For a few months
Republicans and Democrats have been bashing head over the issue of gun control.
One bill proposed by Senator Feinstein’s aims to ban or regulate the sale of assault
weapons and the also limit the size of magazines that are used with those
weapons.
I would submit that gun control,
especially the type of reform suggested by Senator Feinstein, does little to nothing
to deter future crimes.
Without getting into the numbers behind
gun control just yet, I want to talk about what the assault weapons are that
Senator Feinstein is trying to regulate. The term assault weapon refers specifically
and exclusively to the visual appearance of a firearm and not the manner in which
it functions. Assault weapons are NOT assault rifles. Assault rifles are an
entirely different class of weapon, most notably featuring a selective fire
capability enabling the rifle to shot in a fully automatic or burst-fire mode.
Assault weapons are only semi-automatic rifles, meaning they fire one round for
every time the trigger is pulled, that look
like military assault rifles. In terms of mechanical function they are
equivalent to any other semi-automatic rifle. Again, the term assault weapon
only refers to the aesthetics of the weapon, not its ability to protect or end
a life.
Gun control has proved
itself to be ineffective in the past and present. If it was effective a city
like Detroit would be one of the safest cities in the country. Gun laws in the
city of Detroit and the state of Michigan require that every individual
purchasing a firearm be approved on two separate occasions by the police and be
subject to a federal background check. This applies for every separate purchase
of a firearm. This gun control has done little to stop violence in the city,
and in fact Detroit has the second highest murder rate in the country.
Truly, in some cases the opposite of gun control has been
shown to be more effective. The city of Kennesaw, Georgia enacted a city ordinance
requiring all citizens living in the city to own and maintain one firearm and
associated ammunition. The result in Kennesaw? Kennesaw has the lowest crime
rate of any city of its size in the country, with crime rates lower today than
when the law was originally enacted in 1982.
The country is already saturated with guns. Whether this is
a good or bad thing is a pointless argument. It is simply a fact. Enacting new
laws to try and stop criminals from accessing them is an exercise in futility.
Criminals, by their very nature, do not obey laws. Criminals do not register
their guns, go through background checks, and are not affected by gun control.
Works Cited
"25 Years Murder-free in 'Gun
Town USA'" WND, 19 Apr. 2007. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.wnd.com/2007/04/41196/>.
"ARTICLE II. - FIREARMS." Kennesaw,
Georgia, Code of Ordinances. City of Kennesaw, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.
"Assault Weapons Ban
Summary." United States Senator Dianne Feinstein. N.p., n.d. Web.
24 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons-ban-summary>.
Fisher, Daniel. "Detroit Tops
The 2012 List Of America's Most Dangerous Cities." Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, 18 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2012/10/18/detroit-tops-the-2012-list-of-americas-most-dangerous-cities/>.
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4 comments:
I remember hearing about the Newton tradegy and wanting to hold my nephews. I remember being in the 8th grade when Columbine happened and at NHTI when the Virginia Tech shooting happened. My little sister said to my mom one day "if I don't get blown up." This was a response to my mom asking if she would be home after school. This response highlights how scary society is these days. If guns control isn't the answer what is. I'm not against guns my dad is a hunter an own riffles and they were pretty much always locked up. I just want to make sure my sister and nephews can walk down the road or go to school without fear.
I agree with your view of assault weapons and their name being the biggest reason why some want to get rid of them. I myslef own an "Assault Rifle" and Pistols, and except for the way you hold, clean, and size/ caliber of the ammunition the mechanical operation and actual number of shots available by the action of my finger squeexing of the trigger is not that different.
I also see the importance though of a well regulated sale and tracking of firearms. I do believe in stricter backround checks and also believe that there should be mandatory checks inplace to ensure that criminals are not getting thier hands on weapons.
I am currently in the army and when using our weapons we also believe that close watches and accountability saves soldiers lives, why cant it save civilians as well?
I have to agree, there is not much that is being proposed that is really in the long run or the short run going to help with what people are trying to prevent. There is a lot of layers that surround this issue and with that it makes it hard to solve the problem.
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