Guns: killing or saving? America's gun problem

Links: https://www.thejournal.ie https://www.infoplease.com https://www.gunviolencearchive.org

NATIONAL RESOURCES The United States Code (Entire Federal Law) Congress Online (Pending and Recent Legislation) United States Supreme Court NICS (FBI Background Check System) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Journalist's Guide to Gun Policy Scholars Accuracy In Media (National news-media watchdog group) 100 Most Influential Documents in U.S. History Emails and contact info for your legislators  (NRA's search tool) Emails and contact info for your legislators and news outlets  (GOA's search tool) Emails and fax numbers for all federal legislators  (complete list) Shooting Ranges Nationwide USA Carry (concealed carry and related information) Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network (attorneys for self-defense incidents) BOOKS Unabridged federal gun law, annotated Fifty-state travel summaries Unabridged Supreme Court cases, annotated 30-State license requirements Individual states Gun Rig...

Part 2 What are the arguments against gun control? The arguments come down to principle, law and practicality.  Gun rights advocates see weapon possession as a matter of individual rights. They say that people have the right to arm themselves for hunting, self-defence , sport – or just because they want to. Legally, the debates often come down to the Second Amendment, whose 18th-century context and language have been endlessly parsed and debated: “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.” Gun rights advocates say that means an  individual  right to gun possession, while gun control advocates say it means the people’s  collective  right, through a militia. For generations, the Supreme Court avoided directly answering the question, though its decisions were often seen as favouring the collective interpretation. But in 2008,  the Supreme C...

Part 1  What is gun control? “Gun control” is a broad term that covers any sort of restriction on what kinds of firearms can be sold and bought, who can possess or sell them, where and how they can be stored or carried, what duties a seller has to vet a buyer, and what obligations both the buyer and the seller have to report transactions to the government. Sometimes, the term is also used to cover related matters, like limits on types of ammunition and magazines, or technology, like the type that allows guns to fire only when gripped by their owners. In recent years, gun control debates have focused primarily on background checks for buyers, allowing people to carry weapons in public, and whether to allow the possession of assault rifles. What do law enforcement authorities say about gun control? There is no consensus. In fact, law enforcement officials have the same kinds of cultural and regional divides as everyone else. In general, big-city police chie...