Are Stricter Gun Laws Going to Help Reduce Shooting?
More laws and making such laws stricter are not going to reduce gun violence. This is because the Second Amendment to the supreme constitution of the United States entrenches the right of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms for self-defence. Unfortunately, the gun control laws seek to erode such an important citizen’s right. There is no direct relationship between the regulation of guns and the reduction of gun violence in the United States. Additionally, stricter gun laws do not reduce gun violence because the existing gun laws have not led to the decrease in gun violence in various parts of the country. For instance, the gun control Act of 1968 and the Brady Handgun violence prevention Act of 1993 have been operational for many decades, yet gun violence is not reducing (“Why Gun Control Doesn’t Work” n.p.). Even when gun laws are stricter, especially in Chicago, where most semi-automatic firearms are banned, gun violence still occurs. The other interesting thing is that the gun laws are broken by criminals who are never afraid of being surcharged and incarcerated.
Making the gun laws stricter does not resolve the problem of mass shootings that espouses gun violence. This is large because the criminals often secure arms using unorthodox and illegal means; hence it becomes difficult for them to be stopped from committing a crime by law enforcement officers. In this case, the background checks that are formally instituted to ensure guns are in safe hands never work to reduce gun violence. In this case, gun violence still persists because gun laws affect only law-abiding citizens who are not likely to breach such laws. However, criminals are meant to break the laws; hence they break the law, always leading to the failure of the gun laws to work to reduce gun violence. A case in point, a 2016 Obama administration research study on the gun violence among the inmates established that only 10.15 of the inmates contained their firearms through normal and legitimate retail sources (“Why Gun Control Doesn’t Work” n.p.). This means that more than 89% of the inmates obtain their firearms illegally. This provides a glimpse into the lapses in the control of firearms causing more mayhem in amerce than in the implantation of gun laws.
Making the gun law stricter does not help much, given that such strictness of the gun laws does not affect the illegal proliferation of arms in society. For this reason, various laws need to be reviewed to ensure that such laws address the lapses in gun control and selling. For as long as illegal underground sales exist, gun violence is bound to persist for a long time in America. Also, the aspect of borrowing, lending, trading, and renting firearms from friends and relatives is one of the ways criminals access firearms (Morral n.p.). This reveals how difficult it is for gun laws to effectively reduce gun violence in America.
The other factor that makes the strict gun laws ineffective in addressing gun violence is that firearms are sometimes sought by criminals by other Americans who do not have past criminal records. Consequently, it becomes difficult for gun laws to stop gun violence. What is more, making gun laws strict fail because the firearms are sometimes obtained from the victims, theft and even from the scene of the crime. For this reason, it becomes relatively difficult for law enforcement officers to control gun violence by merely making stricter laws effectively. In some instances, the proximate cause of gun violence is often a lack of adequate income for sustenance, white supremacy protests, and homosexuality protests. For this reason, making gun laws stricter does not suffice in reducing gun violence.
Works Cited
Morral, Andrew R. “The Gun Laws That Work, and the Gun Laws That Don’t.” RAND. 2022.
“Why Gun Control Doesn’t Work.” NRA-ILA, 2022.