Kate Lionel

Instructor Eileen Morris

Pols 155 Section 27

03 March 2018

Backgrounder Assignment

A. My specific policy subtopic within gun control policy addresses the problem of gun control
regulations. After hearing about the latest school shooting that took place in Florida at Parkland
High my opinion on gun control was officially made. There's been too many tragedies that could
have been stopped by implementing policies at the federal level that would put a ban on military
grade weapons.

B. Through the Library Of Congress website I was able to gather a lot of information regarding
the Supreme Court and their interpretations of what can and can not be done regarding the
second amendment and gun regulation. For instance the 19th century is when we first saw
cases such as ​United States v. Cruikshank​, ​Presser v. Illinois​,​ and ​McDonald v. City of Chicago
in which the Supreme Court ruled, “the Second Amendment does not bar state regulation of
firearms.”​ ​However, the ​Parker v. District of Columbia ​was an unusual case in which the
Supreme court ruled in favor of Parker, which was the first we saw them rule against the
regulation of guns. They decided that the District of Columbia's Ban on new registration of
handguns, ban on carrying a pistol without a license, and the requirement that firearms be kept
unloaded and locked, violated the citizens second amendment rights of “A well regulated Militia,
being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed.” Following this ruling the District of Columbia petitioned for a review of the
decision made by the Supreme Court. They were granted the review by the Supreme Court and
it was decided that ​“the right to keep and bear arms is subject to regulation, such as
concealed weapons prohibitions, limits on the rights of felons and the mentally ill, laws
forbidding the carrying of weapons in certain locations, laws imposing conditions on
commercial sales, and prohibitions on the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.
It stated that this was not an exhaustive list of the regulatory measures that would be
presumptively permissible under the Second Amendment.”

C.

Article 1. I learned about the public's opinion and experts perspectives pertaining to my
policy problem of gun control. According to The New York Times article, How to Reduce Mass
Shooting Deaths? Experts Rank Gun Laws, the banning of all semi automatic weapons is
thought to be one solution to decrease the amount of deaths and the majority of people are in
support of this action taking place according to their survey. Another solution brought to
attention is the banning of all assault weapons. Their graph illustrates that experts belief in its
effectiveness and the majority of the public's support of it.

Article 2. Through the FindLaw website I was able to get a better understanding of gun
laws. For instance, I learned that the regulations of guns is handled at the Federal level and the
role of The National FireArms Act, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives,
and the ​Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.​ The National FireArms Act is responsible for
placing restrictions on the purchasing and selling of firearms like machine guns, short-barreled
shotguns, and silencers. And that they issue things like background checks for those who wish
to purchase a gun, enforce the purchasing of tax stamps for the manufacturing of a firearm, and
require those to register their weapons with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and
Explosives.

D. I learned that my policy issue needs to be dealt with on the federal level. And that not only is
my policy issue supported by experts in their field but by the public as well. This relates to our
class discussions on public opinion/ public polls and the different levels of government in
regards to where my specific policy issue would be best dealt with. This is in regards to the
Federal, state, and local levels of implemented laws.