Gun Control in the USA

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Introduction

The crimes through guns in the United States are a very serious issue and this problem is fairly
obvious. However, there are some solutions that can be adopted to control guns and gun-related
crime in the USA, and this issues can solved at both a community and national level. This brief
essay will discuss some solutions to gun control in America by exploring for and against
arguments for each solution. The solutions identified through in-depth research work are
establishment of a national system for registering guns, instant background checks and gun
education.

National System for Registering Guns

Establishing a national system for registering guns is the first course of action. A gun can be
obtained by anyone by simply going to a state with unrestrictive laws or by approaching a friend
who resides in the state to purchase the guns for them. This would be prevented by a national
system by frightening those "friends" into not purchasing the guns legally and selling them
illegitimately, for if they are used for any illegal activity, that individual can be held accountable
(Hepburn et al., 2007). Proponents of a national system maintain that this system would be very
effective in detecting criminal activities following they have happened, to bring the culprits to
justice (Churchill, 2007; Goss, 2012). However, the there is a very serious limitation. A federal
regulatory regime already exists, in which the key actors are federal firearms licensed (FFL)
dealers. The Gun Control Act of 1968 requires business persons selling guns to first obtain a
license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) (Kleck, 2018).
Some of these actors, under that law, repeatedly buys and sells guns with the core aim of making
a profit by selling to even those who do not need guns (Wiebe et al., 2009; Kleck, 2018).

Instant Background Checks

Second solution to gun control is the instant background checks on people buying guns. Still, the
Brady system is limited and even ineffective to track criminals. This has been the position of The
National Rifle Association (NRA) of America for quite some time, criminals and ex-convicts
should be restricted to have access to guns, and many infringements and youthful crimes should
also consider against adult record of an individual (Patel, Rushefsky and McFarlane, 2015).
Although stricter background checks that include mental health is an effective solution, this
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approach has a variety of assumptions that might overall be more destructive. First, relating
flagitious offences to mental illness solidifies the stigma associated with a person’s mental
disease. There is an assumption that a person with mental illness has the capability of evil
actions, and that horrible offences cannot be perpetrated by "sane" people (Jacobs, 2002). How
could a mentally healthy person opt indiscriminately kill others? Further, many people suffer
from depression and other mental disorders, and a large number of these people are successful
parents, partners, and other citizens. If they come to a decision to kill, they decisively finish their
own lives and hardly ever kill innocent people. So desperate people do not do hate offences.

Gun Education

For gun crimes, stiffer sentences would be useful in using fear of warning as a crime prevention
approach. Gun awareness and safety would be increased by national and community funded gun
education programs, which could even be extended to schools operated by the government at the
public level (Spitzer, 2009). Through even a little care or forethought, many gun related crimes
could easily have been prevented. Further, people buying guns could be required to even attend
the educational programs to take lessons in gun safety, and at expense of the purchaser. This
solution is supported by NRA (Patel, Rushefsky and McFarlane, 2015).

Conclusion

To conclude, a direct correlation has been established between people’s lack of general education
or awareness and violent crimes. In a theoretical way, all the money on education and awareness
programs will prevent myriad dollars worth of crime damage in the future. In fact, a new and
innovative progression in the technological domain of gun control decreasing the rates of crime
radically is hand - grip identification tagging. The best way to save lives is the gun education and
awareness. In America, more gun control is not an effective solution but the best approach is
proper education regarding guns and gun safety, through which both intentional and accidental
gun deaths can be prevented to a larger extent. There is need to educate children so that they
learn about gun safety. People are not killed by guns, but they are killed by people. Thus, people
need more education and awareness about gun and mental illness screening to prevent mass
murder.
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References

Churchill, R. (2007). Gun Regulation, the Police Power, and the Right to Keep Arms in Early
America: The Legal Context of the Second Amendment. Law and History Review, 25(01),
pp.139-176.

Goss, K. (2012). America's missing popular movement for gun control. [Cambridge, Mass.]:
Scholars Strategy Network.

Hepburn, L., Miller, M., Azrael, D. and Hemenway, D. (2007). The US gun stock: results from
the 2004 national firearms survey. Injury Prevention, 13(1), pp.15-19.

Jacobs, J. (2002). Can Gun Control Work. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kleck, G. (2018). Interstate Gun Movement Is Almost Entirely Due to Migration, Not Gun
Trafficking. SSRN Electronic Journal.

Patel, K., Rushefsky, M. and McFarlane, D. (2015). The politics of public health in the United
States. Routledge.

Spitzer, R. (2009). Gun control. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press.

Wiebe, D., Krafty, R., Koper, C., Nance, M., Elliott, M. and Branas, C. (2009). Homicide and
geographic access to gun dealers in the United States. BMC Public Health, 9(1).