The United States of America is the most powerful country in the world. It is the largest weapon manufacturer. The country is involved in many armed conflicts on the globe and American soldiers are constantly going abroad to serve for the interests of American government. All of these factors have served to the spread of the vision that gun possession is a natural phenomenon for ordinary American people. There is no common opinion about possession of weapons in the American society. Sometimes, it is difficult to answer the following questions: Do Americans need to have in their houses firearms or not? Is it a big problem in the United States or not? However, the amount of bloody events that involve common Americans all over the country, make us think about this issue very seriously in order to maintain safety for the current and future generations of Americans. The possession of the weapons should be solved with such restricted method as gun control.
Gun control is a restriction on wearing and using guns. It includes any law or policy that was integrated in order to restrict or limit sale, production and possession of guns or firearms by regular people. Many countries have very strict rules about gun possession and do not want to make them softer. However, the situation in the United States is different. The gun control policy has modest rules on the firearms possession and use of it. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of Americans to own firearms. It indicates that “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (Adams, 1996). There is a number of federal laws that regulate the possession and use of firearms, but most of the rules are established individually by each U.S. state.
There are no restrictions on the purchase of guns in forty-six states. Annually, the number of weapons in private hands is increasing. Thus, the Americans have the world’s largest private arsenal. Therefore, huge amount of guns makes the process of control very difficult not only for the government, but also for all members of the family.
At first sight, there are many significant restrictions that do not allow the use of arms. The firearms cannot be sold to people who have mental health problems, previously convicted of crimes, suspected in the domestic violence, drug users and non-citizens of the U.S. Under current federal regulation, guns could only be sold to people older than twenty one years. In order to make the process of buying guns more regulated, people fill out a form with their home address, place of work, etc. The buyer is also required to show his or her documents to the seller and in some states must undergo special training. All these measures and regulations aim to help decrease the wrong use of guns. However, the practice says to us that all these regulations and methods are not enough to prevent crimes, murders and abuse of guns among the population.
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There is a long-lasting debate between opponents and proponents of the gun control. This debate makes the problem of the gun control one of the biggest issues in the United States. Bloody events that involve innocent Americans might scare imagination about what we can expect in the future. The resent shooting in the cinema at Batman Premiere could be one of the examples. The person in the gas mask came in to the cinema hall and started shooting the moviegoers. Twelve people were killed and dozens were injured. It was so unexpected that some people thought that it was part of the movie (CBS, 2012). It is not the single case that shook the American society. Such events make the proponents of the gun control restrict the rules about bearing arms.
The opponents of gun control are convinced that Americans could resist the King George in 1776, only because most citizens owned guns. The Great Britain banned guns on its territory, but the gun crimes almost doubled. The same situation faced Australia, when it banned guns in 1996 (Meg Smith, 2008). The gun possession is a way to escape the robbery of the house and put the offender far away from private area and family. All these aspects for and against guns have created the problem in the country with the gun control.
It is also difficult to manage this issue as the history of the United States of America is based and permeated by possession of arms. It represents the American War for independence, the Wild West and one of the famous traditions of Americans like hunting. Moreover, for some people it is the only way to get food. Bayley is convinced that, “for people in Alaska the hunting is necessary. Gun control could lead to the destroying of the hunting process” (17). Things like two different positions about this problem, the rise of murders, crimes and suicides severed the society apart.
As a result of the wide spread of guns, the murder rates have increased over the years. Ordinary Americans became more fearful and self-contained. They are suspicious of strangers on the street and get used to keep their homes and apartments locked. They do not allow their children to stay very late outside. Plus, they are more comfortable when relatives or someone of them keep eyes on their children. The society is reading newspapers and watching the television, where news is filled with crimes and murders. They hope that those situations could never happen with them.
Both sides of the conflict are convinced they are right, but both sides agree that the process of getting a gun should be stricter. The manufacturer and seller in the gun shop cannot determine the main aim of the person who is going to buy the gun. It could be for hunting or self-defense and it also could be for making crime or murder. It has to be restricted, as it is the open door to get firearms for people with bad thoughts. The restricted procedure will allow the distributors of guns to limit the access of people who cannot have guns from buying. It will also put a person who bought a gun on notice that it would not be a problem to identify the owner of the gun in case when something goes wrong. Such measures will make the gun owner to treat the purchase with bigger responsibility.
In this case, the government should solve this problem with right decision, as this is the global problem for American society. Americans cannot have the power to change the policy of the rules about gun control. However, they vote on the election to choose the government that has this power. Only the government can regulate distribution of guns among the population, and thereby reduce the number of crimes in the country. It should create a law that would protect the rights of innocent people and also would not limit rights of the hunters and people who like to shoot in the open field for entertainment and sport. After the mass shooting in the Aurora, Jay Carney, Press Secretary, made the statement that, “the president’s view is that we can take steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them under existing law. And that is his focus right now”.
In the United States of America the gun control problem is separating society apart. Activity of the firearms manufacturers, fear of criminals, hunting and presence of the weapons in literature and cinema are the main reasons of spread of guns. The government should restrict the process of obtaining weapons. It also should limit the production of guns, as each of them might shoot one day in someone.
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