Abstract

In the last half century, gun ownership has been one of the most hotly debated topics in the United States. The right to bear arms was written into the U. S. Constitution and into the hearts and minds of its citizens. During the last half century, however, numerous gun control laws have been enacted at Federal, state and local levels, and it can be argued (plausibly or not) that part of the “legislative intent” has been to decrease the number of gun owning households in the United States. In this paper, we will be discussing Gun control in America. Also, we will be studying the history of guns and related laws.

Gun Control in America

Introduction

Gun control is a regulation that limits the ownership of guns, even though they are mainly utilized for self defense or sporting purposes. Mostly this law is usually associated with the possession of personal firearms e.g. long guns and hand guns. These regulations differ on the basis of the laws existing in each country leaving a room for arguments and conflicts on whether the possession of guns is legal or not. These regulations are normally laid down by the government and are often perceived as a denial of the right of armed self defense under the Second Amendment of the United States of America. This issue has led to numerous arguments of individuals self protection and their liberty and has led to a collapse in the support for gun control laws and regulations.

Background

Gun control in the United States will not likely ever be an overt success, but rather due to Constitutional limitations and a unique social climate, gun control at its best will resemble a "muddling through" approach - a series of small but discernible steps, gradually implemented over an unspecified but lengthy period of time, to ease the alarming rates of gun related fatalities and injuries today (Krauss, p16). This is the result of the unique social climate in America and the incremental manner in which policy is made in this country.

The issue of gun control is one of the most significant problems facing public Policy makers today. Few issues have polarized the populous and reappeared on the political agenda more than the question of what to do about crimes related to guns and its casualties. The topic of gun control legislation is as alive today as ever before, and for good reason: there has yet to be any piece of legislation that could be deemed "an outstanding success" (Hunter, p16). Thus, gun control at its best will be long and drawn out over as many as twenty years or more with the end result being mandatory operators training, mandatory waiting periods, and drastically heightened gun restrictions or possibly even bans on handguns and other types of guns leading to a noticeable reduction in gun-related crimes, injuries, and deaths.

Policy makers in Washington D.C. are finding themselves handcuffed in the face of mounting pressure from the public to do something drastic to control surging rates ...