English 2012 Evaluation Final

Jeremias N. Lopez
Salt Lake Community College
Gun Control
July 09, 2016

Gun control has been a very hot topic this year. Due to many incidents that has happened
in the united states. There have been many news channels, talk shows, and argumentative papers
about restricting the gun control law, in which case people are for it and against it. One side says
that there is no need for the public to have a firearm and the other says that it is a hobby and or a
sport and the other portion that are in the middle but worried for any incident to happen.
The public has been more involved in the gun control debate since the shooting in San
Bernardino. An article written in by Stingl. L.M. in January 2016 states that the 1999
Columbine High school massacre, the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, and the string of mass
shootings since then, Including the 2011 Tucson shooting, the 2012 sandy hook shooting, and the
2015 San Bernardino shooting, have pushed the gun control debate further into the public eye.
This means that the public has been involved in the gun control policy for a while and there has
been quite a few gun shootings which that is what caused the public to open their eyes to the gun
control regulations and see how much more regulation needs to be put on the gun policy to avoid
the massive gun shoots that are mentioned above and there has been much more.
The U.S President Barack Obama has also been very involved in the gun regulation issue
thats going on here in the United States. Especially since the last shooting that happened in

Florida. He is extremely against everyone being able to have guns and wants to make it harder
for the public to be able to own a gun. A journal written by Robers.H.C.. stated one thing that
president Obama wants to do which is that he wants to take some executive actions to address
the gun problem that is happening and improve background checks and closing gun sale loop
holes. Obama follows by saying that the rules and the background checks are not what he
expects and knows that if the informant of deeper back ground checks is given there would not
be as many incidents in the United states as there has been.
A Study provided by Cooper Marc shows that there are over 309 million people living in
the United States. The Chart I have used below shows in the 2010 census that a 2012
congressional research service report estimated that in 2009 there were 310 million firearms in
the unites states: 114 million handguns, 110 million rifles, and 86 million shotguns. Marc States
further down on page 16 that about 11,000 American every year are shot to death when someone
else pulls the trigger. Twice that number commit suicide by gun. Johal R. Lippmann S. Smock W.
& Gosney C. (2010), 7(2) pp. 14. Says having a firearm in the home actually increases the rate
for suicide, homicide, domestic violence, and accidents. Also the gun accidents that happen
without suicide hover at right about 500 per year, the strict gun control advocates put their
numbers no more than 600, which in this case America is below this number.

There are many organizations that fight to

keep the right to bear arms. One of the biggest
well known organization is called National Rifle
Association. Caffrey (2016) describes this
organization as a nonprofit organization whose
members advocate for the constitutional right to
keep and bear arms, which is guaranteed by the
second amendment. Caffrey also mentions it was
originally formed to promote rifle shooting for
scientific purposes. Group members of this
organization thought that it would be beneficial to
try to attract the younger generation of shooters
and this action started up rifle clubs. This
organization also promotes gun safety and in the 1980s the NRA sponsored several gun safety
programs for elementary schools across the country. This programed helped kids understand the
dangerous of guns. It also taught them to not touch a firearm without any supervision. After these
programs the NRA established what is called the NRA Foundation which is non taxed group
that raised millions of dollars to promote gun safety and teach through the world with programs
they offered. There is also a lot of power that the NRA has on the gun subject. Scott. M a
journalist (2005) says The National Rifle Association can counter a movement in the U.S. The
NRA group has the ability to these actions because of the number of people involved in the
association. In the Columbian Encyclopedia (2016) it states The NRA has more than 3 million

members involved, and they are members that support all the shooting competitions, and any
other activity that involves any sort of guns.
So now, the good question would be to find out where America stands with the gun
control issue. According to a news article The fight over guns in America (2016, February 8).
The fight over guns in America, Gun control is one of the most divisive issues in the U.S. today.
It also states Most Democrats and city Dwellers favor more restrictions. Most Republicans and
people in rural areas- who are much more likely to own guns- favor protecting gun rights.
(2016). On the background checks in a study by Pew Poll says private gun sales should be
subject to background checks, 88 percent of Democrats and 79 percent of republicans favored it.
The majority of both parties agree that both private and not private need to have a back ground
check on every fire armed weapon that is sold.
There are many people in America that do not want to give up their gun right and it
would be extremely difficult to remove all gun rights from all Americans. As mentioned in the
previous paragraph, republicans and democrats believe that there has to be background checks on
all private sales. There is also another important rule that is suggest and required to be done,
which is registering all firearms purchased to be registered with the state. Which if you sell
private a lot of the time that does not get done which could then lead to a lot trouble for the
previous owner or yourself. Utter G.H. and James L. True. (2000) Pp. 69. Ask two questions
which required a survey from the public to complete the questions. Utters first questions to the
public was, Do you favor or oppose a nation-wide ban on the sale of handguns, except to the
law enforcement? Utters response from the public to this question was in a percentage which I
will list. Oppose Strongly: 43%, oppose somewhat: 16%, dont know: 3%, oppose somewhat:
12%, and support strong: 26%. As noticed the amount that that oppose strongly is about half the
5

number of the amount that voted support strongly. Which just there you can see that the public
will not allow the ban of gun sale. On Utters second question he asked Do you favor or oppose
requiring all handgun owners to register their firearms with the government? The response to
Utters survey from the public was: Support Strongly: 63%, support somewhat: 12%, dont
know: 2%, Oppose somewhat: 7%, and oppose strongly: 16%. Here the amount of people that
strongly support this question is over half of the ones that oppose against it.
This topic is interesting to research about because there is a lot of people that say they are
with gun control and there are also many that say they have no interest. On Thursday 07.07.16
there was another shooting in Texas, which took the life of five police men and injured 15 police
men. This even will be seen and talked about in the publics eyes and give the public that are
against guns a stronger opinion as to why to ban the public to carry firearms.

WORK CITED PAGE

Caffrey, C, (2016) National Rifle Association. Pp. 2

Churchhill, R.H. (2007) Regulation, the police power, and the right to keep arms in
early America: the legal context of the second amendment. Pp 139-176

Chruchill, R.H. (2007) Gun regulation, the police power, and the right to keep arms in early
America: The legal context of the second amendment, vol 25(1) pp 139-175
Cooper, M, (2016) Gun control is a misfire, article, vol 15(2) pp 12-90
Johal R, Lippmann S, Sock W. & Gosney C. (2010) Guns: dangerous, especially for suicide, and
costly in america. Vol 7(2) pp14-15
Johal R, Lippmann S, Sock W. & Gosney C. (2010) Guns: dangerous, especially for suicide, and
costly in america. Vol 7(2) pp14-15
Jounior scholastic, (2016) The fight over guns in America. Vol 118(8) pp 125-17
Lee,M. Stingl. A (2016) Gun control. Salem Press Encyclopedia. 4p

National rifle association of America. (2016) Columbia electronic encyclopedia, pp 1-1

Patrick B.A. (2007) Disarmed: the missing movement for gun control in america, vol 40(5) pp
897-898
Scott, M,(2005) Texas Journal on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights, vol.11(1). Pp 39-63. 25
Utter, G.H., & True, J.L. (2000). The Evolving gun culture in America. Journal of Comparative
Cultures 23, no. 2(67)