Gun Laws / Gun Violence
Gun violence, gun registration, and mass shootings in the United States -- and to a lesser extent in the United Kingdom -- have caused authorities great concern over the past few years. And these issues have received a great deal of media attention and hence are worthy of research. This paper reviews gun violence in the U.S. and in the UK, and gun laws that are in place and those that should be in place.
Mass shootings and gun violence in the U.S.
In the United States, as of October 1, 2015, there have been 294 mass shootings (a mass shooting is defined as one in which four or more people were killed or injured by a gun), and 45 of those occurred at schools (BBC). In the U.S. (again, up to October 1) 9,956 people have been killed in "gun incidents," and 20,000 people injured in gun incidents (BBC).
During Obama's presidency, he has attended memorials services -- or met with families of the murdered and injured -- in the wake of 15 mass shootings; the BBC also reports that during the course of Obama's second term in his presidency there have been 994 mass shootings in America. Going back a few years, the BBC reports that
Following the most recent college campus shooting in Oregon, Obama traveled to Roseberg to console the families of victims, and was met at the airport by several hundred angry residents who oppose Obama's advocacy of stricter gun laws. Ironic though this boisterous protest was in light of the fact that nine community members had just recently been killed on a college campus in cold blood -- and nine were injured -- it points out the power of the top gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA).
" ... It is disgraceful that the families of the dead and wounded were subjected to such an insensitive display of pique" (Brattleboro Reformer). But the editorial in the Vermont Brattleboro Reformer (BR) went on to point out the difficulty that Obama faces in getting reasonable gun safety measures through the Congress. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (20 young children shot point blank, some of them shot up to 15 times in the face, and 6 teachers killed) legislation to require background checks on gun buyers (at gun shows and online) received a majority of 54 votes, but this bill needed 60 votes to override a filibuster launched by pro-NRA Republicans in the Senate (BR). The research on those 46 that voted against background checks shows that they received " ... eleven times more money from pro-gun interest groups than did the 54 senators voted for it"; and therein lies the problem vis-a-vis gun safety legislation -- and money influence in politics -- in the United States.
How difficult is it to get a gun in the U.S.
If an adult citizen wishes to purchase a gun in the U.S. -- and he or she goes to a gun store or to a store like Walmart -- a background check is required. The form to fill out asks questions like, have you been convicted of a felony, or domestic violence; are you addicted to drugs or a fugitive from justice; and have you been committed to a mental institution? (money.cnn.com). Taking that information (and name, address, etc.) the gun store contacts the FBI to see if the customer is in the database of the National Crime Information Center and Interstate Identification Center. The FBI says that "... more than 100 million such checks have been made in the last decade," and of those, more than 700,000 gun applicants have been denied the right to buy a gun based on their arrest record (including domestic abuse) or other negatives in their resumes (money.cnn).
However, buying a gun at a gun show is a walk in the park for most would-be purchasers. According to the Department of Justice (U.S.), there are about 2,000 to 5,200 gun shows in America annually (Korte, 2015). There can be as many as 100 guns shows in a week. There are federally licensed dealers on hand at gun shows and buying weapons from them requires a background check. But, hundreds of private collectors are also on hand and anyone can buy a gun with no background check from these individuals (Korte, p. 1).
It's called the "gun show loophole"; and whether the purchaser is a mentally unstable person who has been in and out of institutions his entire adult life, or a serial killer, or just a young man who has a copy-cat interest in going into a university classroom and...
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