Gun Control

Introduction

Gun control is one of the most controversial issues in the United States. The controversy centers largely on interpretation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Some argue that this can be interpreted as a clear declaration of the right of individuals to bear arms, whereas others argue that this individual right was in reference only to maintaining a state militia (Kleck, 24).

The Right to Bear Arms

Many debates, discussions, and court cases have addressed this issue. A closer look at the views of the framers of the Constitution, including their personal notes and earlier drafts of the Second Amendment, indicates that the framers believed individuals do indeed have a “natural” right to bear arms (Dawlut 1997; Kopel and Little 1997; Dennis 1995).

Few Supreme Court cases have addressed the right to bear arms issue directly, and what they have stated has also been open to interpretation. Presser v. Illinois (1886), Miller v. Texas (1894), and Robertson v. Baldwin (1897), either directly or indirectly, support the individual right to bear arms (Kleck, 52). However, in Presser v. Illinois and Miller v. Texas the Court upheld the view that regardless of the interpretation of the Bill of Rights, these rulings are meant to restrict the federal government and cannot be applied to various states.

The most notable (and most recent) case regarding the right to bear arms was United States v. Miller (1939). As in previous cases, interpretation of the Court's ruling has led only to more debates regarding gun control. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that

In the absence of any evidence tending to show the possession or use of a “shotgun having a barrel less than eighteen inches in length” at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument (Bruce-Briggs, 37).

Gun control lobbyists argue that this ruling supports their view that the Second Amendment does not necessarily provide each individual with the right to bear arms. Gun lobbyists argue that, in the light of previous cases and the specifics of this case, people do have the right to bear arms.

Americans support a wide array of moderate regulatory controls aimed at keeping guns away from criminals, juveniles, and other high-risk groups but oppose prohibitionist controls that would preclude them from legally acquiring or owning guns. As a result, the United States has many gun control laws but virtually none that ban guns or seriously limit access to guns among noncriminal adults. Although three large cities—Washington, D.C., Chicago, and New York City—effectively ban the private possession of handguns, no federal or state laws ban ownership of all guns or even just handguns (Kleck, 25).

Federal gun laws are less numerous and less restrictive than those prevailing in most ...