Legitimate Gun Restrictions
Christopher Glover
PHI103
Karen Kart
February 25, 2013

Legitimate Gun Restrictions A continuous argument between gun owners and concerned citizens is over gun restrictions. Many gun owners support the second amendment of the constitution and believe that any restriction on guns is an infringement on this amendment and there for there right. Concerned citizens of the United States believe that guns are to readily available and believe restrictions should be put in place to prevent these guns from falling into the wrong hands. In this essay I will discuss this argument and reveal the reasons that there are legitimate restrictions on gun ownership. I will start with how background checks keep guns out of the hands of people with a felony on their record. The gun control act of 1968 following the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Congress passed this law prohibiting convicted felons from possessing firearms. It also required licenses to trade in guns and created procedures to track serial numbers and control imports (www.keyt.com). Many will say that this helped reduce gun valance in America because after the gun control act of 1968 handgun violence dropped by 37% the next year (http://www.saf.org/LawReviews). The real reason behind the drop was the fact that during that year handgun production dropped, resulting in the drop in violence not the new law. Therefore the fact that valance dropped cannot be totally contributed to the gun control act of 1968. The 2.4 million new handguns entering the market in 1968 were a less than 15 per cent addition to the total domestic supply. Therefore the fact that gun valance dropped cannot totally be contributed to the gun control act of 1986. The next point I want to make on this subject is the Assault weapon ban 1994 The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act made it unlawful, with a few exceptions, to make, transfer, or possess semiautomatic assault weapons. It also made it illegal to possess large capacity magazines that held more than 10 rounds. The law expired in 2004. Studies have found clear indications that the use of assault weapons in crime did decline after the Assault weapon ban went into effect (Farley, 2013). Assault weapon violence did decline, but it only increased the use of other guns in crime. The final reports concluded the ban’s success in reducing crimes committed with banned guns was mixed. Gun crimes involving assault weapons declined. However, that decline was offset throughout at least the late 1990s by steady or rising use of other guns equipped with large-capacity magazines (Farley, 2013).The Assault weapon ban 1994 helped reduce gun violence in certain types of weapons. The Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act of 1993 The Brady Law: After a seven-year legislative battle, Congress passed the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act, which required background checks for those buying firearms. After this act was instated the purchase of firearms dropped significantly. Gun sales did drop due to the Act but not because it was harder to get a gun but most gun owners felt it was unconstitutional to have there rights infringed upon this way and refused to go through the process. The Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act of 1993 did drop the sales of handguns and overall reduced gun crimes for that year. We have covered several different laws passed over the years. Some of them had a profound impact on gun violence while others fell short of their predictions. You can see how each side had their strong facts in why the laws worked or did not work but in the end it all comes down to what helps reduce the death toile in our communities. In this essay I discussed this argument and revealed the reasons that there are legitimate restrictions on gun ownership.

References:
Brennan, K. (2012, Jul 24). Gun owners, NRA members back some restrictions. National Journal

Farley R.(2013) , Fact Check: Did the 1994 assault weapons ban work? FACTCHECK.ORG

Lott, J. (2012), Gun restrictions leave people vulnerable and helpless. U.S.News & World Report