advocates claim that the ban decreased the amount of crime committed with the banned weapons by 66%. This is possibly due to the limited availability and the great American crime drop. Also, there is no proof that the ban reduced violent crime in itself; other weapons not affected by the ban could have been …show more content…
Between 1999 and 2009 1.6 million people were denied purchase of a firearm from a gun dealership because of background checks. Background checks are not required for individual gun sales; an estimated 500,000 and 750,000 private gun sales occur every year. These efforts only affect one avenue of firearm acquisitions. Universal background checks have been sought for by gun control advocates for years. Greg Ridgeway, acting director of the National Institute of Justice, stated that the only way universal background checks could be enforced is through gun registration (Kopel, 2015) (Davidson, 2015). Law enforcement would not be able to tell who sold the firearm or when it was sold. The only way this could be enforced without gun registration is if law enforcement found a private transaction in progress and discovered that a background check was not conducted. In 2013, a senate bill was introduced with the intent to expand background checks to “all firearm transfers” (Kopel, 2015). This bill would have made it mandatory for any permanent or temporary transfer of a firearm to include a father lending a firearm to his son for recreational shooting for a few